RAM  , a male

sheep, one kept for breeding purposes in domestication and not castrated, as opposed to the castrated " wether " (see SHEEP) . For the ram as one of the signs of the zodiac, see ARIES . The word may be connected with O.Nor. ramme, strong, or with Sansk. ram, to sport . The butting propensities of the ram have given rise to the many transferred senses of the word, chief and earliest of which is that of a battering implement used before the days of cannon for beating in the gates and breaching the walls of fortified places (see BATTERING RAM) . Many technical uses of the term have been developed from this, e.g. the weight of a pile-driving machine, the piston of a hydraulic press and other machines or portions of machines worked by water power (see HYDRAULICS) . The ancient war-vessels were fitted with a beak (Lat. rostrum, Gr . Erc,3o)tov), projecting from the bows, and used to ram or crush in the sides of an opposing vessel; for the development of this in the modern battleship, see SHIP .