cram

«cram» in Mova's school dictionary: to push too many things or people into a small space — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (cram, crams, crammed, cramming)

meaning for a pupil

1) To cram is to push too many things or people into a small space. tree →

2) To cram is to study a lot in a short time just before a test. tree →

3) To cram food is to eat it very fast, stuffing your mouth. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life it describes full bags, cupboards and buses. In school it describes last-minute studying, which works worse than revising a little every day. Phrases: «cram into», «cram for a test», «crammed with», «crammed full».

examples

• He crammed all his clothes into one small bag. tree →
• Twenty people crammed into the tiny lift. tree →
• Don't cram for the test the night before; revise a bit each day. tree →
• The cupboard was crammed with old toys. tree →
• She crammed the whole sandwich into her mouth. tree →
• We crammed into the car for the trip. tree →
• The shelves were crammed full of books. tree →
• Hansel bent down and filled his pocket with as many of them as he could cram in. tree →

note

Double «m»: crammed, cramming. Past and adjective «crammed» means very full. Safety: cramming food into your mouth can make you choke. In a maths problem, «crammed into» tells that the space is overfull — more than fits comfortably.

In the corpora

• Spaced practice, small amounts over several days, works better than cramming in one night.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «cram» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.