Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK tramp) to go hungry, to starve.

1598		Jonson Every Man In his Humour (Anglicised) III i: Hard is the choice when the valiant must eat their arms, or clem.
1849		E. Gaskell Mary Barton I 36: Yo’d think it wur hard, To be browt into th’ warld, To be – clemmed.
1866		Letters by an Odd Boy 72: He (that’s me) must be starving. ‘Not quite clemmed yet I say’ seeing that I have tucked into two good-sized banburys and a glass of cherry-brandy.
1879		Edinburgh Eve. News 6 Mar. 2/6: Witness added that he and his wife had been ‘almost clemmed to death’.
1881		Manchester Courier 7 Dec. 8/5: One of them [...] said they were ‘clemmed’ and that the children had only milk and water.
1886		H. Goldsmid Dottings of a Dosser 136: If the winter be long and hard, men will ‘clem,’ women will wail, and children cry for bread.
1894		Nottingham Eve. Post 29 May 2/6: The deceased had declared [...] that he was afraid he should be ‘clemmed’ to death.
1902		Manchester Courier 26 Apr. 13/1: She was under the influence of drink and when arrested said she was clemming.
1908		G. Seagram Bushman All 163: ’Arry Figg ’ad the biggest put-away of any chap I ever knew. ’E was always clemmin’.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Nov. 24/1: W’ere’s the bottle with me tea? ... Wot, empty? ... Now, I’ll have to do a clem, / Likewise the patient. Deary, deary me!
1918		Liverpool Echo 8 Aug. 4/1: I might as well be shot as clemmed to death.
1929		Advertiser (Adelaide) 25 Oct. 32/8: No ‘maunderer’ (tramp) nor ‘fencer’ (door to door hawker) need ‘clem’, (starve), or do without ‘chow chow’ (food) if he follows the many ‘patterans’ (private marks) which tramps make on or near the doors of generous householders.
1932		F. Jennings Tramping with Tramps 212: Clem – starve.
1937–84		Partridge DSUE.

2. in fig. use, to be desperate for.

c.1900

‘Ramrod’ Family Connections 47: Maria was fair ‘clemmed’ as the yokels say for a hump.