1500 (formerly 480) sheets of paper.

1. 1.1A large quantity of something, typically paper or writing on paper.
   ‘ reams of paper have been used to debate these questions’
   More example sentences

   • ‘But he also wrote reams of unpublished serious music.’
   • ‘I wrote reams of poetry in my sixth form days, as a lot of people do.’
   • ‘Meeting planners promise that all these new devices will liberate conference-goers from their social insecurities and the reams of paper that can attach themselves to attendees.’
   • ‘They're going to be holding reams of paper with every word I've ever written here printed out on them and they are going to accuse me of being a traitor and a terrorist.’
   • ‘The case contains reams of papers, including cuttings from England, Norway, Finland and Germany dating from 1936 to 1975.’
   • ‘From nature to human tragedies, the photographs tell tales reams of paper cannot.’
   • ‘It was a gripping photo that told the world more about the horrors of war than hours of talk or reams of paper ever could.’
   • ‘Operations can also be reviewed at any time ‘without having to go through reams of paper, ‘she adds.’’
   • ‘There are reams of research papers devoted to it.’
   • ‘This includes a handy option for printing multiple document pages on a single sheet of paper, so you can preview your finished results in miniature without wasting reams of paper.’
   • ‘English historians, for instance, have used the reams of paper generated by the courts that dealt with serious crimes.’
   • ‘Just as perplexing have been the mounting reams of academic papers examining her life and thought.’
   • ‘I spent the days, and some of the nights, of that summer feverishly filling reams of paper with formulas.’
   • ‘At first we were recycling reams and reams of paper but that has gone down as we are using less and using both sides.’
   • ‘We have handed over petitions - reams and reams of paper - and where has it got us?’
   • ‘For months I worked nonstop grinding out the detailed specification for the system - a monumental ream of paper going into incredible detail covering a gigantic object model and programming environment.’
   • ‘Because the boundary between work and life tends to be fuzzy anyway, it's easy to bring home some envelopes, a few stamps, and a ream of paper in case a ministry-related letter needs to go out quickly.’
   • ‘She took out her violin case and the ream of papers that was to be her and Brian's performance for John Cawthorne's little concert.’
   • ‘His desk, by contrast, had very few papers on it and some intuition told me that the slim ream of papers gathered orderly into a coherent pile meant something.’
   • ‘This necessitated that each campaigner maintain a ream of petitions, a separate sheet for each locality in the area.’
   Synonyms

   a large amount, a fair amount, a good deal, a great deal, a deal, a great quantity, quantities, an abundance, a wealth, a profusion, plenty, masses

1Widen (a bore or hole) with a special tool.

1. 1.1Widen a bore or hole in (a gun or other metal object) with a special tool.
   ‘After gun drilling, the rough bore must be reamed to establish the desired internal diameter and to improve surface finish.’
   More example sentences

   • ‘It can also be used in drilling, end milling and reaming applications.’
   • ‘Each of the six machines are capable of performing all of the necessary machining processes on each knuckle including milling, drilling, reaming and cutting all ball joint angles and tapers.’
   • ‘The frame and barrel are a single casting, which allows for easy manufacturing, but poses challenges to drilling, reaming and rifling.’
   • ‘The first honest to goodness minute-of-angle sporting rifle I ever owned was reamed to .300.’
   • ‘The only thing a framebuilder could do is build up some brass inside the end of the head tube and ream it out to the proper size.’
   • ‘Pete wanted something a little more elaborate and chose a custom rifle reamed to 7x57.’
   • ‘The .38 Super cartridge is larger in diameter than the .38 Special, so the first efforts involved reaming out the chamber area and making a sleeve that was silver soldered in place.’
   • ‘The remaining piece was then reamed out and a straight piece of barrel blank turned to fit and soldered in place.’
   • ‘The original chamber was simply reamed out about 0.10’ oversize and a steel sleeve silver soldered in place.’
2. 1.2North American Clear out or remove (material) from something.
   ‘Sounding rods were used before antibiotics to ream out a gonorrhoea-mangled urethra.’
   More example sentences

   • ‘After you have cut the pipe, use the special blade on the tubing cutter to ream out the ‘burr ‘on the inside of the newly cut pipe.’’
   • ‘He jumped up and reamed the glass shards out of the windowsill.’
   • ‘This rate is possible because reaming removes very little material.’
   • ‘The fluid jets clean the blades during the reaming operation and inject fluid into the formation to mix slurry and lubricate the equipment.’
   • ‘When we re-installed the outer wings, we reamed the taper hole to clean out the corrosion.’
   • ‘The dentist just completed an involved routine wherein one of my four favorite molars was reamed and repaired.’
   • ‘Ditching old equipment while making a tidy profit is classic Bell monopoly reaming.’
   • ‘The medullar canal was reamed, and an aluminum connecting piece was attached to the top of the tibia with screws and an epoxy resin.’
3. 1.3North American vulgar slang Have anal intercourse with (someone).
4. 1.4North American informal Rebuke someone fiercely.
   More example sentences

   • ‘the agent was reaming him out for walking away from the deal’
   • ‘I'm not saying Moore is above criticism either, I really reamed him out earlier this year when he endorsed Clark.’
   • ‘We didn't speak the entire way home and I just know he was about to explode and ream me a new one.’
   • ‘Too many times, we see a critic veer off the page to ream an author for the facts of his or her life.’
   • ‘Gloria entered Artie's office clutching her wounded arm, hoping it would buy her a little sympathy before he reamed her for her disappearance earlier that day.’
   • ‘Her mind reeled back an hour, to when she'd been standing in Rick's office as he reamed her a new one.’
   • ‘Against Syracuse, though, Cleaves had to ream Peterson at halftime for his reluctance to assert himself.’
   • ‘His wife would ream him good tonight when she found out he spent the afternoon at the track instead of the home improvement store.’
   • ‘He kissed me softly before he left and I was about to ream him a new one before I saw Jason standing at the foot of the stairs.’
   • ‘Of course, things were supposed to go on as normal for the next few hours until she could really ream him out.’
   • ‘She periodically gets up and goes into the next room and reams him out at top volume, while her obviously very fragile patient writhes on the couch.’
   Synonyms

   rebuke, reprimand, reproach, reprove, admonish, remonstrate with, chastise, chide, upbraid, take to task, pull up, castigate, lambast, read someone the Riot Act, give someone a piece of one's mind, go on at, haul over the coals, criticize, censure

Froth or overflow.