chums up

Verb

chum up (third-person singular simple present chums up, present participle chumming up, simple past and past participle chummed up)

1. (idiomatic, informal) To be friendly toward (with or to) someone, especially in an ingratiating way; to form a friendship (with).
   • I chummed up with a few of my new work colleagues.
2. (UK, obsolete, slang, transitive) To initiate (a new prisoner) through a ritual involving beating him with sticks and swords, accompanied by music, to extort money from him.
   • They have a practice of “chumming up” a new fellow-prisoner—beating him with old swords and staves kept in the prison for the purpose, to exact a fee of a half-crown.1844 January 13, The Spectator, volume 17, number 811, page 28
3. To apply chum to water as bait.

   Synonyms:

   make friends

4. (broadly) To render a situation frenzied and confusing.