Clam
Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that live as infauna, spending most of their lives partially buried in the sand of the ocean floor. In particular, edible infaunal bivalves are often called clams. Clams have two shells of equal size connected by two adductor muscles and have a powerful burrowing foot. Clams in the culinary sense do not live attached to a substrate (whereas oysters and mussels do) and do not live near the bottom (whereas scallops do). In culinary usage, clams are commonly eaten marine bivalves, as in clam digging and the resulting soup, clam chowder. Many edible clams such as palourde clams are oval or triangular; however, razor clams have an elongated parallel-sided shell, suggesting an old-fashioned straight razor.
Some clams have life cycles of only one year, while at least one may be over 500 years old. All clams have two calcareous shells or valves joined near a hinge with a flexible ligament, and all are filter feeders.
Clam (noun)
A bivalve mollusk of many kinds, especially those that are edible; for example the soft-shell clam (Mya arenaria), the hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria), the sea clam or hen clam (ver=161126), and other species. The name is said to have been given originally to the Tridacna gigas, a huge East Indian bivalve.
Clam (noun)
Strong pincers or forceps.
Clam (noun)
A kind of vise, usually of wood.
Clam (noun)
A dollar (usually used in the plural).
“Those sneakers cost me fifty clams!”
Clam (noun)
A Scientologist.
Clam (noun)
A vagina.
Clam (noun)
One who clams up; a taciturn person, one who refuses to speak.
Clam (noun)
clamminess; moisture
Clam (verb)
To dig for clams.
Clam (verb)
To produce, in bellringing, a clam or clangor; to cause to clang.
Clam (verb)
To be moist or glutinous; to stick; to adhere.
Clam (verb)
To clog, as with glutinous or viscous matter.
Clam (adjective)
clammy.
Cockle (noun)
Any of various edible European bivalve mollusks, of the family Cardiidae, having heart-shaped shells.
Cockle (noun)
The shell of such a mollusk.
Cockle (noun)
One’s the cockles of one’s heart”).
Cockle (noun)
A wrinkle, pucker
Cockle (noun)
A defect in sheepskin; firm dark nodules caused by the bites of keds on live sheep
Cockle (noun)
The mineral black tourmaline or schorl.
Cockle (noun)
The fire chamber of a furnace.
Cockle (noun)
A kiln for drying hops; an oast.
Cockle (noun)
The dome of a heating furnace.
Cockle (noun)
Any of several field weeds, such as the corncockle, noshow=1, and Lolium temulentum.
Cockle (verb)
To cause to contract into wrinkles or ridges, as some kinds of cloth after a wetting; to pucker.
Clam (noun)
a marine bivalve mollusc with shells of equal size.
Clam (noun)
any of a number of edible bivalve molluscs, e.g. a scallop.
Clam (noun)
a dollar.
Clam (verb)
dig for or collect clams
“November is one of the worst times for clamming”
Clam (verb)
abruptly stop talking
“as soon as I ask if any of this can go on the record, he clams up”
Cockle (noun)
an edible burrowing bivalve mollusc with a strong ribbed shell.
Cockle (noun)
a small, shallow boat.
Cockle (verb)
(of paper) form wrinkles or puckers
“thin or lightweight paper cockles and warps when subjected to watercolour”