rams

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of ram.

   In the fall the rams are turned out with the ewes for breeding.

   Bighorn rams crash their horns together in fights that echo across the canyon.

   Note

   Every noun meaning of ram takes the regular plural, so rams can mean male sheep, battering rams, or the rams of machines and old warships, and only the sentence shows which. The same spelling is also the verb form used after he, she or it, and the name of a card game, which takes a singular verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of ram.

   In the final scene the hero rams the getaway truck off the road.

   Every year the majority leader rams the budget through the Senate just before the recess.

   Note

   Most uses take an object, the thing struck, packed or forced, and the verb pairs readily with into and through: she rams the clothes into a bag. Used figuratively it keeps its brute force, so a leader who rams a bill through is overpowering the opposition, not persuading it. With firearms it means seating the charge in the breech, and there is also a crude sexual slang sense to keep in mind.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   A trick-taking card game from France, related to nap and loo.

   They played rams for small stakes until well past midnight.

   She learned rams from her French grandmother and still plays it every Sunday.

   Note

   One game, one name: despite the final -s, it takes a singular verb, as in rams is played for small stakes. It belongs to the same family as nap and loo, trick-taking games in which each player lays down a card in turn and the strongest card wins the round. The name is a separate word from the battering verb, with its own history.

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