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[chuhm] /tʃʌm/

noun
1.
a close or intimate companion:
boyhood chums.
2.
a roommate, as at college.
verb (used without object), chummed, chumming.
3.
to associate closely.
4.
to share a room or rooms with another, especially in a dormitory at a college or prep school.
[chuhm] /tʃʌm/
noun
1.
cut or ground bait dumped into the water to attract fish to the area where one is fishing.
2.
fish refuse or scraps discarded by a cannery.
verb (used without object), chummed, chumming.
3.
to fish by attracting fish by dumping cut or ground bait into the water.
verb (used with object), chummed, chumming.
4.
to dump chum into (a body of water) so as to attract fish.
5.
to lure (fish) with chum:
They chummed the fish with hamburger.
/tʃʌm/
noun
1.
(informal) a close friend
verb chums, chumming, chummed
2.
(intransitive) usually foll by up with. to be or become an intimate friend (of)
3.
(transitive) (Scot) to accompany: I’ll chum you home
/tʃʌm/
noun
1.
(angling, mainly US & Canadian) chopped fish, meal, etc, used as groundbait
/tʃʊm/
noun
1.
a Pacific salmon, Oncorhynchus keta
n.

“friend,” 1680s, originally university slang for “roommate,” from alternative spelling of cham, short for chamber(mate); typical of the late-17c. fondness for clipped words. Among derived forms used 19c. were chumship; chummery “shared bachelor quarters,” chummage “system of quartering more than one to a room.”

“fish bait,” 1857, perhaps from Scottish chum “food.”

noun

: Augie, start dumping the chum over

verb

To throw ground-up bait into the water to attract fish: to chum for blues

[1850s+; origin unknown]

noun

verb

(also chum around): He chums with Georgie Ogle (1880s+)

[origin uncertain, but earlier uses strongly suggest chamber-mate or chamber-fellow as the etymon]