glaum

Alteration of dialectal clam, claum (“to grope or grasp ineffectually, snatch”), from Middle English *clammen, *clemmen, from Old English clæmman, clemman, from Proto-West Germanic *klammjan, from Proto-Germanic *klamjaną. In some senses, likely influenced by clamber. Compare dialectal glaump, glamp (“to grasp, snatch at, clutch, grope", also "gulp”), Scots clam, claum (“to grope or grasp ineffectually, snatch”), Norwegian klemme (“to seize with claws”), Middle High German klemmen (“to squeeze”). Doublet of glom. Related also to English clamp.

glaum (third-person singular simple present glaums, present participle glauming, simple past and past participle glaumed)

1. (Scotland) To grope with the hands, as in the dark.
2. (Scotland) To grasp or snatch (at), usually feebly or ineffectually.
   • 1789, Burns, Robert (lyrics), “The Battle of Sherramuir”:

     My heart, for fear, gaed sough for sough, / To hear the thuds, and see the cluds / O' clans frae woods, in tartan duds, / Wha glaum'd at kingdoms three.

• (grope with the hands): fumble, grubble; see also Thesaurus:feel around
• (grasp, snatch): clutch, grab; see also Thesaurus:grasp

From Middle English gloumen, glomen (“to look glum or sullen, scowl, frown at, lower”), from Old Norse glám- (in compounds), cognate with Norwegian Nynorsk glåma (“to stare”).

• glawm, gloom

glaum (third-person singular simple present glaums, present participle glauming, simple past and past participle glaumed)

1. (Northern England, Scotland) To look sullen or sad; scowl, frown; look, stare (at)

• algum, almug, mulga