Green’s Dictionary of Slang

yam v.

to eat.

1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: yam to eat heartily, to stuff lustily.
1728		Defoe Street Robberies Considered 35: Yam, to eat.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].
c.1750–1882		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
c.1790		‘Creoles of Jamaica’ in Holloway & Black II (1979) 172: The Creoles yams them, and the Devil yams Creoles.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1837		Disraeli Venetia I 151: She brought the knife to Plantagenet [...] saying ‘Yam, yam, gentry cove.’.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 273: yam to eat. This word is used by the lowest class all over the world; by the Wapping sailor, West Indian negro, or Chinese coolie.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).
1887		G. Davis Recoll. Sea-Wanderer 400: ‘Hi yah!’ exclaimed the astonished mandarin, ‘how can sickee man yam gun?’ (How can a sick man eat guns?).
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 97: Yam, to eat.
1944		‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.
1972		D. Dalby ‘African element in American English’ in Kochman Rappin’ and Stylin’ Out 186: yam — ‘to eat.’.
1999		(con. 1979–80) A. Wheatle Brixton Rock (2004) 6: Can’t you stop at a chip shop or something? I ain’t had nothing to yam for hours.
2001		(con. 1981) A. Wheatle East of Acre Lane 37: Good t’ing de goods weren’t reported, otherwise we’d be yamming oats for breakfast.

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