"on the lam" meaning in English

See on the lam in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Audio: En-au-on the lam.ogg [Australia]
Etymology: From lam (“flight, escape”). Etymology templates: {{m|en|lam|t=flight, escape}} lam (“flight, escape”) Head templates: {{en-adj|-}} on the lam (not comparable)
  1. Running away, usually from the police; on the run. Tags: not-comparable Related terms: take it on the lam Translations (running away; on the run): a fume de carozo (Galician), á fuga (Galician), в бега́х (v begáx) (Russian), på fri fot (Swedish)

Download JSON data for on the lam meaning in English (2.5kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "lam",
        "t": "flight, escape"
      },
      "expansion": "lam (“flight, escape”)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From lam (“flight, escape”).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "on the lam (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2004, Nintendo EAD, Pikmin 2, Nintendo, space e-mail",
          "text": "The President: 'Hello... I am still on the lam from debt collectors.'",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Howie Carr, The Brothers Bulger",
          "text": "Their top hitman, Joe Russo, was on the lam after murdering Joe Barboza in San Francisco.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012 September 15, “Vietnam: A Tiger at Bay”, in The Economist",
          "text": "There have been more bank runs, executives on the lam, arrests and credit panics than the country has seen in years.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Running away, usually from the police; on the run."
      ],
      "id": "en-on_the_lam-en-adj-bKalQ5fx",
      "links": [
        [
          "away",
          "away"
        ],
        [
          "police",
          "police"
        ],
        [
          "on the run",
          "on the run"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "take it on the lam"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "not-comparable"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "gl",
          "lang": "Galician",
          "sense": "running away; on the run",
          "word": "a fume de carozo"
        },
        {
          "code": "gl",
          "lang": "Galician",
          "sense": "running away; on the run",
          "word": "á fuga"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "v begáx",
          "sense": "running away; on the run",
          "word": "в бега́х"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "running away; on the run",
          "word": "på fri fot"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-on the lam.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/2d/En-au-on_the_lam.ogg/En-au-on_the_lam.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/En-au-on_the_lam.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "on the lam"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "lam",
        "t": "flight, escape"
      },
      "expansion": "lam (“flight, escape”)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From lam (“flight, escape”).",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "on the lam (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "take it on the lam"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English adjectives",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English prepositional phrases",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncomparable adjectives"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2004, Nintendo EAD, Pikmin 2, Nintendo, space e-mail",
          "text": "The President: 'Hello... I am still on the lam from debt collectors.'",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, Howie Carr, The Brothers Bulger",
          "text": "Their top hitman, Joe Russo, was on the lam after murdering Joe Barboza in San Francisco.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2012 September 15, “Vietnam: A Tiger at Bay”, in The Economist",
          "text": "There have been more bank runs, executives on the lam, arrests and credit panics than the country has seen in years.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Running away, usually from the police; on the run."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "away",
          "away"
        ],
        [
          "police",
          "police"
        ],
        [
          "on the run",
          "on the run"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "not-comparable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-on the lam.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/2d/En-au-on_the_lam.ogg/En-au-on_the_lam.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/En-au-on_the_lam.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "gl",
      "lang": "Galician",
      "sense": "running away; on the run",
      "word": "a fume de carozo"
    },
    {
      "code": "gl",
      "lang": "Galician",
      "sense": "running away; on the run",
      "word": "á fuga"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "v begáx",
      "sense": "running away; on the run",
      "word": "в бега́х"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "running away; on the run",
      "word": "på fri fot"
    }
  ],
  "word": "on the lam"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.