bum

• IPA^(key): /bʌm/

• Audio (CA)

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• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -ʌm

From Middle English bum (“buttocks, bottom”), a syncopated form of Middle English botym (“bottom”). Compare also Old Irish, Scottish Gaelic bun (“base, bottom”). More at bottom.

bum (plural bums)

1. The buttocks.

   Okay, everyone sit on your bum and try and touch your toes.

2. (Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, informal, rare, Canada, US) The anus.
3. (by metonymy, informal) A person.

• In Canada, bum is considered the most appropriate term when speaking to young children, as in Everyone please sit on your bum and we'll read a story. In the United States, bum is not often used in this sense (though this may vary from dialect to dialect) except in conscious imitation of British English. The term butt is the most common term in North America except in professional contexts such as medical, legal, and scientific where buttocks is generally used or gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, etc. for the muscles specifically. Glutes is often used in sports medicine and bodybuilding. Ass (originally a dialectal variant of arse) is considered vulgar in North America, whereas backside, behind, and bottom are considered to be non-specific terms.

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:bum.

• (buttocks or anus): arse (UK, Irish, Australian, New Zealand), ass (North America), backside, behind, bottom, bum (North America), butt (North America), heinie (North America), fanny (North America), tush (North America), tushie (North America)
  • (buttocks specifically): butt cheeks (North America), buttocks (technical), nether cheek, arsecheek, asscheek, cheeks, glutes (muscles), gluteus maximus (primary muscles)
  • (anus specifically): anus (technical), arsehole (UK, Irish, Australian, New Zealand), asshole (North America)
• See also Thesaurus:anus

bum (third-person singular simple present bums, present participle bumming, simple past and past participle bummed)

1. (Britain, transitive, colloquial) To sodomize; to engage in anal sex.

bum

1. (Britain) An expression of annoyance.
   • 2010, Jill Mansell, Sheer Mischief:

     Maxine tried hers. 'Oh bum,' she said crossly. 'The sugar isn't sugar. It's salt.'

1864, back-formation from bummer, from German Bummler (“loafer”), from bummeln (“loaf”)

bum (plural bums)

1. (Canada, US, colloquial, sometimes derogatory) A homeless person, usually a man.
2. (Canada, US, Australia, colloquial) A lazy, incompetent, or annoying person, usually a man.

   Fred is becoming a bum - he's not even bothering to work more than once a month.

   That mechanic's a bum - he couldn't fix a yo-yo.

   That guy keeps interrupting the concert. Throw the bum out!

   • 1987, The Pogues - Fairytale of New York

     You're a bum

     You're a punk

     You're an old slut on junk

     Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed

3. (Canada, US, Australia, colloquial, sports) A player or racer who often performs poorly.

   Trade him to another team, he's a bum!

   • 2001, Laura Hillenbrand - Seabiscuit: An American Legend

     Seabiscuit, wrote another reporter, “was a hero in California and a pretty fair sort of horse in the midwest. In the east, however, he was just a ‘bumʼ”

4. (colloquial) A drinking spree.

• (hobo): hobo, homeless person, tramp, vagrant, wanderer, vagabond
• (lazy person): loafer, bumpkin, footler, idler, lout, yob, yobbo, layabout
• (drinking spree): binge, bender
• See also Thesaurus:vagabond
• See also Thesaurus:idler

bum (third-person singular simple present bums, present participle bumming, simple past and past participle bummed)

1. (transitive, colloquial) To ask someone to give one (something) for free; to beg for something.

   Can I bum a cigarette off you?

2. (intransitive, colloquial) To stay idle and unproductive, like a hobo or vagabond; to loiter.

   I think I'll just bum around downtown for awhile until dinner.

3. (transitive, slang, Britain) To wet the end of a marijuana cigarette (spliff).

• cadge (British)

bum (comparative bummer, superlative bummest)

1. Of poor quality or highly undesirable.

   bum note

2. Unfair.

   bum deal

3. Injured and without the possibility of full repair, defective.

   I can't play football anymore on account of my bum knee.

4. Unpleasant.

   He had a bum trip on that mescaline.

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:bum.

• (defective): duff (UK)

Back-formation from bum out.

bum (third-person singular simple present bums, present participle bumming, simple past and past participle bummed)

1. To depress; to make unhappy.

• “bum” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.

See boom.

bum (plural bums)

1. (dated) A humming noise.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

bum (third-person singular simple present bums, present participle bumming, simple past and past participle bummed)

1. (intransitive) To make a murmuring or humming sound.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Jamieson to this entry?)

Abbreviations.

bum (plural bums)

1. (obsolete) A bumbailiff.
   • 1705, Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees:

     About her Chariot, and behind, / Were Sergeants, Bums of every kind, / Tip-staffs, and all those Officers, / That squeeze a Living out of Tears.

• MBU, UMB, umb, umb-

bum ?

1. (economics) boom

bum m (genitive singular bum, nominative plural bumanna)

1. (sailing) boom

• crann scóide
• bumaile

• IPA^(key): /bum/

bum

1. swindle
2. cheat
3. trick

• IPA^(key): /bum/

• Audio

  (file)

bum

1. boom! (sound of explosion)
2. bang! (any brief, sharp, loud noise)

bum!

1. boom (sound of explosion)

bum (Cyrillic spelling бум)

1. (Kajkavian) first-person singular future of biti

Onomatopoeic.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbum/, [ˈbũm]

¡bum!

1. boom (used to suggest the sound of an explosion)
2. boom (used to suggest something happening suddenly and unexpectedly)

• pum
• pop

bum m

1. tree

• Siebenbürger Sachsen

• IPA^(key): /bum/

bum (plural bums)

1. act of building

• bumäd
• bumot

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /bɨ̞m/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /bɪm/

bum

1. Soft mutation of pum (“five”).