subs. (old).—1. Chatter; talk; JAW (q.v.). Also abuse.
1751. SMOLLETT, Peregrine Pickle, ch. xiv. There’s no occasion to bowse out so much unnecessary GUM.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. Come, let us have no more of your GUM.
1824. R. B. PEAKE, Americans Abroad, i., 1. Dou. Come, none of your GUM—now you are but an underlin’, tho’ you are so uppish and twistical—where’s the chair?
2. (American).—A trick; a piece of dupery; a SELL (q.v.). Also GUMMATION.
3. (American).—A golosh; an india-rubber overshoe. [Short for ‘gum-shoes.’]
1872. Morning Post, 9 Jan. Forbidding him again to cross her threshold or to leave his GUM-SHOES in her hall.
1859. G. A. SALA, Twice Round the Clock, 6 P.M., par. I. I began to think either that he was quizzing me—‘GUMMING’ is the proper Transatlantic colloquialism, I think.
1875. American English, in Chambers’s Journal, 25 Sept., p. 611. To ‘gum-tree’ is to elude, to cheat [from opossum], and this again is shortened into ‘to gum,’ as the phrase, ‘Now don’t you try to GUM me.’
OLD MOTHER GUM, subs. phr. (common).—An old woman: in derision.
BY GUM! intj. (common).—A mild oath. For synonyms, see OATHS.
1860. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Season Ticket, No. ix. BY GUM, Squire Shegog, we have had the greatest bobbery of a shindy in our carriage you ever knowed in all our born days.
BLESS YOUR (or HIS, HER, ITS, etc.) GUMS, phr. (common).—A piece of banter: a facetious way of saying ‘Bless your soul!’
