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  1. mum love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Not verbalizing; silent.
  2. interj. Used as a command to stop speaking.
  3. idiom. mum's the word Say nothing of the secret you know: Mum's the word on the surprise party.
  4. v. To act or play in a pantomime.
  5. v. To go merrymaking in a mask or disguise especially during a festival.
  6. n. Chiefly British Mother.
  7. n. A chrysanthemum.
  8. n. A strong beer originally brewed in Brunswick, Germany.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Silent.
  2. To be silent; keep silence.
  3. To mask; sport or make diversion in a mask: as, to go a mumming.
  4. n. A strong ale popular in the seventeenth century and in use down to a later time. It seems to have been made from wheat-malt, with a certain amount of oat-malt, and flavored with various herbs, with sometimes the addition of eggs.
  5. n. A dialectal variant of ma'am for madam.

Wiktionary

  1. n. chiefly UK, informal Mother.
  2. n. dated A term of respect for an older woman.
  3. n. A chrysanthemum.
  4. n. A sort of strong beer, originally made in Brunswick, Germany.
  5. adj. colloquial silent.
  6. adj. colloquial secret.
  7. interj. stop speaking!
  8. v. to act in a pantomime or dumb show

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Silent; not speaking.
  2. interj. Be silent! Hush!
  3. n. rare Silence.
  4. n. A sort of strong beer, originally made in Brunswick, Germany.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. secrecy.
  2. adj. failing to speak or communicate etc when expected to
  3. n. of China
  4. n. informal terms for a mother

Etymologies

  1. From Middle English mum or mom ("silent"), reminiscent of the sound made when gagged or with a hand over one's mouth. Perhaps related to German Mumme ("mask"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English, perhaps imitative of closing one's lips.Middle English mummen, from Old French momer, to wear a mask.Short for mummy2.German Mumme. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “We came back to mine for a while and mum didn't mind that she was here. she was actually really nice and asked her about her exams and things, it was good. .mum even invited her to stay for dinner!!! but she had to go home, her own parents were expecting her home .... i missed her as oon as she left.”

    fragile-liar Diary Entry

  • “Start preparing your script to respond to the ’strained’ greetings you will receive from mum & dad when you are next home nothing guarantees that a post WILL be read more than an imperative “Please don’t read this link mum& dad”, in any case superfluous since its content is divulged in subsequent responses – and you told us they recommended your blog to their friends!”

    the superficial

  • “The only thing I sometimes pinch off my mum is her turn of phrase.”

    An interview with Helen Fielding by Ashton Applewhite

  • “That's so weird, saying Ilona i mean ... my mum is the other Ilona that commented.”

    Interview: Ilona Andrews

  • “It was called posh at school cause my mum is a pom.”

    Archive 2006-05-01

  • “July 10th, 2009 4: 33 pm ET someone has found a huge skeleton in a closet, and it has a lot interesting things spilling out of its 'pockets, "mum" is the word ..”

    Burris not running for a full Senate term

  • “I write a bloomin 'videogame blog that aims to elevate the medium above the general level of “Hey, fuck you, my mum is a classy lady” Xbox live discourse which, I occasionally suspect, may be a noble yet Sisyphean effort.”

    Going Gonzo

  • “Until now, Emma had decided to remain mum about where she was going to college.”

    Emma Watson Begins Studies At Brown University

  • “Ok my mum is not in ICU (hope she's ok), but I've just my first kidney stone in 10 years blasted this week in a lithotripter, now the fun of having the little darlins coming out, christ it hurts!”

    Bibliophile Bullpen

  • “Brydon's mum is a seamstress, so yeah, his clothes would be functional, but pretty.”

    Cover Art

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synonyms (3)

Words with the same meaning

  1. silent
  1. silence
  1. act

equivalents (2)

Other words for ‘mum’

  1. incommunicative
  1. uncommunicative

hypernyms (6)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. silence
  1. secrecy
  1. secretiveness
  1. chrysanthemum
  1. mother
  1. female parent

same context (4)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. dad
  1. no-one
  1. phil
  1. well

rhymes (41)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Brum
  2. Krum
  3. alum
  4. become
  5. brum
  6. bum
  7. chum
  8. clum
  1. come
  2. crum
  3. crumb
  4. cum
  5. drum
  6. dum
  7. dumb
  8. from
  1. frum
  2. glum
  3. grum
  4. gum
  5. hum
  6. lum
  7. mumm
  8. mumme
  1. numb
  2. plum
  3. plumb
  4. rum
  5. scum
  6. slum
  7. some
  8. strum
  1. stum
  2. succumb
  3. sum
  4. swum
  5. thum
  6. thumb
  7. um
  8. umm
  1. yum

reverse dictionary (6)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. mom
  1. mumm
  1. mummachog
  1. mumme
  1. mum
  1. mum-house

tags (5)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. British
  1. palindrome
  1. weirdnet
  1. mother
  1. parent

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Word visualization

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘mum’.

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Comments

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  • hernesheir
    -- A History of Agriculture and Prices in England from the Year after the Oxford Parliament (1259) to the Commencement of the Continental War (1793), Arthur George Liddon Rogers, ed., 1887, p.749. Jan 30, 2013

  • jodi IrE; for AmE generally use mom instead. Apr 5, 2011

  • Jason Foster Used as a term of respect, similar to "ma'am," though applicable to either men or women in certain Southern U.S. dialects (e.g. "Yes, mum"). Dec 22, 2009

  • missanthropist A kind of strong sweet beer... supposed to have been first brewed by Christin Mumme of Brunswick in 1489. We are informed that the exclamation mum! mum! is used to express satisfaction with good liquor, and the expression of admiration might easily be taken as the name of the liquor which excited the feeling... In the same way it may be conjectured that the liqueur, mentioned by our older dramatists under the name of hum, took it s name from the hum which in this country was a recognized expression of approbation.
    Hensleigh Wedgwood, Dictionary of English Etymology, 1878 Feb 4, 2009

  • yarb Citation on blue devils. Sep 11, 2008

  • reesetee I'd have to break my contract with uselessness first. ;-) Dec 2, 2007

  • sonofgroucho Have you pair ever thought of forming a comedy double act? Dec 2, 2007

  • reesetee It certainly does. Chinese is all Greek to me. Dec 2, 2007

  • bilby Now we know. WeirdNET's mother was Chinese. That explains a few things. Dec 2, 2007

  • sonofgroucho Informal word for mother in the UK IE UK equivalent of mom. Dec 2, 2007

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‘mum’ has been looked up 3005 times, loved by 1 person, added to 33 lists, commented on 10 times, and has a Scrabble score of 7. It's also a palindrome.