DAM

noun a kind or crowned piece in the game of draughts.

2. dam ·noun a firebrick wall, or a stone, which forms the front of the hearth of a blast furnace.

3. dam ·vt to shut up; to stop up; to close; to restrain.

4. dam ·noun a female parent;

— used of beasts, especially of quadrupeds; sometimes applied in contempt to a human mother.

5. dam ·vt to obstruct or restrain the flow of, by a dam; to confine by constructing a dam, as a stream of water;

— generally used with in or up.

6. dam ·noun a barrier to prevent the flow of a liquid; ·esp., a bank of earth, or wall of any kind, as of masonry or wood, built across a water course, to confine and keep back flowing water.