gazump

present singular third person gazumps · participle present gazumping · participle past gazumped · past gazumped · alternative gazoomph · alternative gazumph

1. UKTo swindle; to extort.
2. AustraliaUKbusinessTo raise the selling price of something (especially property) after previously agreeing to a lower one.

   During the early 1970s however in a period of rapidly increasing house prices it came to appear unfavourable to buyers since it allowed the seller to ‘gazump’, that is to refuse to sign the formal contract unless the buyer would agree to an increased price.

   1981, Geoffrey Chevalier Cheshire, M. P. Furmston, Cecil Herbert Stuart Fifoot, Cheshire and Fifoot's Law Of Contract, page 35

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   If one believes that morality plays no part in such a transaction, and that the law is all that prevails, then I believe society is the poorer. Clearly no surveyor refuses to act for a client who gazumps — but while the practice is legal it can hardly be described as moral, and the position of the surveyor is far from clear.

   1980, The Estates Gazette, volume 256, part 2, page 902

3. AustraliaUKbusinessTo buy a property by bidding more than the price of an existing, accepted offer.

   We are first-time buyers going through the process of buying our first home in London. We had previously tried three years ago and were gazumped twice. We lost nearly £4,000 to surveyors and solicitors with no property to show for it at the end.

   2017 October 22, Nana Prempeh, quoting Nick Smith, “Gazumping: Your views”, in BBC News

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   I can disclose that Mrs Blair had an offer of £2,765,000 accepted on a five-storey Georgian house in a fashionable area of central London, which she planned to give to daughter Kathryn.¶ However, actress Talulah Riley, 31, who played spoiled Annabelle Fritton in two St Trinian’s films, gazumped her with an offer of £3 million — a staggering £235,000 more than the asking price.

   2017 March 15, Sebastian Shakespeare, “Cherie Blair is gazumped on £3m house by Elon Musk's ex-wife”, in The Daily Mail

   Birmingham's teen sensation Jude Bellingham is nearing a move to Borussia Dortmund, according to reports in Germany.¶ Manchester United and Chelsea have been strongly linked with the 16-year-old but are set to be gazumped by the Bundesliga giants.

   2020 March 4, Marc Mayo, “Dortmund leading race for Jude Bellingham, 16, ahead of Man Utd with Birmingham wonderkid to be their record transfer”, in The Sun

4. AustraliaUKTo trump or preempt; to reap the benefit underhandedly from a situation that someone else has worked to create.

   The tactic was to gazump the Labour Party and the FOL by a major restructuring of the tax system.

   1995, Hugh Templeton, All Honourable Men: Inside the Muldoon Cabinet, 1975-1984, page 107

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   Just as Whymper effectively gazumps Mr Stone in taking credit for the Knights Companion scheme for ambitious ends, so too does this dangerous, multicultural, overcrowded version of London seem to be displacing the colonial fantasy of England by the novel's conclusion.

   2004, John McLeod, Postcolonial London: Rewriting the Metropolis, page 72

   Fianna Fáil lost the 1948 general election to Fine Gael (as Cumann na Gael were now known), who proceeded to gazump the Republican credentials by leaving the British Commonwealth and officially declaring the Free State a republic.

   2010, Fionn Davenport, Ireland, ebook edition, Lonely Planet, page 43

plural gazumps · alternative gazoomph · alternative gazumph

1. AustraliaUKbusinessThe act of gazumping.

plural gazumps

1. USdatedslangAn automobile.

   Go out and hire the finest gazump that ever burned benzine.

   1915, Francis Joseph Reynolds, Master tales of mystery, volume 1, page 373

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   "Phoney" Thorpe, '06, and "Shorty" Winchester, '01, have been driving their "90 HP Gazumps" through the wilds of New Jersey, but otherwise keeping on the job.

   1884, Theta Delta Chi, “The Shield: official publication of the Theta Delta Chi Fraternity”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 27, page 335

2. A politician who takes bribes.

   Go fifty-fifty. / If they nail you call in a mouthpiece. / Fix it, you gazump, you slant-head, fix it. / Feed 'em. …

   1920, Carl Sandburg, “Cahoots”, in Smoke and Steel, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, →OCLC, page 45

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   This year's crop of "nite bloomin' wood-be mayors" includes such famous gazumps as Mac Hoyne, Tom Carey, Barney Mullaney, possibly Carter H., Wilhelm Thompson, and the devil knows who else.

   1918, The National provisioner, volume 59, page 36