ham sandwich
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: ham sandwiches
form: hamsandwich
form: ham-sandwich
Senses: examples: text: The most curious volcano of the district is the Puy Chopine, a dome rising from a crater of scoria composed of granite rocks enclosed, like a slice of ham sandwich, between a layer of basalt and a layer of trachyte.
ref: 1890, Augustus J[ohn] C[uthbert] Hare, South-Eastern France, London: George Allen, […], page 224:
text: Muttsen looked at Eva and Eva looked at Muttsen—and Eva did not cry out, Eva slept gently—Eva ate a little sausage—a piece of ham sandwich, for her supper—Eva ate it all up; […]
ref: 1919, H. von Hug-Hellmuth, translated by James J[ackson] Putnam and Mabel Stevens, A Study of the Mental Life of the Child (Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph Series; 29), Washington, D.C.: Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing Company, page 143:
text: But then I became aware of a noise which at first I attributed to National Health teeth having a tussle with a tough piece of ham sandwich.
ref: 1970 April, Railway World, page 164:
text: For example, two subjects both chewed 13 times for a standard piece of ham sandwich; […]
ref: 1978, G[eorge] Neil Jenkins, The Physiology and Biochemistry of the Mouth, 4th edition, Oxford, Oxon: Blackwell Scientific Publications, →ISBN, page 525:
text: In the mouth, the piece of ham sandwich is mechanically broken down by chewing with teeth.
ref: 1984, Kormondy Essenfeld, Tests for Addison-Wesley Biology, Menlo Park, Calif.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, →ISBN:
text: Over the years I have caught fish that had cockle burrs, a piece of ham sandwich, twigs, mice, frogs, even a baby bird.
ref: 1986 January 30, Swen, “Something’s new under the sun”, in The Times-News, 81st year, number 30, Twin Falls, Ida., page D-5, column 3:
text: He was slowly turning a deep reddish-blue, so I quickly pulled him to his feet and prepared to perform the Heimlich maneuver to dislodge the piece of ham sandwich that must have stuck in his throat.
ref: 1993 March, Bill Sharp, “The Belt Tightens”, in HP Professional, volume 7, number 3, page 10:
text: “Hell, that’s practically the Stone Age,” Applegate commented with a laugh, then crammed the last piece of ham sandwich into his mouth and chewed contemplatively before adding, “I can promise you what we have in store will knock your socks off.”
ref: 1994, David Alexander, Bandit, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 41:
text: Maybelline tore off another piece of ham sandwich and fed it to me.
ref: 2015, Spencer Quinn [pseudonym; Peter Abrahams], Woof (a Bowser and Birdie novel), New York, N.Y.: Scholastic Inc., published 2016, →ISBN, page 179:
glosses: A sandwich made with ham.
examples: text: but did you ever hear of a young man, who becomes a millionaire in the approved style, starting life on a farm, studying by the light of a tallow dip, and coming to the city with forty-five cents and a ham sandwich
ref: 1900, Charles A. Conant, “The Financial Future of the United States”, in The Bankers magazine, volume 61, page 603:
text: One of last year's speakers, in distinguishing types of true research worth while from investigations unworthy of the name, held up to ridicule a hypothetical investigation of a ham sandwich and the pseudo-scientist who would attempt a monographic treatment of such a subject.
ref: 1920 April 15, Dr. Albert F. Blakeslee, “letter on Sexuality in Mucors”, in Science, page 375:
text: But regardless of how enamored you may be of Green's manner and his potential, it has to come as a shock to you that he's the starter. A month ago you could have had him for a ham sandwich
ref: 1998 September 15, Tony Kornheiser, “Up for the Game, Down for the Count”, in Washington Post:
text: After all, nothing is better than eternal happiness, and a ham sandwich is certainly better than nothing. Therefore a ham sandwich is better than eternal happiness.
ref: 2004, David J. Darling, The universal book of mathematics: from Abracadabra to Zeno's paradoxes, page 106:
text: Even without the typing bit, the grand jury indicted her; one has to keep that in mind. / This was the Cold War, and we always remember the old line for prosecutors that you can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.
ref: 2008 September 15, “Jury Papers Cast Doubt On Rosenberg Conviction”, in Talk of the Nation (NPR):
text: It's sports-car fast, has a big leather-trimmed interior, and costs as much as a ham sandwich.
ref: 2009 June, Ezra Dyer, “The Car That Should Save GM”, in Esquire, volume 151, number 6, page 28:
glosses: Something utterly commonplace, of modest value.
glosses: A vulva.
Derived terms: ham sandwich theorem
indict a ham sandwich