Dam

Dam - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

DAM, n.

1. A female parent; used of beasts, particularly of quadrupeds.

2. A human mother, in contempt.

3. A crowned man in the game of draughts.

DAM, n. A mole, bank or mound of earth, or any wall, or a frame of wood, raised to obstruct a current of water, and to raise it, for the purpose of driving millwheels, or for other purposes. Any work that stops and confines water in a pond or bason, or causes it to rise.

DAM, v.t.

1. To make a dam, or to stop a stream of water by a bank of earth, or by any other work; to confine or shut in water. It is common to use, after the verb, in, up, or out; as, to dam in, or to dam up, the water, and to dam out is to prevent water from entering.

2. To confine or restrain from escaping; to shut in.

('em, ordinary Hebrew word for "mother"): Hebrew law prohibited the destruction of the "dam" and the young of birds at the same time, commanding that if the young be taken from a nest the dam be allowed to escape (De 22:6,7). In the same spirit it enjoined the taking of an animal for slaughter before it had been seven days with its "dam" (Ex 22:30; Le 22:27; compare Ex 23:19).