View synonyms for

gum up

verb

to cover, dab, or stiffen with gum
informal.
to make a mess of; bungle (often in the phrase gum up the works )

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Idioms and Phrases

Ruin or bungle something, as in The front office has gummed up the sales campaign thoroughly . This idiom is also put as gum up the works , as in John's changes in procedures have gummed up the works in the shipping department . [ Slang ; c. 1900]

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Axios reports that Trump's advisers are preparing for a potential third impeachment of the president and strategizing ways to pass key agenda items before a congressional trial gums up the works.

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The outcry wasn't entirely fair to Klobuchar who turned immediately after the quote in question to discuss real ways of gumming up the worst actions of the Trump administration.

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Many importers then quietly used the San Pedro ports to store containers, causing a logjam of ships waiting to berth and gumming up the entire supply chain system.

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The housing market gummed up, people unable to move and all this at time when there is huge demand for more homes.

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He said plastic bags are problematic for material recovery facilities where they are known to gum up machinery.

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Related Words

bungle

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

gum tree gumweed

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