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to palm

to palm

16 6.8
To hide a small thing in the inside of your hand so others do not see it
  • verb
  • /pɑm/
translation icon : ocultar en la palma de la mano
  • She quickly palmed the small item before her friend could see it.
  • palm a card
  • palm a ball
  • try to palm

To this day, I can barely palm a standard playing card.

Examples

  • I took five or six cubes, palming them as the tray went past.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • To this day, I can barely palm a standard playing card.

  • It helps me hold the things I need in the palm of my hand.

  • Mote smoothly palmed a cigarette lighter from the display next to the Swisher Sweets and left.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • When Michel can't open the ketchup bottle, Francesca grabs it, palms the top skillfully, and twists it off.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • He managed to palm the coin without anyone noticing during the magic trick.

  • The magician palmed the card and made it disappear in front of the audience.

Antonyms

2.3

Show something that was hidden or secret

146 2.8

Make something visible by removing a cover or letting light reach it

Idioms

To give someone money to get a favor, often as a bribe

To pay someone for a service, especially to have them tell your future

To give someone money secretly to make them do something for you

To give money or gifts to a mayor to get a special favor

Phrasal Verbs

to palm off
  • Informal
7.9

To trick someone into buying a fake or unwanted thing

Compounds

46 1.0

A tall tree with one straight trunk and big leaves at the top

A city in southeast Florida on the mainland near Palm Beach with beaches, shops, and warm weather

7 2.8

A cooking and industrial oil made from the fruit of oil palm trees

5 3.4

A rich resort town on an island off Florida's east coast with beaches and luxury

1 2.7

A tall tropical palm tree that grows coconuts

1 3.0

A tall palm tree that grows in hot dry places and makes sweet dates

1 4.9

A way to tell someone's future by looking at the lines and shape of their hand

1 3.4

The Sunday before Easter when Christians remember Jesus' entry into Jerusalem and hold palm leaves

1 3.6

A tropical palm tree with long leaves that produces red fruit used to make oil

1 5.6

A tall palm tree with long feathery leaves and a smooth straight trunk

betel palm
  • Indian
9.9

A tropical palm tree from Southeast Asia that makes betel nuts for chewing

A small shrubby tree that gives deep red sour fruit and makes a good hedge

9.9

A small palm tree from southern Florida and the West Indies that looks like the silvertop palmetto

6.1

A palm tree whose young leaf buds are eaten as a vegetable

9.8

A South American palm tree that produces wax like carnauba wax

A Brazilian fan palm with an edible root used for wax and leaf fiber

3.4

A tall tropical palm tree that grows coconuts

A tall tropical palm tree that grows coconuts

9.9

A tall tropical palm tree with large nuts that give oil and a hard material like ivory

9.9

A tropical tree with long leaves that makes hard nuts used for buttons

coyol palm
  • Specialized
9.9

A tropical palm tree that produces edible nuts and strong fiber

African oil palm
  • South African
5.3

A tall tropical tree from West Africa whose fruit is used to make palm oil

A palm tree native to Central and South America that produces oil from its fruit

Areca palm
  • Indian
9.9

A tropical palm tree that produces betel nuts with a hard, stringy outer husk

A tropical plant with thin stems like bamboo often grown indoors

9.9

A small meat-eating mammal from Southeast Asia with dark bands and a long tail

babassu palm
  • Specialized
9.9

A tall palm tree from northern Brazil that has hard nuts with oil and a white core used like ivory

fan palm
  • Specialized
5.3

A tropical tree with large leaves shaped like a fan

fern palm
  • Indian
9.7

A tropical plant with palmlike leaves that look like a fern

A palm tree with long leaves divided into many thin parts like a bird's wing

fishtail palm
  • Indian
8.3

A tree from warm countries with leaves shaped like a fish tail

7.2

A small fan-shaped tree that grows in southern Florida and Cuba

lady palm
  • Specialized
6.6

A small indoor plant with many thin, fan-shaped leaves

9.9

A palm tree with fan-shaped leaves that grows in the southern United States and the Caribbean

longar palm
  • Indian
9.9

A tall fan palm that gives hard wood, sweet sap, and leaves for weaving

miniature fan palm
  • Specialized
8.4

A small tropical plant with fan-shaped leaves, thin stems, and loose fibers at the leaf bases

gebang palm
  • Australian
9.9

A tall palm tree whose wide leaves people use to make roofs and weave baskets

gomuti palm
  • Specialized
9.9

A palm tree with a fibrous base that gives sweet sap for wine and a trunk used to make sago

grugru palm
  • Specialized
9.9

A tropical tree with a swollen spiny trunk and edible nuts

A South American palm tree with no visible trunk that produces hard white nuts used for carving

A palm from Brazil and Peru that makes hard nuts used like ivory

jaggery palm
  • Indian
9.9

A tall palm whose sweet sap makes jaggery and whose soft inner trunk gives sago

jupati palm
  • Specialized
9.9

A tall palm tree from Brazil with very large split leaves and strong stems used for building or weaving

8.4

A small palm tree with long, stiff leaves that look like needles

nipa palm
  • Australian
9.9

A swamp palm that gives sweet sap, leaves for roofs, and edible seeds

raffia palm
  • Specialized
8.3

A large tropical tree with very long feather-like leaves whose leaf stems give strong fiber

rattan palm
  • Indian
7.9

A climbing palm whose long stems people use to make furniture and baskets

7.2

A plant that makes sago, a starchy food from its trunk

palm cat
  • Philippine
9.9

A small wild animal like a cat with spots or stripes that lives in trees in Southeast Asian forests

palm civet
  • Philippine
9.9

A small nocturnal animal like a cat that lives in trees in Southeast Asia

palm family
  • Specialized
5.8

A group of mainly tropical plants like coconut and date trees with large leaves

palm kernel
  • Specialized
6.7

A seed of the oil palm that people press to make cooking oil

palm nut
  • Specialized
4.0

A seed from an oil palm tree that people use to make oil

A way people in a community settle arguments without using official law

A tall tree with fan-shaped leaves used for roofing and weaving, hard wood, and sweet sap used to make wine

piassava palm
  • Specialized
9.9

A Brazilian palm with long stiff fibers used to make ropes, brooms, and mats

pissaba palm
  • Specialized
9.9

A Brazilian palm with strong leaf fibers used to make ropes and brushes

sugar palm
  • Philippine
6.0

A large tropical palm tree whose sweet sap makes sugar and wine and whose trunk gives sago

talipot palm
  • Indian
9.9

A tall palm tree from southern India and Sri Lanka with very large leaves used as umbrellas or for writing

8.8

A small palm tree from southern Florida and the West Indies with leaves used to cover roofs

toddy palm
  • Indian
9.2

A tall tree that gives sweet sap used to make palm wine or sugar

true sago palm
  • Australian
8.9

A palm tree whose trunk gives a starchy food used for cooking

slender lady palm
  • Specialized
9.0

A Chinese palm with thinner stems and leaves than the common lady palm

A tropical plant with large leaves and a dark red flower sheath grown for its edible underground stems or decoration

7.9

A tall palm tree from South America whose trunk gives wax for candles and polish

wine palm
  • Indian
8.6

A tall palm tree whose sweet liquid people make into a drink and sugar

Surface Forms

palm infinitive
palmed past
palmed past participle
palm-ing present participle
palms third person singular

Etymology

The verb palm comes from using your palm to hide or hold something out of view, like a magician hiding a card. So, to palm something is to secretly hold it in your hand.