chum

Noun

chum (plural chums)

1. A friend; a pal.

   I ran into an old chum from school the other day.

2. (dated) A roommate, especially in a college or university.
   • 1856 in The Knickerbocker: Or, New-York Monthly Magazine

     Field had a 'chum,' or room-mate, whose visage was suggestive to the 'Sophs;' it invited experiment; it held out opportunity for their peculiar deviltry.

Verb

chum (third-person singular simple present chums, present participle chumming, simple past and past participle chummed)

1. (intransitive) To share rooms with someone; to live together.
   • 1899 Clyde Bowman Furst, A Group of Old Authors

     Henry Wotton and John Donne began to be friends when, as boys, they chummed together at Oxford, where Donne had gone at the age of twelve years.

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well.

2. (transitive) To lodge (somebody) with another person or people.
3. (intransitive) To make friends; to socialize.
   • 1902 Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

     "I was not surprised to see somebody sitting aft, on the deck, with his legs dangling over the mud. You see I rather chummed with the few mechanics there were in that station, whom the other pilgrims naturally despised -- on account of their imperfect manners, I suppose. This was the foreman -- a boiler-maker by trade -- a good worker...

   • 1902 Ernest William Hornung, The Amateur Cracksman

     "You'll make yourself disliked on board!"

     "By von Heumann merely."

     "But is that wise when he's the man we've got to diddle?"

     "The wisest thing I ever did. To have chummed up with him would have been fatal -- the common dodge."

4. (transitive, Scotland, informal) To accompany.

   I'll chum you down to the shops.

Noun

chum (uncountable)

1. (fishing) A mixture of (frequently rancid) fish parts and blood, dumped into the water to attract predator fish, such as sharks.

Verb

chum (third-person singular simple present chums, present participle chumming, simple past and past participle chummed)

1. (fishing) To cast chum into the water to attract fish.
   • 1996 Frank Sargeant, The Reef Fishing Book: A Complete Anglers Guide

     Small live baitfish are effective, and they will take bits of fresh cut fish when chummed strongly.

Synonyms

• (boyfriend): petit ami, ami de cœur, fiancé (dated), conjoint
• (friend): copain, ami

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xuːmˠ/, /xʊmˠ/

Verb

chum

1. past indicative analytic of cum

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /xʊnˠ/

Preposition

chum (plus genitive, triggers no mutation)

1. Obsolete spelling of chun

See also

• lu