gum n.2
a euph. for God (almighty) and used in various phrs., esp. by gum!
 | implied in by gum! | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Ouachita Teleg. (Monroe, LA) 17 Sept. 1/6: I bedam if I can’t just whollip the pea-green stuffin’ out o’ the gum-dashed galoot. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Kipps (1952) 205: ‘O Gum!’ he protested. | |
| ‘Word-List From Eastern Maine’ in DN III:iii 243: dod gum, v. Mild form of God damn. | |
| Vanguard Library 31 Mar. 4: ‘Gum!’ gasped Billy. | |
| Psmith Journalist (1993) 221: Gum! you’ll need to. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Ulysses 405: Gum, I’m jiggered. |
In exclamations
a euph. excl. for by God!
| John Bull IV i: Six thousand, by gum! | |
| Bucktails (1847) II ii: By gum, that’s jist what I want you to tell me, I swow. [Ibid.] IV iii: Did you now, by gum – marry? | |
| ‘True Story’ Works (1862) I 311: But Hunks still ask’d to see the tooth, And swore by gum! he had not drawn it. | |
| Tom Bowling II v: It is – Henry Lanyard, by gums! | |
| Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) Sept. 21 n.p.: I won’t go to parties by gum. | |
| ‘Ar’nt This Rummy Fun?’ in Fun Alive O! 63: You shall not sit at home by gum, / All day idle on your ... | |
| Clockmaker III 200: Where on airth have I seen that goney, for seen him I have, by gum! | |
| ‘Mike Hooter’s Bar Story’ Spirit of the Times 26 Jan. (N.Y.) 581: If you don’t wabble off from thar purty soon, Misses Bar will be a widder, by gum! | |
| Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) II 151 : My gum, Billy ! [...] you’re as hard as nails! | |
| Season Ticket 275: By gum, Squire Shegog, we have had the greatest bobbery of a shindy in our carriage as you ever knowed all your born days. | |
| ‘Tom Kittle’s Wake’ in D’Costa & Lalla Voices in Exile (1989) 99: My gums! when I tink pon dat gal I don’ t know what fe say. | |
| Billy O’ Bent’s Berryin’ 7: By gum, Tom, drop it. | |
| Little Mr. Bouncer 22: What! You gave Blucher Boots the three five-pound notes? My gun, Giglamps! | |
| Savage London 384: By gom! yeow shew a good spirit yo yeowr baily fulla. | |
| County Paper (Oregon, MO) 15 Sept. 2/6: Exclamations as by gum [...] lack-a-daisy. Such words as obstropolous for obstreperous. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Workingman’s Paradise 29: ‘By gum!’ interjected Ned. ‘Those girls were hummers.’. | |
| Witchita Eagle (KS) 22 May 4/4: By gum, y’ought ter seen th’ mayor. | |
| Courier (Lincoln, NE) 2 Jan. 11/2: ‘No, by gummie, not half so purty’. | |
| Nocturnal Meeting 135: By gum, Ethel, you really have splendid legs. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 12 Feb. 4/7: ‘Gum,’ he said, ‘a dull paper this to pass a dull hour away with.’ Voicing the public opinion to an afifraphy. | |
| Wyoming (1908) 57: I made my getaway about three shakes too soon, by gum! | |
| ‘Never Let Your Braces Dangle’ 🎵 Over the roller then he went, by gum. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Dew & Mildew 238: ‘By Gum and by Gravy!’. | |
| Drovers (1977) 5: By gum, that Bob can ride. | |
| Penny Showman 41: By gum, Tom, you had a good sale old man. | |
| Ulysses 538: Gum, he’s a champion. | |
| Manhattan Transfer 403: By gum if I were a painter, maybe they’ll let me paint in the nuthouse. | |
| (con. 1900s–10s) 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 79: ‘By gum, I’ll do that,’ said Mac. | |
| Townsville Daily Bull. (Qld) 3 June 12/4: ‘Hullo, in a hurry, mate?’ yelled Steve. The podgy chap [...] yelled back over his shoulder ‘By goom, yes’. | |
| Right Ho, Jeeves 143: I had always thought it was just a thing you read in books. Like ‘Quotha!’ I mean to say, or ‘Odds bodikins!’ or even ‘Eh ba goom!’. | |
| Bluey & Curley 31 May [synd. cartoon strip] Ba goom, yes. | |
| diary 22 Oct. in To War With Whitaker (1994) 290: Ee, by goom I was in such a fuss. | |
| Otterbury Incident 64: And by gum the rustic did step up. | |
| Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 38: Went through the mangle he did, by gum, / Came out like linoleum. | |
| Owning Up (1974) 108: She’s got a fair pair of bristols and muscles like an Irish bluddy navvy. By gum she can go and all. | |
| Psychotic Reactions (1988) 125: Jerry runs wildly away [...] and by gum here comes another song! | |
| Rhyme Stew (1990) 24: By gum, I never would have guessed. | |
| Guardian Guide 22–28 May 52: The professional Northerner little Shit [...] enthuses about eeeh-by-gum brass bands. | |
| I, Fatty 144: By gum, he wanted me on celluloid. |