teem

From Middle English temen (“to bear, to support”), from Anglian Old English tēman (“to give birth”) (West Saxon tīeman), from Proto-West Germanic *taumijan (“to bridle”), from Proto-Germanic *taumijaną, from *taumaz ("bridle", continued in Modern English as team).

• IPA^(key): /tiːm/

• Audio (UK):

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• Rhymes: -iːm
• Homophone: team

teem (third-person singular simple present teems, present participle teeming, simple past and past participle teemed)

1. To be stocked to overflowing.
   • 1685, Matthew Prior, “A Satyr on the modern Translators”, in H. Bunker Wright, Monroe K. Spears, editors, The Literary Works of Matthew Prior, Second edition, volume I, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1971, page 20:

     But well he knew his teeming pangs were vain,
     Till Midwife Dryden eas’d his labouring Brain;

   • 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:

     his mind teeming with schemes of future deceit to cover former villainy

2. To be prolific; to abound; to be rife.

   Fish teem in this pond.

   • 1944 November and December, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 341:

     The steel works, with their Siemens furnaces, the rail-rolling mill with its enormous single-cylinder engine fitted with Corliss valve gear, and the forge in which were installed the great steam hammers and hydraulic presses—these were teeming with interest, and the best way to pick up information was to work with the millwrights.

   • 2013 June 22, “Snakes and ladders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 76:

     Risk is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins.

3. (obsolete) To bring forth young, as an animal; to produce fruit, as a plant; to bear; to be pregnant; to conceive; to multiply.
   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:

     If she must teem, / Create her child of spleen.

From Middle English temen (“to drain”), from Old Norse tœma, from Proto-Germanic *tōmijaną (“to empty, make empty”). Related to English toom (“empty, vacant”). More at toom.

teem (third-person singular simple present teems, present participle teeming, simple past and past participle teemed)

1. (archaic) To empty.
   • 1849, G. C. Greenwell, A Glossary of Terms used in the Coal Trade of Northumberland and Durham:

     [The banksman] also puts the full tubs to the weighing machine, and thence to the skreens, upon which he teems the coals. It is also his duty to keep an account of the quantity of coals and stones drawn each day.

   • 1913, D. H. Lawrence, “ Chapter 9 on Wikisource.Wikisource ”, in Sons_and_Lovers:

     “Are you sure they’re good lodgings?” she asked.
     “Yes—yes. Only—it’s a winder when you have to pour your own tea out—an’ nobody to grouse if you teem it in your saucer and sup it up. It somehow takes a’ the taste out of it.”

2. To pour (especially with rain)
3. To pour, as steel, from a melting pot; to fill, as a mould, with molten metal.

From Middle English temen (“to be suitable, befit”), from Old English *teman, from Proto-Germanic *temaną (“to fit”). Cognate with Low German temen, tamen (“to befit”), Dutch betamen (“to befit”), German ziemen. See also tame (adjective) and compare beteem.

teem (third-person singular simple present teems, present participle teeming, simple past and past participle teemed)

1. (obsolete, rare) To think fit.
   • 1603, George Gifford, Dialogue of Witches:

     Ah, said he, thou hast confessed and bewrayed all, I could teem it to rend thee in pieces

• Teme, etem, meet, mete, teme

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teem

1. inflection of temen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

Cognate with Moore toeeme (“to change”)

• IPA^(key): /téːm/

teem

1. to move something

   Sẽŋɛ ka teem bʋʋsɩ la

   Go move the goats

teem

1. alternative form of tem (“group”)

teem

1. Pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1945 in Portugal) of têm.
   • 1880, Maria Amalia Vaz de Carvalho, “As filhas de Victor Hugo [The daughters of Victor Hugo]”, in Contos e phantasias [Short stories and fantasies]‎^[1], 2nd edition, Lisbon: Parceria Antonio Maria Pereira, published 1905, page 304:

     Ah! é que umas são a ignorancia na sua perfeição mais divina, outras guardam na bocca o gosto amargo de todos os fructos vedados que teem devorado!

     Ah! It is that some embody ignorance in its most divine perfection, while others carry in their mouth the bitter taste of all the forbidden fruits they have devoured!

In Portugal between 1911 and 1945, as well as in Brazil before 1943, the third-person plural present indicative of ter was spelled teem. The spelling têm was later introduced.

See more in the usage notes at veem.