tum

American  

[tuhm] / tʌm /

verb (used with object)

tummed, tumming

1. to tease (wool) in the preliminary carding operation, or to open out the fibers prior to carding.

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tum British  

/ tʌm /

noun

1. an informal or childish word for stomach

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Etymology

Origin of tum

First recorded in 1605–15; origin uncertain

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tum tumming

At my apartment door, I fumble for the key, insert it in the lock, open the door, tum on the hall light, and step inside.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 21, 2021

I order tum siew, a mixed papaya salad, with pad mee korat, a stir-fried rice noodle dish.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 15, 2016

Later, ponderously: “I feel like there should be an app that analyzes your tum and tells you what you want to eat.”

From Washington Post ● Nov. 5, 2015

If this new year finds you signing up to yet another overpriced gym membership and resolving, this time, to really get to grips with your muffin top tum, then don't – because you won't.

From The Guardian ● Dec. 31, 2010

Mr. Smith, who is kind of short and smells funny, wouldn’t let any of us tum on the radio as we rode around.

From "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky

Two banjos were tumming somewhere below, and the passengers hummed and sang to their tunes.

From The White Peacock by Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)

Again and again he sang to the tumming of a small tom-tom, till the great refulgent one had cleared the cloud, and the red miracle of the sunrise was complete.

From Rolf in the Woods by Seton, Ernest Thompson

Zounds, sir, there's an infernal banjo tum, tum, tumming in my ears every morning and I can't sleep.

From Memoirs of an American Prima Donna by Kellogg, Clara Louise

Nan got up instantly, held out one hand to Mrs. Willis and the other to Annie, and said, in her confident baby tones: 184 “Me tum; Annie tumming too.”

From A World of Girls The Story of a School by Meade, L. T.

He tottered off and, as I observed, after that so long as I stayed left the door of his room open down the hall so that he could hear my "tum, tum, tumming."

From Memoirs of an American Prima Donna by Kellogg, Clara Louise