bum

Noun (1)

bum (plural bums)

1. (Commonwealth, childish, informal) The buttocks.
   • Okay, everyone sit on your bum and try and touch your toes.
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:bum.

   Synonyms:

   'tocks, arse, arse cheeks, ass, ass cheeks, back, backside, batty, behind, blessed assurance

2. (Commonwealth, childish, informal, specifically) The anus.
   • John said that when he was little he stuck his finger in his bum and tasted his poopies and it was good.2013, Steven L. Ablon, Daniel P. Brown, Edward J. Khantzian, Human Feelings: Explorations in Affect Development and Meaning, page 132
   • What could the man possibly be hiding up his bum anyway?2015, Jonathan Nicholas, Who'd be a copper?: Thirty years a frontline British cop

   Synonyms:

   a-hole, anus, arsehole, arse, asscunt, asshole, asspussy, ass, back alley, back door

3. (East-Midlands, slang, vulgar) An act of anal sex.
   • Go for a bum

   Synonyms:

   bumfuck

Verb (1)

bum (third-person singular simple present bums, present participle bumming, simple past and past participle bummed)

1. (Ireland, UK, colloquial, transitive) To sodomize; to engage in anal sex.
   • Your bars are fake and my bars are real; / Is it true you got bummed on a field?2016 December 3, “Soph Aspin Send”, performed by Millie B

   Synonyms:

   bumfuck

Interjection

1. (Ireland, UK, childish, euphemistic) An expression of annoyance.
   • (more vulgar)
   • Maxine tried hers. ‘Oh bum,’ she said crossly. ‘The sugar isn’t sugar. It’s salt.’2010, Jill Mansell, Sheer Mischief

   Synonyms:

   arse

Noun (2)

bum (plural bums)

1. (colloquial, derogatory, sometimes) A homeless person, usually a man.

   Synonyms:

   street bum, tramp, vagrant, wanderer, vagabond, stiff, casual, clochard, derelict, dero

2. (also, broadly, colloquial, derogatory, sometimes) 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.
   • That mechanic’s a bum—he couldn’t fix a yo-yo.

   Synonyms:

   loafer, bumpkin, footler, couch potato, dawdler, deadbeat, dogfucker, do-naught, do-nothing, dosser

3. (colloquial) A player or racer who often performs poorly.
   • Trade him to another team, he’s a bum!
   • Seabiscuit, wrote another reporter, “was a hero in California and a pretty fair sort of horse in the midwest. In the east, however, he was just a ‘bumʼ”2001, Laura Hillenbrand, Seabiscuit: An American Legend
4. (colloquial) A drinking spree.

   Synonyms:

   binge, bender

Verb (2)

bum (third-person singular simple present bums, present participle bumming, simple past and past participle bummed)

1. (colloquial, 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?

   Synonyms:

   cadge, beg, blag, leech, mooch, mump, scrounge, scunge, sponge, tap

2. (colloquial, intransitive) To stay idle and unproductive, like a hobo or vagabond.
   • I think I’ll just bum around downtown for a while until dinner.

   Synonyms:

   loiter

3. (UK, colloquial, slang, transitive) To wet the end of a marijuana cigarette (spliff).

Adjective

bum (comparative bummer, superlative bummest)

1. (colloquial, slang) Of poor quality or highly undesirable.
   • What kind of bum note was that??
   • The defensive line made a bum rush on the quarterback.

   Synonyms:

   bumfuck, lousy, subpar, ass, bad, base, below par, bottom-shelf, BTEC, cheap

2. (colloquial, slang) Unfair.
   • The union reps gave us a bum deal!

   Synonyms:

   iniquitous, unsporting

3. (colloquial, slang) Injured and without the possibility of full repair, defective.
   • I can’t play football anymore on account of my bum knee.

   Synonyms:

   duff, janky, riven, banjaxed, broken, busted, fractured, ruptured, bad, borked

4. (colloquial, slang) Unpleasant or unhappy.
   • He had a bum trip on that mescaline.

   Synonyms:

   foul, disagreeable, distasteful, abhorrant, abhorrent, bad, sickly, mean, infernal, horrid

Verb (3)

bum (third-person singular simple present bums, present participle bumming, simple past and past participle bummed)

1. (colloquial, slang) To depress; to make unhappy.

Noun (3)

bum (plural bums)

1. (colloquial, dated, slang) A humming noise.

Verb (4)

bum (third-person singular simple present bums, present participle bumming, simple past and past participle bummed)

1. (colloquial, intransitive, slang) To make a murmuring or humming sound.
   • English men bum there [Stirling] as thick as bees.1722, William Hamilton, The Wallace

Noun (4)

bum (plural bums)

1. (colloquial, obsolete, slang) A bumbailiff.
   • About her Chariot, and behind, / Were Sergeants, Bums of every kind, / Tip-staffs, and all those Officers, / That squeeze a Living out of Tears.1705, Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees