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Glite Dictionary
to dam up

to dam up

3 4.6
To stop the flow of water or feelings by building a wall
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : represar
  • To control the water supply, they decided to dam up the creek with large boulders.
  • dammed up the river
  • dam up the creek

Examples

  • Gatun Lake was created in 1913 when the Chagres River was closed off at its Atlantic outlet, while Alhajuela was created in 1934 by damming up the Madden River in the high, mountainous part of the country.

    Academic text (1993)

  • But there weren't any real visible waterfalls, except for the ones that Consumers' Power had already dammed up.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • ANGLE ON: A group of SOLDIERS carry beams to dam up the door to the ocean outside.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • A river is dammed up.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • During the day, the boys dammed up a creek that ran through the farm to make a swimming hole.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • In 1963, they dammed up the north branch to make Lake Pescadero.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Crew members have dammed up the end of the river, and Bunny fills it with a hose.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • In my country, most of the mid to large streams and rivers got dammed up and put to hydroelectrical production.

    Blog text (15)

  • The Corps of Engineers had dammed up the Tallahatchie River, and now the town of Como had a lake not five miles from the city limits.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Skirting any number of reservoir ponds that dammed up the valley, I threaded my way through narrow marshes.

    Fiction book (2002)

Synonyms

to clog up
vsto dam up
9 3.7

To block a drain or road so things cannot move through it

describes deliberate barrier use to stop flow rather than gradual buildup
to choke off
vsto dam up
6 6.4

To stop a supply by blocking its source or flow

focuses on a built barrier stopping water rather than blocking the source
to block up
vsto dam up
4 3.8

To stop movement through a road, pipe, or path

uses a constructed barrier to stop flow rather than generic blockage
to stop up
vsto dam up
1 4.6

Block a hole, pipe, or crack so nothing can pass through

involves a constructed barrier to stop flow rather than filling a passage
to dam
vsto dam up
1 1.8

To block a river or stream by building a barrier

is expressed as two words instead of a single word

Antonyms

to release
446 2.7

To allow a liquid, gas, or energy to flow out

to unblock
3 3.1

Remove something that stops a pipe, machine, or blood vessel from working

How Blocked

to dam up
3 4.6
to seal
457 2.5
to block
∞ 3.0
to obstruct
119 5.1
to restrict
361 3.1

Surface Forms

dam up infinitive
dammed up past
dammed up past participle
damming up present participle
dams up third person singular

Morphology

dam + up

This is a compositional verb formed from 'dam' (a barrier that blocks water) plus the particle 'up' which adds a sense of closing or completing the action; together they directly yield 'to block or obstruct the flow'. The meaning is predictable from the constituents and matches common complementation/causative patterns found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer it.

Etymology

The phrasal verb dam up comes from the picture of building a dam, a wall that stops water, so the stream piles up behind it. That's why it means 'to block' the flow of water or, by the same image, 'to hold back' feelings or other things.