ream

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

ream, n. [AS. reám, akin to G. rahm.].

 Cream; also, the cream or froth on ale.  [1913 Webster]

ream, v. i. 

 To cream; to mantle.  [1913 Webster]
"A huge pewter measuring pot which, in the language of the hostess, reamed with excellent claret."  [1913 Webster]

ream, v. t. [Cf. Reim.].

 To stretch out; to draw out into thongs, threads, or filaments.  [1913 Webster]

ream, n. [OE. reme, OF. rayme, F. rame (cf. Sp. resma), fr. Ar. rizma a bundle, especially of paper.].

 A bundle, package, or quantity of paper, usually consisting of twenty quires or 480 sheets.  [1913 Webster]

Printer's ream, twenty-one and a half quires. [Eng.] A common practice is now to count five hundred sheets to the ream. Knight.

ream, v. t. [Cf. G. räumen to remove, to clear away, fr. raum room. See Room.].

 To bevel out, as the mouth of a hole in wood or metal; in modern usage, to enlarge or dress out, as a hole, with a reamer.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

ream, n.
1 twenty quires or 500 (formerly 480) sheets of paper (or a larger number, to allow for waste).
2 (in pl.) a large quantity of paper or writing (wrote reams about it).

ream, v.tr.
1 widen (a hole in metal etc.) with a borer.
2 turn over the edge of (a cartridge-case etc.).
3 Naut. open (a seam) for caulking.
4 US squeeze the juice from (fruit).

Derivative

reamer n.

Etymology

19th c.: orig. uncert.

THESAURUS

ream

auger, bawl out, beat, bilk, bite, bore, broach, bugger, cardboard, chew, chew ass, chew out, chisel, countersink, cozen, cuss out, diddle, do, drill, empierce, fellate, fix, give a going-over, give hail Columbia, give hell, give the deuce, give what-for, gobs, gore, gouge, gouge out, gyp, heap, hole, honeycomb, impale, jack up, lambaste, lance, leaf, loads, mace, masturbate, needle, oodles, open up, page, paper, penetrate, perforate, pierce, pink, prick, punch, puncture, quantities, quire, ream ass, ream out, riddle, run through, screw, sheet, sit on, skewer, slew, sodomize, spear, spike, spit, stab, stationery, stick, tap, transfix, transpierce, trepan, trephine, wads

ROGET THESAURUS

ream

Book

N booklet, writing, work, volume, tome, opuscule, tract, tractate, livret, brochure, libretto, handbook, codex, manual, pamphlet, enchiridion, circular, publication, chap book, part, issue, number livraison, album, portfolio, periodical, serial, magazine, ephemeris, annual, journal, paper, bill, sheet, broadsheet, leaf, leaflet, fly leaf, page, quire, ream, chapter, section, head, article, paragraph, passage, clause, endpapers, frontispiece, cover, binding, folio, quarto, octavo, duodecimo, sextodecimo, octodecimo, encyclopedia, encompilation, library, bibliotheca, press, definitive work, treatise, comprehensive treatise (dissertation), writer, author, litterateur, essayist, journalism, pen, scribbler, the scribbling race, literary hack, Grub-street writer, writer for the press, gentleman of the press, representative of the press, adjective jerker, diaskeaust, ghost, hack writer, ink slinger, publicist, reporter, penny a liner, editor, subeditor, playwright, poet, bookseller, publisher, bibliopole, bibliopolist, librarian, bookstore, bookshop, bookseller's shop, knowledge of books, bibliography, book learning, among the giant fossils of my past, craignez tout d'un auteur en courroux, for authors nobler palms remain, I lived to write and wrote to live, look in thy heart and write, there is no Past so long as Books shall live, the public mind is the creation of the Master-Writ, volumes that I prize above my dukedom.