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chum

Pronunciation: /t͡ʃʌm/

The English word “chum” has 11 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A friend; a pal.
  2. A roommate, especially in a college or university.
  3. A mixture of (frequently rancid) fish parts and blood, dumped into the water as groundbait to attract predator fish, such as sharks.
  4. A coarse mould for holding the clay while being worked on a whirler, lathe or manually.
  5. Synonym of chum salmon.
  6. A temporary dwelling used by the nomadic Uralic reindeer herders of northwestern Siberia.

verb

  1. To share rooms with someone; to live together.
  2. To lodge (somebody) with another person or people.
  3. To make friends; to socialize.
  4. To accompany.
  5. To cast chum into the water to attract fish.

Etymology

1675–85; of uncertain origin, possibly from cham, shortening of chambermate, or from comrade. Less likely from Welsh cymrawd (“fellow”), compare brawd (“brother”).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.