Literary notes about CLAM (AI summary)
In literature, the word "clam" assumes multiple layers of meaning. On one hand, it appears as a literal reference to the mollusk—featured in vivid descriptions of coastal life, culinary delights like clam chowder ([1], [2], [3], [4]), and even as impressive sea creatures pursued for their size or beauty ([5], [6], [7], [8]). On the other hand, it serves as a metaphor for reticence and silence, as seen when a character is said to "shut up like a clam" ([9], [10], [11], [12]), suggesting a stubborn, uncommunicative nature. In this way, "clam" enriches literary expression by lending both its tangible natural qualities and its figurative power to portray quietude and resistance.
- It was clam chowder—the kind of clam chowder
— from Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island; Or, The Mystery of the Wreck by Janet D. Wheeler - A "clam chowder" is a very savory kind of thick soup, of which the clam is a chief ingredient.
— from The Last of the Huggermuggers by Christopher Pearse Cranch - As we were in a hurry, I helped Jake to eat his clam chowder.
— from My Brave and Gallant Gentleman: A Romance of British Columbia by Robert Watson - There is always bouillon or oyster stew or clam chowder.
— from Etiquette by Emily Post - They said: “The chief would like to eat giant clam-shell, let us go and fish it.”
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific by Bronislaw Malinowski - I estimated the weight of this giant clam at 300 kilograms.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne - By leaving the pearl buried beneath the giant clam's mantle, he allowed it to grow imperceptibly.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne - In the middle of the lounge, a jet of water, electrically lit, fell back into a basin made from a single giant clam.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne - But he did not laugh with me—instead, he shut up like a clam all at once.
— from The Memoirs of an American Citizen by Robert Herrick - "That's the one thing you can't talk to him about—shuts up like a clam.
— from The Crux: A Novel by Charlotte Perkins Gilman - But no; Uncle Saunders shut up like a clam—as tight as the high-barn door.
— from A Captured Santa Claus by Thomas Nelson Page - I spoke to him about what he's been firing off from his mouth the night before an' he shuts up like a clam.
— from Rimrock Trail by Dunn, J. Allan, (Joseph Allan)
