- to pour, to empty. Although this word has become obsolete in Standard English south of the border, it is still often used in Scots and some dialects of English. You can teem the tatties [potatoes], or, with a warning cry of gardyloo!, you can teem your chamberpot into the street as the citizens of Edinburgh used to do. Most commonly, though, it is used of that kind of downpour when the heavens seem to open and rain teems down.