yam

noun

1. Any climbing vine of the genus Dioscorea in the Eastern and Western hemispheres, usually cultivated.
2. The edible, starchy, tuberous root of that plant, a tropical staple food.

   “Inwardly Okonkwo knew that the boys were still too young to understand fully the difficult art of preparing seed-yams. But he thought that one could not begin too early. Yam stood for manliness, and he who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a very great man indeed.”

3. (US)A sweet potato; a tuber from the species Ipomoea batatas.
4. (Scotland)A potato.
5. (New-Zealand)An oca; a tuber from the species Oxalis tuberosa.
6. (Malaysia, Singapore)Taro.
7. An orange-brown colour, like the flesh of the yam.
8. (regional)Home.

verb

1. (alt-of, pronunciation-spelling)Pronunciation spelling of am.

   ““Stay, jailer, stay, and hear my woe,” repeating again and again, very softly, the line at the end of each stanza, “I am not mad, I am not mad.” Except she sang it: “I yam not mad, I yam not mad.””

2. (UK, slang)To eat.

   ““If I was that snake I’d just open my jaw and yam that fool up in one bite!””

3. (especially)To dunk on; to beat humiliatingly.

   “For quotations using this term, see Citations:yam.”

name

1. A surname.