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clambake

American  
[klam-beyk] / ˈklæmˌbeɪk /

noun

  1. a picnic or social gathering at the seashore at which clams clam and other seafood are baked, sometimes with corn and other items, traditionally on hot stones under a covering of seaweed.

  2. Informal. any social gathering, especially a very noisy one.

clambake British  
/ ˈklæmˌbeɪk /

noun

  1. a picnic, often by the sea, at which clams, etc, are baked

  2. an informal party

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of clambake

An Americanism dating back to 1825–35; clam 1 + bake

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Hundreds of years before Europeans arrived on New England shores, Native Americans created the clambake by digging pits in the sand to steam them with lobster.

From Washington Times • Aug. 14, 2023

One group will play in the PGA Tour’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a tournament that started as a clambake hosted by the crooner Bing Crosby.

From Washington Post • Jan. 6, 2022

“It was a clambake in the backyard. That was supposed to be a 250-person wedding.”

From New York Times • Aug. 4, 2020

Headlining a Rockingham County Democrats annual clambake, she zeroed in on the state’s soaring student loan debt.

From Fox News • May 22, 2019

Since our evening's experience at the clambake camp, we had been industriously studying the Chinook language, and we could understand that she was asking if we were afraid of the rough waters.

From Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail by Wilson, F. N. (Frederick N.)

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.