What is "gum"

Gum \Gum\, v. i. To exude or form gum; to become gummy.

Gum \Gum\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Gummed (g[u^]md); p. pr. & vb. n. Gumming.]

1. To smear with gum; to close with gum; to unite or stiffen by gum or a gumlike substance; to make sticky with a gumlike substance.

   He frets like a gummed velvet.
   --Shak.

2. To chew with the gums, rather than with the teeth. gum up

   1. To block or clog (a conduit) with or as if with gum; as, to gum up the drainpipe.

   2. to interfere with; to spoil. [Slang]

Gum \Gum\, v. t. To deepen and enlarge the spaces between the teeth of (a worn saw). See Gummer.

Gum \Gum\, n. [OE. gome, AS. gama palate; akin Co G. gaumen, OHG. goumo, guomo, Icel. g?mr, Sw. gom; cf. Gr. ? to gape.] The dense tissues which invest the teeth, and cover the adjacent parts of the jaws.

Gum rash (Med.), strophulus in a teething child; red gum.

Gum stick, a smooth hard substance for children to bite upon while teething.

Gum \Gum\, n. [OE. gomme, gumme, F. gomme, L. gummi and commis, fr. Gr. ?, prob. from an Egyptian form kam?; cf. It. gomma.]

1. A vegetable secretion of many trees or plants that hardens when it exudes, but is soluble in water; as, gum arabic; gum tragacanth; the gum of the cherry tree. Also, with less propriety, exudations that are not soluble in water; as, gum copal and gum sandarac, which are really resins.

2. (Bot.) See Gum tree, below.

3. A hive made of a section of a hollow gum tree; hence, any roughly made hive; also, a vessel or bin made of a hollow log. [Southern U. S.]

4. A rubber overshoe. [Local, U. S.]

   Black gum, Blue gum, British gum, etc. See under Black, Blue, etc.

   Gum Acaroidea, the resinous gum of the Australian grass tree ( Xanlhorrh[oe]a).

   Gum animal (Zo["o]l.), the galago of West Africa; -- so called because it feeds on gums. See Galago.

   Gum animi or anim['e]. See Anim['e].

   Gum arabic, a gum yielded mostly by several species of Acacia (chiefly A. vera and A. Arabica) growing in Africa and Southern Asia; -- called also gum acacia. East Indian gum arabic comes from a tree of the Orange family which bears the elephant apple.

   Gum butea, a gum yielded by the Indian plants Butea frondosa and B. superba, and used locally in tanning and in precipitating indigo.

   Gum cistus, a plant of the genus Cistus ( Cistus ladaniferus), a species of rock rose.

   Gum dragon. See Tragacanth.

   Gum elastic, Elastic gum. See Caoutchouc.

   Gum elemi. See Elemi.

   Gum juniper. See Sandarac.

   Gum kino. See under Kino.

   Gum lac. See Lac.

   Gum Ladanum, a fragrant gum yielded by several Oriental species of Cistus or rock rose.

   Gum passages, sap receptacles extending through the parenchyma of certain plants ( Amygdalace[ae], Cactace[ae], etc.), and affording passage for gum.

   Gum pot, a varnish maker's utensil for melting gum and mixing other ingredients.

   Gum resin, the milky juice of a plant solidified by exposure to air; one of certain inspissated saps, mixtures of, or having properties of, gum and resin; a resin containing more or less mucilaginous and gummy matter.

   Gum sandarac. See Sandarac.

   Gum Senegal, a gum similar to gum arabic, yielded by trees ( Acacia Verek and A. Adansoni["a]) growing in the Senegal country, West Africa.

   Gum tragacanth. See Tragacanth.

   Gum water, a solution of gum, esp. of gum arabic, in water.

   Gum wood, the wood of any gum tree, esp. the wood of the Eucalyptus piperita, of New South Wales.

"resin," c.1300, from Old French gome "(medicinal) gum, resin," from Late Latin gumma, from Latin gummi, from Greek kommi "gum," from Egyptian kemai. As a shortened form of chewing gum, first attested 1842 in American English. The gum tree (1670s) was so called for the resin it exudes.

