Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) to get (hold of), to obtain, to seize upon, to grab.

1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 32: Glaum, to grab, to seize.
1912		Sport (Adelaide) 6 July 13/1: They Say [...] That Clarence is still going crook on the mob for glawming his tart.
1913		‘Lord Ballyrot in Slangland’ in Tacoma Times (WA) 21 Aug. 4/4: Glom a coal-tar bullet just as a sample, mister, and sink it in your map.
1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 38: glom [...] to grab; to snatch; to take; implying violence. Example: ‘Glom this short and drop off two blocks below.’.
1915		G. Bronson-Howard God’s Man 129: Wish I could glom a dame who could dance.
1917		Day Book (Chicago) 8 Jan. 24/1: Let him go into the highways and byways and see life, and not glom it second-hand like a ‘jungle buzzard’ does a hobo’s leavings.
1927		W.R. Morse ‘Stanford Expressions’ in AS II:6 276: glomm — seize greedily.
1931		‘Toledo Slim’ in Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 231: And then I made my get-away and glommed an East-bound train.
1932		E.S. Gardner ‘Bird in the Hand’ in Goulart (1967) 266: That’s a line of hooey the lawyer thought up for the judge, and the newspaper boys glommed onto it.
1945		R.L. Bellem ‘Coffin for a Coward’ in Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 As soon as I was alone I glommed a quick gander into the bedroom.
1953		S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 268: I died when I saw you glom onto those books.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 801: glaum – To take or seize. [...] glom – To snatch; seize; grab.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 96: glom [onto] someone (fr hobo sl glommer = hand) to be overpossessive of a love.
1984		J. Ellroy Because the Night 203: ‘Fuck me around, and I hotfoot it up to Narco Division and glom a pound of reefer to add to the bag the I.A.D. bulls took off you’.
1987		‘Joe Bob Briggs’ Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 83: It gloms onto his shoulder and starts eatin and burrowin.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 36: The punks hadn’t had time to glom a shyster.
1996		(con. 1949) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 183: This pimp glommed onto her and got her fixed up with some high-grade dope.
1999		Guardian Editor 17 Dec. 12: Trying to seem up-to-the-minute by glomming on to the latest slang and the hottest music.
2010		J. Ellroy Hilliker Curse 13: There were more sweet deals ahead [...] He would glom himself one.
2015		‘Chelsea G. Summers’ in Vice 28 Apr. 🌐 Men glom to you as if you're magic when in fact you're blood and guts and hormones and thoughts.
2023		Bluesky 14 Nov. 🌐 A big multibucks company is seeking to make money by glomming on to ... lexicography?

2. (US) to steal.

1897		J. London ‘The Road’ in Hendricks & Shepherd Jack London Reports (1970) 311–21: Their argot is peculiar study. [...] glam, steal.
1904		Salt Lake Trib. (UT) 27 Nov. 4/3: Dis guy says I glommed dese kicks [...] Say, dat’s de limit, ain’t it?
1907		J. London Road 131: We shook hands like long-lost brothers, and discovered that our hands were gloved. ‘Where’d ye glahm ’em?’ I asked. ‘Out of an engine-cab,’ he answered.
1910		Spokane Press (WA) 22 Sept. 7/3: I glommed the keister [...] we fenced it for sixty bucks.
1917		Cincinnati Enquirer (OH) 12 May 12/1: ‘So I started tuh batter the stem, an’ see ’f I couldn’t glom a benny ’er sumpin’ out uv uh masheen’.
1929		A.J. Barr Let Tomorrow Come 40: I try to glom a brace o’ spuds.
1929		D. Hammett ‘Fly Paper’ Story Omnibus (1966) 38: I glaumed that stuff last week when I was visiting Babe.
1945		A.J. Liebling ‘Quest for Mollie’ in Just Enough Liebling (2004) 157: The djellabah [...] serves as a repository for everything the goum gloms.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 100–1: glaum [...] glom [...] glom on to to steal.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 82/2: Glaum onto. See glom onto.
1953		F. Brown Madball (2019) 80: Neither [...] would dare even suggest glomming onto the money and dividing it.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 43: The D.A. has glommed the case right out of our hands. Lovely system we got around here.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 801: glom – To snatch [...] steal.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 72: He [...] glommed the money and he took off to Europe.
1977		A. Brooke Last Toke 113: If the old wino had not been shucking to glom the ten dollar bill.
1987		(con. 1970s) J. Pistone Donnie Brasco (2006) 332: Lefty’s gonna say we gave you twenty-five and you must have glommed the other twenty.
1993		G.P. Pelecanos Nick’s Trip 144: ‘Tell me everything you did between the time she glommed the cash and the time she left you’.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 90: Pete glommed sixty five-spots.
2009		(con. 1960s) J. Ellroy Blood’s a Rover 24: Thge snagged him with some black lace undies and a sandwich he glommed from Sally Compton’s fridge.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 55: We’ll negotiate the wife search when I glom the infrareds.

