take it on the lam

lam

2 [lam] noun, verb, lammed, lam·ming. Slang.
noun
1.
a hasty escape; flight.
verb (used without object)
2.
to run away quickly; escape; flee: I'm going to lam out of here as soon as I've finished.
3.
on the lam, escaping, fleeing, or hiding, especially from the police: He's been on the lam ever since he escaped from jail.
4.
take it on the lam, to flee or escape in great haste: The swindler took it on the lam and was never seen again.

Origin:
1885–90; special use of lam1. Compare beat it! be off!

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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World English Dictionary
lam1 (læm) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
vb , lams, lamming, lammed
1.  (tr) to thrash or beat
2.  (intr; usually foll by into or out) to make a sweeping stroke or blow
 
[C16: from Scandinavian; related to Old Norse lemja]

00:10
Take it on the lam is always a great word to know.
So is doohickey. Does it mean:
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
lam2 (læm) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n
1.  a sudden flight or escape, esp to avoid arrest
2.  on the lam
 a.  making an escape
 b.  in hiding
 
vb , lams, lamming, lammed
3.  (intr) to escape or flee
 
[C19: perhaps from lam1 (hence, to be off)]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

lam
"flight," as in on the lam, 1897, from a U.S. slang verb meaning "to run off" (1886), of uncertain origin, perhaps somehow from the first element of lambaste, which was used in British student slang for "beat" since 1596; if so, it would give the word the same etymological sense as beat it.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

take it on the lam definition


  1. tv.
    to get out of town; to run away. (Underworld.) : Bruno knew that the time had come to take it on the lam.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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American Heritage
Abbreviations & Acronyms
LAM
lymphagioleiomyomatosis
The American Heritage® Abbreviations Dictionary, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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