gum

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of various viscous substances that are exuded by certain plants and trees and dry into water-soluble, noncrystalline, brittle solids.
2. n. A similar plant exudate, such as a resin.
3. n. Any of various adhesives made from such exudates or other sticky substance.
4. n. A substance resembling the viscous substance exuded by certain plants, as in stickiness.
5. n. Any of various trees of the genera Eucalyptus, Liquidambar, or Nyssa that are sources of gum. Also called gum tree.
6. n. The wood of such a tree; gumwood.
7. n. Chewing gum.
8. v. To cover, smear, seal, fill, or fix in place with or as if with gum.
9. v. To exude or form gum.
10. v. To become sticky or clogged.
11. gum up To ruin or bungle: gum up the works.
12. n. The firm connective tissue covered by mucous membrane that envelops the alveolar arches of the jaw and surrounds the bases of the teeth. Also called gingiva.
13. v. To chew (food) with toothless gums.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The soft tissues, consisting of a vascular mucous membrane, subjacent dense connective tissue, and periosteum, which cover the alveolar parts of the upper and lower jaws and envelop the necks of the teeth.
2. n. Hence The edge of the jaw; the part of one of the jaws in which the teeth are set, or over which the tissues close after the loss of teeth: generally used in the plural: as, the toothless gums of old age.
3. n. plural The grinders; molars.
4. n. Insolent talk; “jaw”; insolence.
5. n. Same as gummer.
6. To use a gummer upon; gullet (a saw); widen the spaces between the teeth of (a worn saw) by punching or grinding.
7. n. A product of secretion obtained by desiccation from the sap of many plants. Gum, properly so called, includes such mucilaginous substances as are soluble either in cold water, as gum arabic, or in hot water, as cherry-gum, or soften into a thin viscid mass without true solution, as gum tragacanth. In popular use, however, many very different products are also called gums, as gum elemi and gum copal, which are true resins, gum ammoniacum, which is a gum-resin, and gum elastic (caoutchouc), which differs from all the others. The word includes various aromatic products used in perfumes, incense, etc. See the phrases below.
8. n. A form of dextrine produced by roasting starch: specifically called artificial or British gum.
9. n. One of various species of trees, especially of the genera Eucalyptus, of Australia, and Nyssa, of the United States. Of the Australian trees, the apple-scented gum is E. Stuartiana; the blue-gum, E. Globulus, etc. (see blue-gum); the cider-gum, E. Gunnii; the crimson-flowered. E. ficifolia; the flooded, E. decipiens, etc.; the fluted or gimlet, E. salubris; the giant, E. amygdalina; the green-barked, E. stellulata; the gray, E. crebra, etc.; the iron, E. Reveretiana; the lemon-scented, E. maculata; the manna, E. viminalis; the messmate, E. fissilis; the red, E. calophylla, E. rostrata, etc.; the salmon-barked, E. salmonopolia; the scarlet-flowered, E. miniata and E. phœnicia; the spotted or marbled, E. maculata, E. goniocalyx, etc.; the swamp, E. amygdalina, E. paniculata, etc.; the white, E. amygdalina; and the York gum, E. fœcunda. In the United States the black-gum or sour-gum is Nyssa sylvatica (see black-gum); the cotton- or tupelo-gum, N. uniflora; the sweet- or red-gum, Liquidambar Styraciflua. In the West Indies the doctor-gum is Rhus Metopium; the gum-tree of Jamaica, Sapium laurifolium, and of Dominica, Dacryodes hexandra. See cut under Eucalyptus.
10. n. Same as gumming
11. n. A bubble; a pimple. Compare red-gum, white-gum.
12. n. plural India-rubber overshoes: more commonly called rubbers.
13. n. A section of a hollow log or tree (usually a gum-tree) used to form a small well-curb, or to make a beehive. —
14. To smear with gum; unite, stiffen, or clog by gum or a gum-like substance.
15. To play a trick upon; humbug; hoodwink: said to be from the fact that opossums and racoons often elude hunters and dogs by hiding in the thick foliage of gum-trees.
16. To exude or form gum. See gumming
17. To become clogged or stiffened by some gummy substance, as inspissated oil: as, a machine will gum up from disuse.
18. n. The sorrel-tree, Oxydendrum arboreum.
19. n. The cider-gum or cider-tree, Eucalyptus Gunnii.
20. n. The water-tupelo (which see).
21. n. The sweet gum, Liquidambar Styraciflua.
22. n. The black- or sour-gum, Nyssa syivatica.

Wiktionary

1. n. often in the plural The flesh round the teeth.
2. v. To chew, especially of a toothless person or animal.
3. n. uncountable Any of various viscous or sticky substances that are exuded by certain plants.
4. n. uncountable Any viscous or sticky substance resembling those that are exuded by certain plants.
5. n. uncountable Chewing gum.
6. n. countable A single piece of chewing gum.
7. v. To apply an adhesive or gum to.
8. v. colloquial To impair the functioning of a thing or process.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The dense tissues which invest the teeth, and cover the adjacent parts of the jaws.
2. v. To deepen and enlarge the spaces between the teeth of (a worn saw). See gummer.
3. n. A vegetable secretion of many trees or plants that hardens when it exudes, but is soluble in water. Also, with less propriety, exudations that are not soluble in water.
4. n. (Bot.) See Gum tree, below.
5. n. Southern U. S. A hive made of a section of a hollow gum tree; hence, any roughly made hive; also, a vessel or bin made of a hollow log.
6. n. Local, U. S. A rubber overshoe.
7. v. To smear with gum; to close with gum; to unite or stiffen by gum or a gumlike substance; to make sticky with a gumlike substance.
8. v. To chew with the gums, rather than with the teeth.
9. v. To exude or form gum; to become gummy.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. wood or lumber from any of various gum trees especially the sweet gum
2. v. cover, fill, fix or smear with or as if with gum
3. n. any of various substances (soluble in water) that exude from certain plants; they are gelatinous when moist but harden on drying
4. n. cement consisting of a sticky substance that is used as an adhesive
5. n. the tissue (covered by mucous membrane) of the jaws that surrounds the bases of the teeth
6. n. any of various trees of the genera Eucalyptus or Liquidambar or Nyssa that are sources of gum
7. v. exude or form gum
8. n. a preparation (usually made of sweetened chicle) for chewing
9. v. grind with the gums; chew without teeth and with great difficulty
10. v. become sticky