A gum tree, or its trunk when cut down.
1817. Any portion so cut off is called a gum, a name probably arising from the almost exclusive application of the gum tree to these purposes.—J. Bradbury, ‘Travels in America,’ p. 286 n. (N.E.D.)
1836. A chap just about as rough hewn as if he had been cut out of a gum log with a broad axe, and sent into the market without even being smoothed off with a jack plane.—‘Col. Crockett in Texas,’ pp. 81–2 (Phila.).
1836. I’m shaggy as a bear, wolfish about the head, active as a cougar, and can grin like a hyena, until the bark will curl off a gum log.—Id., p. 186.
1845. I then got in among the bushes, and made a thorough change in my dress, taking care to hide the old clothes in the hollow of a gum.—W. G. Simms, ‘The Wigwam and the Cabin,’ p. 103 (Lond.).
