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It's a classic case of glomming: Americans seized on glaum (a term from Scots dialect that basically means “to grab”) and appropriated it as their own, changing it to glom in the process. Glom first meant “to steal” (as in the purse-snatching, robber kind of stealing), but over time that meaning got stretched to include figurative uses. Today the term is most familiar in the phrase “glom on to,” or “glom onto,” which can mean “to appropriate for one's own use,” as in “glomming on to another's idea”; “to grab hold of,” as in “glommed onto the last cookie”; “to latch on to,” as in “glom on to an opinion” or “glom onto an influential friend”; or “to become aware of,” as in “glomming onto the potential of this new technology.”
Examples of glom in a Sentence
Randy Myers, Mercury News, 15 Aug. 2025
Among them are psychoactive compounds mitragynine and 7-OH, which glom onto opioid receptors in the brain.
—Claire Bugos, Verywell Health, 14 Aug. 2025
The prevailing sentiment around Paradise is that Kim is just glomming on to any Golden woman who will have him — first April, then Leslie, and now Faith — in order to extend his free vacation.
—EW.com, 12 Aug. 2025
Thrilling upset launches unconventional Finals: Oklahoma City and Indiana both chasing their first NBA championship made for a dubious national ratings sell, and the Knicks’ sudden firing of coach Tom Thibodeau glommed attention as the Finals began.
—Greg Cote, Miami Herald, 8 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for glom
Cite this Entry
“Glom.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/glom. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
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