"membranes of the mouth," Old English goma "palate, side of the mouth" (single or plural), from a Germanic source represented by Old Norse gomi "palate," Old High German goumo; related to Lithuanian gomurys "palate," and perhaps from PIE *gheu- "to yawn" (source also of Greek khaos; see chaos).

early 14c., gommen, "treat with (medicinal or aromatic) gums," from gum (n.1). In the transferred or figurative sense of "spoil, ruin" (usually with up), it is first recorded 1901, probably from the notion of machinery becoming clogged. Of infants, etc., "to chew or gnaw (something) with the gums," by 1907, from gum (n.2). Related: Gummed; gumming.\n\n

Etymology 1 n. (context often in the plural English) The flesh round the teeth. vb. 1 To chew, especially of a toothless person or animal. 2 (context transitive English) To deepen and enlarge the spaces between the teeth of (a worn saw), as with a gummer. Etymology 2

n. 1 (context uncountable English) Any of various viscous or sticky substances that are exuded by certain plants. 2 (context uncountable English) Any viscous or sticky substance resembling those that are exuded by certain plants. 3 (context uncountable English) chewing gum. 4 (context countable English) A single piece of chewing gum. 5 (context US dialect Southern US English) A hive made of a section of a hollow gum tree; hence, any roughly made hive. 6 (context US dialect Southern US English) A vessel or bin made from a hollow log. 7 (context US dialect English) A rubber overshoe. vb. 1 {{context|sometimes with (term up English)|lang=en}} To apply an adhesive or gum to; to make sticky by applying a sticky substance to. 2 To stiffen with glue or gum. 3 {{context|colloquial|with (term up English)|lang=en}} To impair the functioning of a thing or process.

1. v. grind with the gums; chew without teeth and with great difficulty; "the old man had no teeth left and mumbled his food" [syn: mumble]

2. exude or form gum; "these trees gum in the Spring"

3. [also: gumming, gummed]

1. n. a preparation (usually made of sweetened chicle) for chewing [syn: chewing gum]

2. the tissue (covered by mucous membrane) of the jaws that surrounds the bases of the teeth [syn: gingiva]

3. any of various substances (soluble in water) that exude from certain plants; they are gelatinous when moist but harden on drying

4. cement consisting of a sticky substance that is used as an adhesive [syn: glue, mucilage]

5. wood or lumber from any of various gum trees especially the sweet gum [syn: gumwood]

6. any of various trees of the genera Eucalyptus or Liquidambar or Nyssa that are sources of gum [syn: gum tree]

7. [also: gumming, gummed]

Gum or GUM may refer to:

Welington Pereira Rodrigues (born 4 January 1986), commonly known as Gum, is a Brazilian footballer who plays for Fluminense as a central defender.

Gum is a sap or other resinous material associated with certain species of the plant kingdom. This material is often polysaccharide-based and most frequently is associated with woody plants, particularly under the bark or as a seed coating. The polysaccharide material is typically of high molecular weight and most often highly hydrophilic or hydrocolloidal.

GUM (, pronounced , an abbreviation of literally "main universal store") is the name of the main department store in many cities of the former Soviet Union, known as State Department Store during the Soviet times. Similarly named stores were found in some Soviet republics and post-Soviet states. The most famous GUM is the large store in the Kitai-gorod part of Moscow facing Red Square. It is currently a shopping mall. Prior to the 1920s, the location was known as the Upper Trading Rows . Nearby, facing The Bolshoi Theatre, is a building very similar to GUM, known formerly as the Middle Trading Rows, now the Central Universal Department Store . It is about the same size as a large North American shopping mall. It has a glass roof.

Gum is a lunar crater that is located near the southeastern limb of the Moon, and is viewed nearly from the side from Earth. It lies along the western edge of the irregular Mare Australe, to the northeast of the crater Hamilton. To the north-northwest is the larger Abel, and to the east-southeast on the far side of the Moon is Jenner.

The interior floor of this crater has been completely resurfaced by lava that has entered through a break in the eastern rim. The surviving rim forms a shallow, arcing ridge about the interior. A small flooded crater lies across the southeast rim, and the remains of a small crater form an incision along the northeastern rim. The interior floor has the same low albedo as the lunar mare to the east, and is marked only by a few small craterlets.