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View synonyms for chum

chum

1

[ chuhm ]

noun

  1. a close or intimate companion:

    boyhood chums.

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


verb (used without object)

, chummed, chum·ming.
  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

[ chuhm ]

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, chum·ming.
  1. to fish by attracting fish by dumping cut or ground bait into the water.

verb (used with object)

, chummed, chum·ming.
  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

[ chuhm ]

chum

1

/ 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. intrusually foll byup with 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

/ 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

/ 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
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Word History and Origins

Origin of chum1

First recorded in 1675–85; of uncertain origin

Origin of chum2

An Americanism dating back to 1855–60; of uncertain origin
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Word History and Origins

Origin of chum1

C17 (meaning: a person sharing rooms with another): probably shortened from chamber fellow, originally student slang (Oxford); compare crony

Origin of chum2

C19: origin uncertain

Origin of chum3

from Chinook Jargon tsum spots, marks, from Chinook
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Example Sentences

I convinced my friend Maggie, a college chum and fellow writer, to join me.

During the past few months, Microsoft Exchange servers have been like chum in a shark-feeding frenzy.

He trained a $17,000 horse he dubbed “The Fish” for his wavy thinness, the 1998 near-Triple Crown winner Real Quiet, for the chum who helped him into thoroughbreds, the McDonald’s-franchises owner Mike Pegram.

Orphaned by the time she was 12, Eleanor had been long told that she was homely and plain but school chums knew her as a caring girl with a sharp mind.

The difference is that options trading has a starker win-lose dynamic, one where amateurs are chum for the veterans.

From Fortune

Those people will dial up their old chum at the Senator's office and demand to know why the Medicare actuaries want them to die.

When a chum updates his status, a little yellow badge in the edge alerts you.

The control, the power, the ownership of the show, all resided with others, including his old chum Fuller.

The most entertaining of the latter came from John Culver, a former senator from Iowa and a college chum of Kennedy's.

Bobby attended this institution of learning with his particular chum and the boys had no end of good times.

The formula for the date of its foundation in 1636 may be thus expressed—Harvard College founded; the chum age .

On the broken porch of the abandoned house Amy stopped and waited for her chum to overtake her.

Her chum leaned against the door jamb while peal after peal of laughter shook her.

Her chum came leaping up the hill behind her, having moored the canoe with one hitch.

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