bum
/bʌm/ noun, verb, interjection, adjective
Forms bums bumming bummed bummer bummest
- noun The buttocks. “Okay, everyone sit on your bum and try and touch your toes.”
- noun (specifically) The anus.
- noun (East Midlands, slang, vulgar) An act of anal sex. “Go for a bum”
- verb (UK, Ireland, transitive, colloquial) To sodomize; to engage in anal sex.
- interjection (UK, Ireland, childish, euphemistic) An expression of annoyance.
- noun (sometimes derogatory) A homeless person, usually a man.
- noun (by extension, also sometimes derogatory) A lazy, incompetent, or annoying person, usually a man. “Fred is becoming a bum—he’s not even bothering to work more than once a month.”
- noun (sports) A player or racer who often performs poorly. “Trade him to another team, he’s a bum!”
- noun A drinking spree.
- verb (transitive) [with off or (nonstandard) off of] To ask someone to give one (something) for free; to beg for something. “Can I bum a cigarette off you?”
- verb (intransitive) To stay idle and unproductive, like a hobo or vagabond. “I think I’ll just bum around downtown for a while until dinner.”
- verb (transitive, UK slang) To wet the end of a marijuana cigarette (spliff).
- adjective Of poor quality or highly undesirable. “What kind of bum note was that??”
- adjective Unfair. “The union reps gave us a bum deal!”
- adjective Injured and without the possibility of full repair, defective. “I can’t play football anymore on account of my bum knee.”
- adjective Unpleasant or unhappy. “He had a bum trip on that mescaline.”
- verb To depress; to make unhappy.
- noun (dated) A humming noise.
- verb (intransitive) To make a murmuring or humming sound.
- noun (obsolete) A bumbailiff.
Synonyms
'tocks arse arse cheeks ass ass cheeks back backside batty behind blessed assurance booty botty bottom bum cheeks buns butt butt cheeks buttocks caboose cheeks rotter dirty dog rat skunk stinker stinkpot puke crumb lowlife scum bag
Etymology
Attested since the 1300s, as Middle English bom (found in John Trevisa's 1387 Translation of the 'Polychronicon' of Ranulph Higden, "his bom is oute"), of uncertain origin. Sometimes suggested to be a shortening of botme, botom, bottum (“bottom”), but this is contradicted by the fact that bottom is not attested in reference to the buttocks until the late 1700s. Suggested by some old and modern references to be onomatopoeic.
Compare also Old Irish, Scottish Gaelic bun (“base, bottom”).
The anal sex senses (noun and verb), as well as the adjective (esp. the first) sense, are expletive-avoiding (i.e. Bowdlerized) shortenings of bumfuck.
1864, back-formation from bummer, from German Bummler (“loafer”), from bummeln (“to loaf”).
Back-formation from bum out.
See boom.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The buttock. [Low] Shak.
- verb To make murmuring or humming sound. Jamieson.
- noun A humming noise. Halliwell.
Etymology [Contr. fr. bottom in this sense.]
Etymology [See Boom, v. i., to roar.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “bum”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details