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jam ((n.))
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)
This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.
1n.
a pile-up of ice-cakes in a river or other narrow watercourse. Also, earlier, spelled jamb.
Quotations
1771
We had clear water till we passed Camp islands; but on observing a jamb of ice which extended from Table Point towards Belle Isle, we endeavoured to go on the outside of it.
1863
. . . for the edges of the vast [ice] field set in motion the previous day had ploughed into the earth, and piled itself in immense angular "jambs."
1948
The fast receding water, after the jam had given way, had left bold banks and beaches, piled with ice and debris, in places hundreds of feet high.
2n. — Lumbering
a massing together of logs, as in a river drive, as a result of some obstruction to their forward progress.
Quotations
1836
On the morning of the 30th ult, while a canoe with nine men, in the employ of Messrs. Wells and McCrae of this town, were engaged in taking some timber in a jam at the head of Colton's shoots, on the river Madawaska, the canoe unfortunately upset, and seven out of the nine perished.
1952
He was in the kitchen . . . that day they were talking about the drive . . . and suddenly he rushed out and broke the jam.
1961
Sometimes the key logs of the jam could be pried loose. . . .