dam up
B1 neutral separable transitive
In simple words
To stop something from flowing by blocking it — like building a wall across a river.
Literal meaning: To construct a dam so that something (water) is held up.
Meanings
1 B1 neutral
To block the flow of water by building or creating a barrier across a waterway.
"The beavers had dammed up the stream, creating a wide, shallow pond."
Grammar: separable
2 B2
idiomatic
neutral
To suppress or hold back emotions, preventing them from being expressed.
"Years of grief had been dammed up inside him, and the funeral finally broke through it."
Grammar: separable
Usage notes
The literal sense is used in engineering and environmental contexts. The figurative sense — damming up emotions — appears in literary and psychological writing, suggesting suppressed feelings that build up dangerously.
Commonly used with
river stream water emotions feelings grief
Forms
Base
dam up
I/you/we/they
3rd person
dams up
he/she/it
Past simple
damed up
yesterday
Past participle
damed up
have + pp
-ing form
daming up
continuous
Understand "dam up" better
Try:
Real video examples
Video examples are being collected. Check back soon.
Want to master this phrasal verb?
Practice "dam up" on Looplines