Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to lie, to deceive, to make a person believe false or exaggerated statements; thus cramming n. [the liar’s victim is ‘filled up’ with untruths].

1794		Sporting Mag. Jan. III 200/1: The whimsical trick of cramming the credulous, with the belief of his having a large fish in his belly.
1822		(con. early 17C) W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel II 156: The species of wit which has been long a favourite in the city, under the names of cross-biting, giving the dor, bamboozling, cramming, hoaxing, humbugging, and quizzing.
1839		Crim.-Con. Gaz. 31 Aug. 281/3: ‘Do’ — D’Orsay thus the Jew-boy crammed / ‘And you and it will be both be d—d’.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 11 Feb. 3/3: His Excellency entertained the Right Worshipful the Mayor to dinner [...] The Mayor, it is said, is stuffed and crammed daily by his Excellency — consequently he would know more about these matters.
1845		J. Lindridge Sixteen-String Jack 263: I’ll cram them with as many lies as was ever told by Gulliver himself.
1857		Paul Pry (London) 15 Aug. n.p.: Master D— v— s [...] not to be always cramming people that he has had £500 left him recently. If so, why not redeem those things that has been at a certain shop in Broadmead so long?
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 131/2: He, more pleased than a cock with a gooseberry, sucked in all she ‘crammed’ him with.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 17 June 4/8: Put your cases, pray, in a candid way, / I will wink when it’s time to ‘cram’.

2. to study hard, esp. at the last minute; thus crammable, of work that can be learned by rote; crammed, tutored for examinations rather than actual knowledge.

1803		‘A Pembrochian’ Gradus ad Cantabrigiam 45: to cram — those who have the misfortune to have but weak and empty heads, are glad to become ‘foragers on others’ wisdom;’ or [...] to get their ‘magazine of memory stuff’d’ by someone of their own standing, who has made better use of his time.
1826		R. Whately Elements of Logic Preface: In the latter it is hardly possible [...] to present the semblance of preparation by learning questions and answers by rote: — in the cant phrase of undergraduates, by getting crammed.
1836–7		Dickens Pickwick Papers (1999) 679: He crammed for it, to use a technical but expressive term; he read up for the subject, at my desire, in the Encyclopædia Britannica.
1842		Metropolitan 33 422: Murders his Latin writing, because it is not crammable.
1844		Ulster Gaz. 30 Dec. 4/2: [I] crammed myself sufficiently with Greek, Latin and algebra, to pass muster.
1856		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Tales of College Life 77: I must ‘cram’ at the last, I said, and make a shot for my degree.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1868		M.E. Braddon Dead-Sea Fruit II 164: ‘Cramming Thicksides!’ cried Mrs. Jerningham, in amazement; ‘what, in mercy’s name, did he mean by that?’ ‘Oh, Thicksides is the Oxonian name for Thucydides.’ [...] ‘Your father used to cram Thicksides?’.
1868		Amer. Educational Mthly Oct. 401: Geology and Chemistry are frightfully crammable. But Botany and Experimental Physics are by no means so easy to cram.
1875		‘Aliph Cheem’ Lays of Ind (1905) 22: And how it, as such, / More than cramming high Dutch, / Rendered him specially fit for the Staff.
1878		in Ebsworth Bagford Ballads II 846: Although they may turn out ‘crammed prigs’ and pedants, full of conceit.
1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 13: cram v. To attempt to store the mind hastily with a great number of facts, preparatory to an examination.
1899		F.E. Daniel Recollections of a Rebel Surgeon 252: The average medical student crams on Smith’s Compend, and prepares for examination.
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 20 Oct. 36: Gibbon had got up his speeches that very day, cramming them from an old school-library copy.
1905		Meade Co. News (KS) 27 July 1/5: There is a noticeable absence of the effort to ‘cram’ for examination.
1912		P.C. Wren Dew & Mildew 38: Master Dagga crammed on [...] [a]nd daily his appalling stock of incredibly useless knowledge grew.
1917		Boy’s Own Paper XL 3 168: I rather guess I’ll have to ‘cram!’.
1924		P. Marks Plastic Age 111: The better students moderately calm, the others cramming.
1935		J. Conroy World to Win 125: He has to cram like hell to make his grades.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 105: Anyone who has crammed for a school exam knows how easy it is to misquote in a showdown.
1963		Dundes & Schonhorn ‘Kansas University Sl.: A New Generation’ in AS XXXVIII:3 167: To study extremely diligently for an examination: cram.
1976		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 2: cram – to try to learn as much as possible in a short time.
1981		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 3: cram – to study hard.
1986		MC Lyte ‘I Cram to Understand U’ 🎵 Just like a test / I cram to understand u.
1993		B. Moore Lex. of Cadet Lang. 99: usage: ‘I crammed all night for that test and still fucken (q.v.) failed it.’.
1999		Eble Campus Sl. Nov.

3. to train up a student for an examination.

1844		Puck 13: Though for Great Go and for Small, I teach Paley, cram and all [F&H].
1850		Poem before the Iadma of Harvard College in Hall (1856) 141: For many weeks he ‘crams’ him, — daily does he rehearse.
1869		T. Taylor New Men & Old Acres 8: Lil.: I’m cramming him, mamma, to pass the Civil Service Examination .
1897		‘F. Anstey’ Baboo Jabberjee BA xiii: I am an able B.A. of a respectable Indian University, now in this country for purposes of being crammed through [...] Law Exam.
1903		N. Gould Straight Goer (1915) 29: Madge was not crammed, she learned everything thoroughly.
1988		T. Harris Silence of the Lambs (1991) 341: The Superintendent told me Mapp’s set to cram you for your makeup exams on Monday.

4. of a man, to have sexual intercourse.

c.1895		Actionable Offenses ‘Dennis Reilly at Maggie Murphy’s Home After Nine O’Clock’ (2007) [cylinder recording ENHS 30192] ‘Ah, Denny, the likes of this was never made for man, kiss me, Denny, ah Denny—’ ‘Ah, kiss, kiss, what’s the matter with you, g’wan, I’m crammin’ you, g’wan now, work ’er up’.
1923		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 381: So that son of a bitch, he took her to bed, / And crammed it in from its roots to its head.
1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 265/1: mid-C.19–20.
1945		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 204: He crammed the small crease / ’Twixt the legs of his niece / With a foot of his old rolling pin.
1964		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 30: Oh, he screwed her in the parlor; / He fucked her in the hall, / And the servant said, ‘By Jesus, / He’ll be cramming on us all.’.

5. to urge a horse on by force.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 265/1: from ca. 1830.

6. (US black) to be very enthusiastic.

1995

L. Stavsky et al. A2Z 24/1: crammin’ – v. deeply desiring or trying hard.

7. (UK drugs) to inhale a powdered drug.

2009

R. Milward Ten Storey Love Song 93: [S]he listens to the boys cram in the bog, and they [...] rack up a couple of white worms.