chum

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (1)  · 
Perhaps we'll take you up, though my chum is against running in debt a cent.

View all »
Definitions (23)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (8)

  1. noun An intimate friend or companion.
  2. intransitive verb To be an intimate friend.
  3. intransitive verb To display good-natured friendliness: chummed around with the other teammates.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (9)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • It was Chiz's poker-playing chum, and his ship was making heavy weather of it. —  The U-boat hunters
  • Hal had seen active service on this island, and now his chum was about to do the same thing. —  Uncle Sam's Boys in the Philippines or, Following the Flag against the Moros
  • I reckon he went on t'other side to keep me from killin' him Dan shrank away from the giant with horror; but next day the mountaineer saved the boy's life in a fight in which Dan's chum--gallant little Tom Morgan--lost his; and that night, as Dan lay sleepless and crying in his blanket, Jerry Dillon came in from guard-duty and lay down by him I'm goin' to take keer o' you I don't need you," said Dan, gruffly, and Rebel Jerry grunted, turned over on his side and went to sleep. —  The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come
  • Jimmie had only time to utter a single word of caution before he saw that his chum was slipping With a cry Dave tried to regain his lost balance. —  Boy Scouts Mysterious Signal or Perils of the Black Bear Patrol
  • Captain Holley sent Newbert to the bench and called Twitt Crowell forth to take his place CHAPTER XXIX PHIL GETS HIS EYES OPEN Too bad little Herbie Rackliff isn't here to witness the fate of his chum, the wonderful pitcher from Boston," laughed Jack Nelson Where is Rackliff?" —  Rival Pitchers of Oakdale
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 129 times.

On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

classmate ·  sweetheart ·  playmate ·  crony ·  buddy ·  roommate ·  pal ·  comrade ·  confidant ·  colleague ·  mentor ·  shipmate

Used in the same contextWord Family

chum:   chums
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (7)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Perhaps short for chamber fellow, roommate.
  2. Origin unknown.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (5)

  1. Origin unknown. Dr. Johnson calls it “a term used in the universities”; perhaps slang.
  2. from chum, n.
  3. Origin obscure.
  4. Cf. chump, chunk, chuck; the sense agrees with chuck, 5.
  5. apparently a native Samoyed name.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »

/tʃəm/
by American Heritage

Charts

frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about once a week.

Recently looked up

pancake · reforestation · erst · apple · mtv

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich