gawm

plural gawms

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of gom (foolish person).

   The farmer would accuse his son of idleness; the son would retort that his father was a drunken gawm.

   2002, Joseph O'Conner, Star of the Sea, Vintage, published 2003, page 10

   2 more examples

   "E-y-e-s front ! Och, luk in front av ye, for the love o' marcy, an' don't be bigger gawms than y'are." Again he took up his parade before the squad.

   1892, “The Awkward Squads”, in Littell's Living Age, volume 195, page 811

   In twenty-wan years in this box I don't believe I've ever pulled down wan of those signal yokes without half-expecting a pint of stout to come out down below somewhere. And isn't it the right gawm I'd look if it did come.

   2013, Flann O'Brien, “O'Dea's Your Man”, in Collected Plays and Teleplays, →ISBN, page 417

present singular third person gawms · participle present gawming · participle past gawmed · past gawmed

1. alternativedialectalAlternative form of gum (make sticky, or impair the function of)

   A nation cannot get anywhere if it has things gawmed up.

   1920, The Monitor, page 13

   2 more examples

   In just about a month to-morrow morning we'll crunch the candy into the rug at every step, and all we touch will be gawmed up and sticky.

   1909, Eugene Wood, “The Merry Yule-Tide”, in The New England Magazine, page 438

   "Might as well be dead as all gawmed up with that fly paper stuff."

   1905, Charles Battell Loomis, Minerva's Manoeuvres: The Cheerful Facts, page 78

present singular third person gawms · participle present gawming · participle past gawmed · past gawmed

1. UKalternativedialectalAlternative form of gorm (gawk, gape)

   "What does he want," she said, "gawmin' at me as if a wor a wild beast show?"

   1897, James Prior, Ripple and Flood: A Novel, page 368

   3 more examples

   "Ay, 'tis indeed," she went on, "and Mistress Ruth has eyes an' ears, an' uses 'em to better purpose than some folks I know" — and she threw a significant glance at her bewildered better half — "as can only stand gaffin' and gawmin' at a body."

   1885, Mary Catherine Rowsell, Traitor Or Patriot?: A Tale of the Rye-house Plot, page 278

   “Now, yah ha done! and don't be gawming there, yah soft-headed chawbacon. Go hoam to yar mother!”

   1888, W. R. Credland, “A Farm in the Fens”, in Papers of the Manchester Literary Club, volume 14, page 267

   ‘There, be off with you! how can I figure with you standin' gawmin' at me there like a stuck pig with an orange in its mouth!’

   1897, J. Carmichael, “Man and Beast”, in Monthly Packet, page 392