gum up

British  

verb

1. to cover, dab, or stiffen with gum

2. informal to make a mess of; bungle (often in the phrase gum up the works )

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gum up Idioms  

1. Ruin or bungle something, as in The front office has gummed up the sales campaign thoroughly. This idiom is also put as gum up the works, as in John's changes in procedures have gummed up the works in the shipping department. [Slang; c. 1900]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gum up

Big banks’ profit engines are humming along even as geopolitics keep threatening to gum up the works.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026

There are three specific cases, however, where changing course halfway through does gum up the works, and you’re better off leaving things as they are, the experts say.

From MarketWatch ● Mar. 23, 2026

Although it doesn’t gum up the works, why keep Harpagon as a male character, for example, and make Cleante a female one?

From New York Times ● May 3, 2024

Such incidents will cause “ingress/egress issues for some communities” and potentially gum up or dam rivers with debris.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 31, 2024

Meryl Lee and Mai Thi and I decided that we should find better ways to help Danny than putting gum up our noses.

From "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt

Related Words

• bungle