on the lam
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
in hiding to avoid law enforcement
Literally: on the lamb
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
He escaped from prison thirty years ago and has been on the lam ever since.
Call me, same number, this evening with the details.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “on the lam” mean?
in hiding to avoid law enforcement Literally: on the lamb
Is “on the lam” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.