Definition of GLOM

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It's a classic case of glomming: Americans seized on glaum (a term from Scots dialect that basically means "grab") and appropriated it as our own, changing it to glom in the process. Glom first meant "steal" (as in the purse-snatching, robber kind of stealing), but over time that meaning got stretched. Today, glom often figuratively extends that original "steal" sense. A busy professional might glom a weekend getaway, for example. Glom also appears frequently in the phrase glom on to, which can mean "to appropriate for one's own use" ("glom on to another's idea"); "to grab hold of" ("glom on to the last cookie"); or "to latch on to" ("glom on to an opinion" or "glom on to an influential friend").

Examples of glom in a Sentence

the manager glommed the shoplifter just as she was about to bolt out of the store

Recent Examples on the Web

Countering the defenders of the First Tee were a like number of soccer in Miami MLS T-shirts, trying to figure out a way into the commission chamber when well-organized and early-arriving First Tee’ers had glommed almost all of the 150 seats. — Greg Cote, miamiherald, "David Beckham confronts his biggest fight yet to (finally) bring MLS soccer to Miami," 12 July 2018 Though oenophiles glommed on to that news, those benefits are now also up for grabs. — Alex Van Buren, Health.com, "Are Lower-Calorie Wines Actually Good for You?," 2 July 2018 And in the aftermath, animal advocates and concerned lawmakers glommed on to a shocking piece of data. — Martine Powers, chicagotribune.com, "More dogs die on United than on any other airline. Here's why.," 6 Apr. 2018 Meanwhile, companies like Nest have continued to glom on to mainstream social movements, simply in more subtle forms. — Julianne Tveten, The New Republic, "How corporate America has commodified the protest movements of the Trump era," 4 Apr. 2018 The three, all GOP targets this fall, have glommed on to the issue with gusto. — Chris Stirewalt, Fox News, "Tariffs give endangered Dems an out," 7 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'glom.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.