gum v.2
1. (US) to mess up, to spoil.
 | Yale Fun 27: The plot that was gummed [DA]. | |
| Rabid Rudolph 4 Dec. [synd. col.] Nap got his name in the papers without every booting a field goal or gumming a forward pass. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | N-Y Tribune 22 Jan. 9/3: They rushed me out, so as I wouldn’t ‘gum the show’. | |
| Fighting Blood 208: When I stepped in and gummed up Rags Dempster’s plans. | |
| (con. 1917–18) War Bugs 47: The attack he nearly gummed up came off that morning. | |
| Hungry Men 62: Those old smoke belches from the Bowery are gumming it up. | |
| Lady in the Lake (1952) 51: Don’t use it [i.e. alcohol] myself. Never could understand folks letting themselves get gummed up with it. | |
| Dead Ringer 141: Maybe you think by tossing away the eights to draw to your bullets, you gummed my draw. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | No Sunlight Singing (1966) 23: That’s why that blue I had nearly gummed it up. | |
| World’s Toughest Prison 802: gum—To spoil; to interfere with; to upset a plan or arrangement. |
2. to talk nonsense.
| ‘Johns Hopkins Jargon’ in AS VII:5 332: gum—v.—to talk nonsense. | |
| Another Mug for the Bier 46: The he-gossips at the Press Club have been gumming about another romance of Courtney Mandrel’s. | |
| Mad mag. Jan.–Feb. 48: I don’t want to double-O what Brutus gummed. |
3. (US Black) to confess a crime.
| Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 8 Feb. 7/1: The law [...] lowered the boom on him [...] in the domicile of many slammers until he gummed. |
In compounds
(US) an idiot.
| ‘Johnny Slice’s Stoolie’ in Deadly Streets (1983) 80: Man, was he soft in the head! A real gumbrain. | |
| (con. 1958) Been Down So Long (1972) 41: They ain’t your problems, gumbook. | |
| Jack in the Box 203: I’m alone with these two gum-heads. |
In phrases
to spoil.
| Varmint 142: Well, he’s rotten. He gums the whole show. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Over the Top ‘Tommy’s Dict. of the Trenches’ 294: ‘Gumming the game.’ Spoiling anything, interfering. | |
| Leave it to Psmith (1993) 494: Only this afternoon my jinx gummed the game for me and threw a spanner into the prettiest little scenario. | |
| ‘Fly Paper’ Story Omnibus (1966) 52: I wouldn’t gum Joe’s play with her. | |
| Rap Sheet 188: I didn’t want to take no chances of gumming their play by getting nose trouble over something that wasn’t my business. | |
| Jeeves in the Offing 88: [I shall be] ready to pop out and gum the game. |
to make a mess, to cause an obstruction.
| Me – Gangster 200: The get-away has gotta depend on our not gummin’ the works. | |
| ‘Bird in the Hand’ in Goulart (1967) 273: That’s where you’ve always gummed the works before. | |
| (con. 1920s) Big Money in USA (1966) 1066: You’re not going to try to gum up the game when I’ve got the biggest break I ever had in my life. | |
| You’re in the Racket, Too 53: What are the waste materials, exactly, that you want me to buy and what price should I offer? I will have to straighten all that out or I will gum up the works. | |
| High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 313: He’s got no business in a big-time job like this and he may gum the works. | |
| Loving (1978) 120: Why you’d gum up the whole works. | |
| Benny Muscles In (2004) 218: It also looked as if he was going to gum the works. | |
| Black Cargo 157: It isn’t wharfies and railwaymen who gum up the works. | |
| Riot (1967) 101: A rumble with Fletcher could gum-up the works. | |
| Outcasts of Foolgarah (1975) 228: [He] put the kibosh on their conspiracy to gum up the inner workings. | |
| (con. 1949) Big Blowdown (1999) 232: You don’t want to be gumming things up or yourself at this stage in the game. | |
| Special Providence 190: [...] the opportunities it gives for recalcitrant senators to gum up the works of the executive machine. | |
| (con. 1954) Tomato Can Comeback [ebook] Stick to your newspaper stories, and quit tryin’ to gum up the works. | |
| (con. 1963) November Road 251: [S]he wouldn’t want to gum up the works. |