Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also gamb, gambo, usu. in pl., a leg; esp. (US) a female leg.

1781		Hicky’s Bengal Gaz. 1-8 Sept. n.p.: D—n my E—s if I e’nt Hobbling [with] my Starboard gambo a little shattered.
1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: gambs thin, ill shaped legs; a corruption of the French word jambes.
c.1790		‘Lord Altham’s Bull’ in Walsh Ireland Ninety Years Ago (1885) 87: Dere was no more hair on his hoofs dan dere’s wool on a goose’s gams.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Fancy gambs; sore or swelled legs.
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 61: Back to his home, with tottering gams, sunk heart, / And muns and noddle pink’d in every part.
1836		Morn. Post (London) 26 Dec. 4/3: I own that I am a little queer about the gams.
1838		J.C. Neal Charcoal Sketches (1865) 124: There’s a good deal of circumbendibus about Spoon’s gams.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 61: Twig his gams; stage his mud fakers – there’s a pair of crab spoilers – talk of a foot, why it’s fourteen inches.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 140: GAMB, a leg.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1887		W.E. Henley ‘Villon’s Good-Night’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 175: At you I merely lift my gam – / I drink your health against the wall!
1898		F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley in Peace and War 185: Capital is at home now with his gams in a tub iv hot wather.
1902		F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley’s Opinions 4: Be th’ time th’ las’ thought is expinded, ye have a set iv as well-matched gambs as ye iver wore to a picnic.
1909		F.H. Tillotson How I Became a Detective 87: ‘Gam’ [...] means leg.
1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of the Intermittent Fusser’ in Ade’s Fables 45: He was just at the rickety Age when the Gams refuse to coordinate.
1924		G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 406: Gam. Leg.
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 171: Sit down, Tommy boy—an’ rest the sore gam.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Princess O’Hara’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 431: The skinny gambs.
1941		J.M. Cain Mildred Pierce (1985) 400: The gams! the gams! Your face ain’t news.
1945		R.L. Bellem ‘Coffin for a Coward’ in Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 (of the male leg) And he yanked Reed to his gams.
1951		R. Leveridge Walk on the Water 310: Swell-looking dish! Boy, what gams!
1960		T.C. Bambara ‘Mississippi Ham Rider’ in Gorilla, My Love (1972) 51: He wasn’t the least knocked out by [...] your long, lean gams?
1975		L. Rosten Dear ‘Herm’ 253: They were like Marlene Dietricks gams in the oldie ‘The Blue Angle’.
1987		(con. 1930s) L. Redmond Emerald Square 144: I was starting to take an interest in such things as ‘gams and knockers’ – legs and breasts.
1994		(con. 1980s) G. Byrne Pictures in my Head 112: How’re ye Betty? You had a great pair o’ gams.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 119: I tried not to think about my own gam with parasols sticking out of it.
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 293/1: gam [...] 2. leg.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 169: ‘It’s a good place to be, down there between your gams’.

2. (Aus.) a tampon, a sanitary towel [the position of the vagina at the top of the legs].

1993–2002

Probert Encyc. 🌐 Gam is Australian slang for a sanitary towel or tampon.