gorm

present singular third person gorms · participle present gorming · participle past gormed · past gormed · alternative gawm

1. UKUSdialectalTo gawk; to stare or gape.

   They would stand in silence, mindlessly gorming at each other, […]

   1990, Jean Ure, Play Nimrod for him, →ISBN, page 96

   3 more examples

   Passing through St. George's Square, Lupus Street, Chichester Street, he scarcely saw a soul; then, quite suddenly, he struck a dense crowd, kept back by the police, standing gorming at a great jagged hole in a high blank wall, a glimpse, the merest glimpse of more broken walls, shattered chimneys.

   1922, Elinor Mordaunt, Laura Creichton, page 110

   "Tell Sannah to bring some coffee," said the young woman to a diminutive Kaffir boy, who stood gorming at us with round black eyes.

   1901, New Outlook, volume 67, page 408

   In particular, we like to emphasize that, far from wasting our childhoods (not to mention adulthoods) mindlessly gorming at The Virginian and The Avengers, we spent those couch-potato years in rigorous preparation for our chosen career.

   2005, Lynne Truss, The Lynne Truss Treasury: Columns and Three Comic Novels, →ISBN

present singular third person gorms · participle present gorming · participle past gormed · past gormed

1. alternativeAlternative form of gaum (“to smear”).

   For quotations using this term, see Citations:gorm.

   2 more examples

   'It is quite ruined.' 'How did she do it? What a pity!' 'With paint—assisting in the painting of a garden-gate. She told me the pleasure of "gorming" it on was too irresistible to be resisted; and the poor little new gown in done for.'

   1884, Margaret Elizabeth Majendie, Out of their element, page 70

   "It was in a little sprinkler bottle, an' I gormed it onto my vittles good an' thick. Lordy, Lordy, an' now I got to die!"

   1909, Augusta Kortrecht, “The Widow Mary”, in Good Housekeeping, volume 48, page 182

present singular third person gorms · participle present gorming · participle past gormed · past gormed

1. colloquialrareTo devour; to wolf down (food).

   As Luohi said later, "He gormed it. Nay, he didn't eat it. He gormed it, the pig."

   1980, Michael G. Karni, Finnish Americana, page 5

   2 more examples

   The bear came up to the berries and stopped. Not accustomed to eat out of a pail, he tipped it over, and nosed about the fruit "gorming" it down, mixed with leaves and dirt, […]

   1885, James Johonnot, Neighbors with Claws and Hoofs, and Their Kin, page 105

   […] an itinerant bruin and with naught on his hands but time and an appetite, [to] wander from ravine to ravine and gorm down this delectable fruit.

   1920, Outdoor Recreation: The Magazine that Brings the Outdoors In

present singular third person gorms · participle present gorming · participle past gormed · past gormed · alternative gaum

1. AppalachiaNew EnglandSouthern USdialectaloftenTo make a mess of.

   "Truth is, I've gormed it all up, Alistair. When it comes t' women — nice women anyway — I'm as caw-handed and cork-brained as any pimply boy."

   2008, Christine Blevins, Midwife of the Blue Ridge, →ISBN, page 133

   1 more example

   I find the cheap shilling self-filling pen advertised in these pages excellent value—quite equal to that of fountain-pens I have paid ten times as much for. It is also durable. I am a careless person, and prefer to discard it when I have “gormed” it […]

   1910, English Mechanic and World of Science, volume 91, page 273