Word.ws English Dictionary

oakum

Syllables: oak·um/ˈəʊkəm/US/ˈoʊk(ə)m/

oakum noun: coarse fibres separated by hackling from flax or hemp when preparing the latter for spinning.

oakum: coarse fibres separated by hackling from flax or hemp when preparing the latter for spinning
Image: François de Dijon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

oakum (countable and uncountable, plural oakums)

  1. (historical) Coarse fibres separated by hackling from flax or hemp when preparing the latter for spinning.
    Synonyms:
    hards, tow
  2. (historical) Fibres chiefly obtained by untwisting old rope, which are used to caulk or pack gaps between boards of wooden ships and joints in masonry and plumbing, and sometimes for dressing wounds.
    • [W]ho should it be but Mr. Daniel, all muffled up, and his face as black as the chimney, and covered with dirt, pitch, and tarr, and powder, and muffled with dirty clouts, and his right eye stopped with okum. He is come last night at five o'clock from the fleete, with a comrade of his that hath...1666 June 13 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “June 4th, 1666 (Lord’s Day)”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume...
    • It vvas reſolved hovvever to proceed on our Voyage, vvhich vve did for ten Days, in hopes by the Oakums ſvvelling the Leak might grovv leſs; but to our great Surpriſe, after very hard VVeather near Porto Bello, and not being able to reach it, it increaſed to double the Quantity.1740 March 18 (date written; Gregorian calendar), W. Richardson, “A Letter from Jamaica, by the Author of that in p. 144”, in Sylvanus Urban [pseudonym; Edward Cave], editor, The Gentleman’s...

oakum meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Telugu

oakum in Tamil

சிலும்பு கயிறு

oakum in Urdu

کول تار والی رسی

oakum in Telugu

fibres chiefly obtained by untwisting old rope which are used to caulk, etc.
కితనార kitanāra, కిత్తనార kittanāra

Examples of oakum in a sentence

  • [N]ow that I think of it, he's always wanting oakum to stuff into the toes of his boots.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “A Right Whale Killed”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper &...
  • On the 24th of November, the plaintiff wrote the following reply, addressing it to George Havelock:– "Yours containing order for oakums came duly to hand.1856 January 17, “Douglas v. Watson”, in Chauncey Smith, editor, English Reports in Law and Equity: […], volume XXXIV, Boston, Mass....
  • Shingle Tiles make a Leak-Proof roof without the use of cements and spun oakums.1912, “The Murray Roofing Tile Company”, in Sweet’s Catalogue of Building Construction for 1912 […], New York, N.Y.: The Architectural...
  • My eyesight began to fail, from the strain of picking oakum in my cell.1983, Peter Ackroyd, “4 October 1900”, in The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, London; New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, published 1993, →ISBN...

Synonyms of oakum

Forms of oakum

pluraloakums

Origin of oakum

From Late Middle English okom, okome (“oakum”) [and other forms], from Old English ācumba (“oakum”, literally “that which has been combed out, off-combings”) [and other forms], from ācemban (“to comb out”), from Proto-Germanic *uz- (from Proto-Indo-European *ud-s-, *ūd- (“out; up”), or *h₂ew- (“away from, off”)) + *kambijaną (“to comb”) (ultimately from *ǵómbʰos (“row of teeth; tooth; peg”), *ǵembʰ- (“nail; tooth; to gnaw through; to pierce”)). See also out and comb.

Words formed from oakum

Phrases with oakum

Words that rhyme with oakum

Questions about oakum

What does oakum mean?
Oakum means coarse fibres separated by hackling from flax or hemp when preparing the latter for spinning.
What is oakum in Tamil?
Oakum in Tamil is சிலும்பு கயிறு. See Oakum meaning in Tamil.
How do you use oakum in a sentence?
[N]ow that I think of it, he's always wanting oakum to stuff into the toes of his boots.
What part of speech is oakum?
Oakum is a noun.
How do you pronounce oakum?
Oakum is pronounced /ˈəʊkəm/ (UK).
What is the plural of oakum?
The plural of oakum is oakums.

Words near oakum in the dictionary

  1. Oakthorpe
  2. Oakton
  3. Oaktown
  4. oaktree
  5. oaktrees
  6. oakum
  7. oakums
  8. Oakvale
  9. Oakville
  10. oakware
  11. oakwood

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: oakum (page history and authors); oakum (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); oakum (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-oakum.wav.

Cite this entry: “oakum.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/oakum. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.