Jams

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /d͡ʒæmz/

Definitions

1. A blockage that halts movement, an improvised musical session involving multiple participants, and a sweet spread created by cooking fruit with sugar until it thickens
2. An obstruction causing delays in transit, a collaborative and informal music-making event, and a sweet condiment formed by reducing fruit and sugar together
3. A blockage that stops or slows the normal passage or movement of something ; a casual meeting where musicians come together to play and improvise music ; a thick spread made by boiling fruit with sugar, often used on bread or toast

Etymology: This is an inflected form, so it needs only a sentence or two: "jams" is the plural of "jam" (and the third-person singular of the verb). The noun "jam" is the older word, and its earliest sense was verbal: in the early 18th century it meant "to press, be pressed, or wedged in," the sense that still lies behind a traffic jam. A dialect word, "jammock," meaning to squeeze or crush something into a soft mass, is a close relative and probably shows the same root idea. The fruit preserve and the jazz session came later, the session first attested in 1929, and the sense of a sweet made by combining many things is likely metaphorical.

Synonyms: conserves, preserves, spreads, jellies, marmalades

Antonyms: frees, releases, unclogs, unblocks, disengages