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''jamb'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''jamb'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260915190735-00-⌔

jamb - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

jamb (plural jambs)

  • (architecture, interior decorating, carpentry) Either of the vertical components that form the side of an opening in a wall, such as that of a door frame, window frame, or fireplace.
  • (mining) Any thick mass of rock that prevents miners from following the lode or vein.
  • Synonym of jambeau (“piece of armor for the leg”).
    • ✤ Wyntoun, in his Chronicle, mentions an encounter betwixt Lindsay and a Highlander, whom he had pierced with his lance, but who, while on the ground, cut at him with his twohanded sword, and, striking through his steel jambs […]1
    • ✤ The light of the moon gleamed on his steel helmet, his globular corslet, and the taces cuisses, or thigh pieces, and steel jambs which protected his legs.2
    • ✤ The arms are additionally protected by plate armour - arrière bras with epaules or roundels at the shoulders, and similar […] The steel poleyns below this are large and fully formed, and below them are steel jambs, or greaves…3
    • ✤ Each was wearing a surcoat either of brocade or samite. They were still wearing their steel jambs, but their other armour had been removed from them. There can be no more sleeping. The King and Queen rose, a priest sang Mass.4

Verb

jamb (third-person singular simple present jambs, present participle jambing, simple past and past participle jambed)

  • (transitive) To fix or attach a jamb to.

Etymology

From Middle English jambe, jaumbe, from Old French jambe (“leg”), from Late Latin gamba (“hock, shank, leg, thigh”), from Ancient Greek καμπή (kampḗ, “turning post, bend or flexure”). Doublet of gam, gamb, gamba, and jambe.

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /d͡ʒæm/
  • Homophone: jam
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -æm

Printed 2026-09-15.

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Footnotes

  1. 1842, S.R. Meyrick, A Critical Inquiry Into Antient Armour, as it Existed in Europe, Particularly in Great Britain, from the Norman Conquest to the Reign of King Charles II: Ill. by a Series of Illuminated Engravings: with a Glossary of Military Terms of the Middle Ages, page 51: ↩

  2. 1889, Frank Cowper, The Captain of the Wight: A Romance of Carisbrooke Castle in 1488, page 257: ↩

  3. 1907, Surrey Archaeological Society, Surrey Archaeological Collections: Relating to the History and Antiquities of the County, page 42: ↩

  4. 1980, Wolfram Eschenbach, Parzival, Penguin UK, →ISBN: ↩

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Secondary

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