Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To smudge or smear.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To understand; consider; distinguish.
  • To smear, as with anything sticky.
  • To handle clumsily; paw.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun dialectal, UK attention, understanding
  • verb dialectal To understand; distinguish; consider
  • verb dialectal, transitive To pay attention to; take note of; notice
  • verb dialectal To fear
  • verb dialectal, Northern England To handle improperly
  • verb dialectal To smear; maul

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps alteration of obsolete gome, grease, variant of coom, soot, mixture of dirt and axle grease, variant of culm.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English (dialectal) gome, from Old Norse gaumr, gaum ("heed, attention"), from Proto-Germanic *gaumō (“attention”).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English *gomen, from the noun. See above.

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Examples

Comments

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  • (v.) to stare vapidly

    October 6, 2008

  • See also gorm, gawm.

    May 24, 2016