gum up (something)
idiom
informal
: to prevent (something) from working or flowing properly
Don't use that paper with the copier; you'll gum it up.
The highway construction has really gummed up traffic.
The bearings are all gummed up with mud.
Examples of gum up (something) in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
So a future processor, from AMD at least, would probably contain multiple CPU cores connected to several GPU elements that would step in whenever the work is of a type that would gum up a CPU core.
—
IEEE Spectrum, 30 Dec. 2010
Heat waves can gum up hospitals enough to bring deadly consequences even beyond patients directly afflicted, a new study finds.
—Ben Geman, Axios, 20 Feb. 2025
They get paid millions of dollars and gum up the works.
—Steven Greenhut, Orange County Register, 21 Mar. 2025
Still, blood’s habit of coagulating, so useful in the body, proved a challenge outside of it: within a few minutes of beginning a transfusion, clots would gum up the needles and tubes, seriously limiting the quantity of blood that could be moved from person to person.
—Nicola Twilley, The New Yorker, 3 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for gum up (something)
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IEEE Spectrum, 30 Dec. 2010
Heat waves can gum up hospitals enough to bring deadly consequences even beyond patients directly afflicted, a new study finds.
—Ben Geman, Axios, 20 Feb. 2025
They get paid millions of dollars and gum up the works.
—Steven Greenhut, Orange County Register, 21 Mar. 2025
Still, blood’s habit of coagulating, so useful in the body, proved a challenge outside of it: within a few minutes of beginning a transfusion, clots would gum up the needles and tubes, seriously limiting the quantity of blood that could be moved from person to person.
—Nicola Twilley, The New Yorker, 3 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for gum up (something)
Cite this Entry
“Gum up (something).” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gum%20up%20%28something%29. Accessed 10 May. 2025.
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