chum up
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.97 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To be friendly toward (with or to) someone, especially in an ingratiating way; to form a friendship (with).
Informal
Example Sentences
- "I chummed up with a few of my new work colleagues."
- "Having met Mr. Hodson many years at various shows, and “chummed up,” as naturally we should have, he invited me to go and see him at his home in Somersetshire."
- "He said he met a stranger in a saloon last night, and that they chummed up together, and started in to make a night of it."
- "“[…] which would you rather do: be in with a lot of greasy mechanics and laboring-men, or chum up to a real fellow like Lord Wycombe, and get invited to his house for parties?”"
- "‘Were you in your basha just before you went on guard duty?’ ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘With other chaps. Men you’d chummed up with?’ ‘Yes, sir.’"
- "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."
Usage
- Informal
- British usage
- Obsolete
- Slang
- Transitive verb