🚢 A steam ship 🥘 A cooking pot 🦪 An edible clam

steamer

2 7.5

A small clam cooked in its shell with steam

noun
/ˈstiːmər/

: almeja blanda

At the seafood restaurant, we enjoyed delicious steamers served with melted butter.
steamer clams
a steamer trunk

Examples

This plate of steamers was fresh and great.

Blog text (12)
You eat steamers.

Small Time Crooks (2000)
"The day's delivery of steamer clams hadn't arrived yet, so I settled for the chowder and enjoyed a great view of the harbor."

Blog text (26)
"We'll hop over to Provincetown for the afternoon, take a walk along Commercial Street, and treat ourselves to steamers and lobsters on the wharf."

Fiction book (2000)
The unshucked soft clams were shipped to Fulton Market, seacoast resorts in New York and New Jersey, and local clambakes to be eaten as "steamers."

Academic text (1990)
To make the best chowder, start with fresh steamers and soak them in cold water.
The chef recommended trying the steamers because they are incredibly tender and flavorful.

Synonyms

clam

vssteamer

24 1.0

The edible meat from a shellfish that people cook and eat

is more specific, meaning clams often cooked by steaming in shell

shellfish

vssteamer

5 2.2

Meat from sea animals with a shell, like crab or clams

is narrower, referring only to clams often prepared by steaming

steamer clam

vssteamer

4.4

A soft clam often steamed and eaten in its shell

is the general term for clams especially cooked by steaming in shell

soft-shell clam

vssteamer

3.3

A small sea animal with a thin fragile shell that people eat

is used mainly for clams prepared by steaming rather than shell type

Mya arenaria

vssteamer

Specialized

9.1

An edible clam with a thin oval shell that lives on coasts and is called the soft-shell clam

is the cooking name for these clams rather than the species label

Compounds

tramp steamer

Archaic

1 8.6

A cargo ship that sails without a fixed route, carrying goods when available

Stanley Steamer

Archaic

1 9.9

A car that runs on steam made in the early 1900s

paddle steamer

Archaic

1 6.6

A boat that uses a steam engine and large paddle wheels to move

feed steamer

Archaic

9.9

A machine that uses steam to soften and warm animal feed before giving it to animals

rice steamer

1.7

An electric appliance that cooks rice by steaming or boiling

steamer clam

4.4

A soft clam often steamed and eaten in its shell

Surface Forms

steamer singular

steamers plural

Morphology

steamer = steam (semi-transparent) = steam + er

The word is built from steam + -er, but this sense is a specialized name for a clam rather than a fully productive everyday pattern.

Etymology

Steamer for the edible clam comes from steam meaning 'hot vapor' and the ending -er meaning 'something that'. So a steamer is a clam that is cooked by steaming in its shell.