3. (US) to arrest.

1916		‘Thieves’ Sl.’ Toronto Star 19 Jan. 2/5: ARREST Glaum.
1917		‘A-No. 1’ From Coast to Coast with Jack London 32: Jack London was ‘glummed’ at Niagara Falls, also in Erie County, where he drew down a sentence of thirty days.
1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 448: Glaumed, to be, To be [...] arrested.
1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 57: I’ve been stealing for twenty-five years [...] and [...] never even been glomed (arrested).
1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 33: The shacks are hostile, and the railroad dicks will glom you sure, unless you’re lucky.
1940		R. Chandler Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 142: Hell, he ain’t there [...] Somebody must of glommed him off.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 82/2: Glom, v. [...] 2. To arrest. ‘Chet was glommed dead bang (red-handed) for a knock-off (murder).’.

4. (US) to look, to see, to realize.

1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 293: The ‘dicks’ rushed in and glomed him; but Steve dropped one of them and pushed th’ others aside and walked down th’ steps, cool’s you please.
1913		Day Book (Chicago) 2 Aug. 24/2: Trolley riding [...] is indulged in by millions who have not glommed even the rudiments of the game.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 695: She used to be always embracing me Josie whenever he was there meaning him of course glauming me over.
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 3: I guess I can battle it out after I never glom you again.
1942		(con. 1890s) S. O’Casey Pictures in the Hallway 10: All the grinnin’ foreign canonised bowseys gathered round me, [...] all of them glaumin’ to see something that’ll put a sthrain on perpetual piety for me Irish flock.
1943		in W.C. Fields By Himself (1974) 484: I am a grandpappy. I went over to ‘glom’ the infant the other day.
1959		H. Ellison ‘Have Coolth’ in Gentleman Junkie (1961) 133: I glommed her immediatest because she had green eyes.
1967		N. Mailer Why Are We in Vietnam? (1970) 18: Gather here [...] and glom onto the confusion of my brain.
1968		D. Dee Golden Betty 8: He was glad she skipped before the fuzz glommed their domestic setup.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 29: Glaumed Observed closely.
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 213: Anyways, who gives a rat’s ass why she don’t glom him right that first time.
1990		J. Ellroy ‘Gravy Train’ in Pronzini & Adrian Hard-Boiled (1995) 498: I glommed the names of the paternity suit complainants.
2000		J. Ellroy ‘I’ve Got the Goods’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 178: I read over their shoulders. I glommed the gestalt.
2020		M. Hyde on Twitter 31 Oct. 🌐 Absolutely wild to see TORIES make things worse for business because they still haven’t glommed on health and economy go hand in hand.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 37: She gloms her unsexy Buick.

5. (US Und.) to pick fruit or crops.

1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 48: He’s a hop-glomer and sorter like a hobo himself.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 35: Hobos are known for what they do, or do not do [...] Among the various harvest hands are the ‘apple knockers,’ the ‘berry glaumers,’ the ‘bundle tossers,’ the ‘potato rooters,’ and so on.
a.1946		‘The Open Book’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 115: There’s that prune gloming Californian, / He’s known as the nice Native Son.

6. (US) to eat, usu. to eat greedily.

1935		J. Conroy World to Win 226: The way they smeared eggs and glommed jam nearly made him puke.
1971–2		C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 205: glom, v. – to eat fast.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 149: Bandit-eyed coons [...] glommed finned, scaly chow from the still, brackish shallows.
2005		K. Huff A Steady Rain I ii: She turned toward me, no top on, the baby glommed on to gazunga number two.
2012		W. Keyser ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Blade Glommer — A sword swallower.

7. (US) to stick, to entangle.

1978

P. Theroux Picture Palace 12: It’s the cult of personality they want to glom onto.