cumshaw
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of cumshaw
1810–20; < dialectal Chinese (Xiamen) kam siā, equivalent to Chinese gân xiè grateful thanks
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.
Cumshaw, kum′shaw, n. a gift, a tip.
From Project Gutenberg
On the basis of files fed to them by at least one disgruntled former assistant to Dodd, they charged that the white-haired, square-jawed former FBI agent accepted a concatenation of cumshaw from all manner of individuals and companies seeking official favors from him.
From Time Magazine Archive
Yet Senior Chief Petty Officer Bernard G. Feddersen, 35, of the Seabees, is renowned from Danang to the Delta as the sharpest cumshaw artist in all Southeast Asia.
From Time Magazine Archive
He also throws in plenty of "snivel"�the cumshaw artist's constant con talk.
From Time Magazine Archive
His career had been built on his crusading efforts to prove that the union's entrenched leadership had for years been a party to "sweetheart" contracts and other schemes to hold down rank-and-file wages in exchange for cumshaw from grateful contractors.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
