Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Verb Phrase 141. The verb phrase today is to
clam up. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone clams up he or she
suddenly stops talking and refuses to speak anymore.
Okay. Let's look at the note here. This phrase alludes to ... again you know, it suggests, it
comes from... to the way a clam will close its shell tightly and keep it sealed,
especially for protection. Yeah. . So if you ever seen a clam and they closed that
show really tight and you know you'd practically need a tool in order to
break it or get it open, that's what we mean.
So the clam does that he closes he has the ability to close his shell tightly
and he of course he's doing it to protect himself. I guess in the same way
you don't want to say something because maybe the thing you say may hurt you or
harm you. So you're trying to you clam up you're trying to protect yourself by not
saying this, by not revealing this information. All right. So let's continue.
Let's look at several examples we have here. Example number one. When the police
brought that suspect in for questioning he just clammed up. Yeah. We see this in
the movies all the time. They bring someone in. They don't want to talk. Well
in the movies they always make it look easy. You know, maybe the police have some
dirt or something on this guy to try to make him talk. But sometimes they don't
in real life. A lot of times they don't. They just may clam up and they won't say
anything. They say nothing really in order to protect themselves. Okay. Let's
look at example number two here. When that mother asked her son what he was
doing when he cut classes, he just clammed up. So to cut classes ... so I guess
he wasn't going to school. He went somewhere else. He was doing something
else. He wasn't attending the school. The
mother ... the school probably informed the mother. So she knew that he wasn't
going to classes and she's saying well if you weren't going to classes, what we were doing ?
Where were you ? Why didn't you go ? And of course, he just went silent. He clammed up. He
refused to speak and say what he was doing. Okay. Let's look at number three
here. When they questioned that politician about his scandal he clammed
up and made an excuse to leave. So he clammed up. He just stopped in this case.
He's not completely not talking at all. He just will refuse to answer the
question. He clammed up and just made some excuse that he's got to go. He wants
to run away. He doesn't want to answer these questions. He wants to avoid them. Okay.
Anyway, this is perfect examples of how we would use it . I hope you got it . I
hope it's clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.