The Collaborative International Dictionary
Gum \Gum\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Gummed (g[u^]md); p. pr. & vb. n. Gumming.]
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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. -
To chew with the gums, rather than with the teeth. gum up
To block or clog (a conduit) with or as if with gum; as, to gum up the drainpipe.
to interfere with; to spoil. [Slang]
Wiktionary
vb. 1 (context transitive English) To cause to be gooey or gummy, especially with the effect of obstructing the operation of some mechanism or process. 2 (context transitive idiomatic by extension English) To make non-functional; to interfere with or put into a state of disorder; to ruin.
WordNet
v. stick together as if with gum; "the inside of the pipe has gummed up"
Usage examples of "gum up".
These compounds, such as the sulphonamides, the quinolones, and the diaminopyrimidines, would gum up bacterial DNA itself, or break its strands, or destroy the template mechanism that reads from the DNA and helps to replicate it.
Klaus chewed and chewed the gum, hoping that the stickiness of the gum could gum up the works of the sawing machine, and stop the deadly progress of its blade.
The witness already had a resentment against her, and if she went in, pressed, it would only gum up the works.
The timer was digital, so there was no way to physically gum up the mechanism.
And the reason why his body did not waste away and his mind did not gum up was diabetes.