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gum

Pronunciation: /ɡʌm/

The English word “gum” has 16 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. The flesh around the teeth.
  2. A viscous water-soluble carbohydrate exudate of certain plants that hardens when it becomes dry, or such a substance as a component of a plant exudate.
  3. Any viscous or sticky substance resembling the true gum.
  4. Chewing gum.
  5. A single piece of chewing gum.
  6. A gummi candy.
  7. A hive made of a section of a hollow gum tree; hence, any roughly made hive.
  8. A vessel or bin made from a hollow log.
  9. A rubber overshoe.
  10. A gum tree.

verb

  1. To chew, especially of a toothless person or animal.
  2. To deepen and enlarge the spaces between the teeth of (a worn saw), as with a gummer.
  3. To apply an adhesive or gum to; to make sticky by applying a sticky substance to.
  4. To stiffen with glue or gum.
  5. To inelegantly attach into a sequence.
  6. To impair the functioning of a thing or process.

Etymology

From Middle English gom, gome, gomme, goome, gum, gume, gumme, from Old English gōma (“palate”), from Proto-West Germanic *gōmō, from Proto-Germanic *gaumô, *gōmô (“palate”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₂- (“to gape, yawn”). Cognates Cognate with Cimbrian gaumo (“palate”), German Gaum, Gaumen (“palate”), Luxembourgish Gomm, Gumm (“palate”), Yiddish גומען (gumen, “palate”), Danish gumme…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.