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Synonyms

chum

1 American  
[chuhm] / tʃʌm /

noun

  1. a close or intimate companion.

    boyhood chums.

  2. Older Use. a roommate, as at college.

verb (used without object)

chummed, chumming

  1. to associate closely.

  2. Older Use. to share a room or rooms with another, especially in a dormitory at a college or prep school.

chum 2 American  
[chuhm] / tʃʌm /

noun

  1. cut or ground bait dumped into the water to attract fish to the area where one is fishing.

  2. fish refuse or scraps discarded by a cannery.

verb (used without object)

chummed, chumming

  1. to fish by attracting fish by dumping cut or ground bait into the water.

verb (used with object)

chummed, chumming

  1. to dump chum into (a body of water) so as to attract fish.

  2. to lure (fish) with chum.

    They chummed the fish with hamburger.
chum 3 American  
[chuhm] / tʃʌm /

noun

  1. chum salmon.

chum 1 British  
/ tʃʌm /

noun

  1. informal a close friend

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. to be or become an intimate friend (of)

  2. (tr) to accompany

    I'll chum you home
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
chum 2 British  
/ tʃʌm /

noun

  1. angling chopped fish, meal, etc, used as groundbait

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
chum 3 British  
/ tʃʊm /

noun

  1. a Pacific salmon, Oncorhynchus keta

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of chum1

First recorded in 1675–85; of uncertain origin

Origin of chum2

An Americanism dating back to 1855–60; of uncertain origin

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The team's findings, published in Ecology & Evolution, showed that anisakid levels increased in chum and pink salmon between 1979 and 2021.

From Science Daily • Apr. 1, 2026

A Harvard chum found him a job at the then-middling firm of William A. Read & Co.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025

When reporting out his story, I contacted Stern, the filmmaker and old prep school chum who made The Preppy Murder.

From Slate • Oct. 13, 2025

Chum - To join someone as a companion, as in "I'll chum you along".

From BBC • Jun. 25, 2025

The father of a chum had bought a vacuum cleaner factory and said it was a license to print money.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.