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It's a classic case of glomming: Americans seized on glaum (a term from Scots dialect that basically means “to grab”) and appropriated it as their own, changing it to glom in the process. Glom first meant “to steal” (as in the purse-snatching, robber kind of stealing), but over time that meaning got stretched to include figurative uses. Today the term is most familiar in the phrase “glom on to,” or “glom onto,” which can mean “to appropriate for one's own use,” as in “glomming on to another's idea”; “to grab hold of,” as in “glommed onto the last cookie”; “to latch on to,” as in “glom on to an opinion” or “glom onto an influential friend”; or “to become aware of,” as in “glomming onto the potential of this new technology.”
Examples of glom in a Sentence
Greg Cote, Miami Herald, 8 June 2025
Then there’s Trish’s Aunt Carol (Anastacia McCleskey), who is mayoral campaign manager for Raymond Demarest (Erich Bergen), a sleaze who gloms onto Betty’s popularity once her identity is revealed.
—Frank Rizzo, Variety, 8 Apr. 2025
Listen to this article Loading your audio article For most of her long life, Yoko Ono has been reviled by many rock critics and music fans as the dragon lady who glommed on to a lovesick John Lennon and broke up the Beatles.
—Paul Liberatore, Mercury News, 11 Apr. 2025
The slivers glommed together and built up the continental margin.
—Alexandra Witze, JSTOR Daily, 24 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for glom
Cite this Entry
“Glom.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glom. Accessed 13 Jul. 2025.
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