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Webster 1913 Edition


Gorm

Gorm

,
Noun.
Axle grease. See
Gome
.
[Prov. Eng.]

Gorm

,
Verb.
T.
To daub, as the hands or clothing, with gorm; to daub with anything sticky.
[Prov. Eng.]

Definition 2024


Gorm

Gorm

See also: gorm

Danish

Proper noun

Gorm

  1. A male given name.

See also

gorm

gorm

See also: Gorm

English

Alternative forms

  • gawm (UK dialects)

Verb

gorm (third-person singular simple present gorms, present participle gorming, simple past and past participle gormed)

  1. (Britain and US, dialects) To gawk; to stare or gape.
    • 1922, Elinor Mordaunt, Laura Creichton, page 110:
      Passing through St. George's Square, Lupus Street, Chichester Street, he scarcely saw a soul; then, quite suddenly, he struck a dense crowd, kept back by the police, standing gorming at a great jagged hole in a high blank wall, a glimpse, the merest glimpse of more broken walls, shattered chimneys.
    • 1901, New Outlook, volume 67, page 408:
      "Tell Sannah to bring some coffee," said the young woman to a diminutive Kaffir boy, who stood gorming at us with round black eyes.
    • 1990, Jean Ure, Play Nimrod for him (ISBN 0370311841), page 96:
      They would stand in silence, mindlessly gorming at each other, []
    • 2005, Lynne Truss, The Lynne Truss Treasury: Columns and Three Comic Novels (ISBN 1101218266):
      In particular, we like to emphasize that, far from wasting our childhoods (not to mention adulthoods) mindlessly gorming at The Virginian and The Avengers, we spent those couch-potato years in rigorous preparation for our chosen career.

Related terms

  • goam (see, recognize, take notice of)
  • gaum (understand; comprehend; consider)

Etymology 2

A variant of gaum (itself likely a variant of gum), with the ‘r’ being a vowel-lengthening device common in non-rhotic dialects of English.

Verb

gorm (third-person singular simple present gorms, present participle gorming, simple past and past participle gormed)

  1. Alternative form of gaum (to smear).
    • 1884, Margaret Elizabeth Majendie, Out of their element, page 70:
      'It is quite ruined.'
      'How did she do it? What a pity!'
      'With paint—assisting in the painting of a garden-gate. She told me the pleasure of "gorming" it on was too irresistible to be resisted; and the poor little new gown in done for.'
    • 1909, Augusta Kortrecht, The Widow Mary, in Good Housekeeping, volume 48, page 182:
      "It was in a little sprinkler bottle, an' I gormed it onto my vittles good an' thick. Lordy, Lordy, an' now I got to die!"
    • For usage examples of this term, see Citations:gorm.

References

  • Bennett Wood Green, Word-book of Virginia Folk-speech (1912), page 202:
    Gorm, v. To smear, as with anything sticky. When a child has smeared its face with something soft and sticky, they say: "Look how you have gormed your face."

Etymology 3

From gormandize/gormandise.

Verb

gorm (third-person singular simple present gorms, present participle gorming, simple past and past participle gormed)

  1. (colloquial, rare) To devour; to wolf down (food).
    • 1885 James Johonnot, Neighbors with Claws and Hoofs, and Their Kin, page 105:
      The bear came up to the berries and stopped. Not accustomed to eat out of a pail, he tipped it over, and nosed about the fruit "gorming" it down, mixed with leaves and dirt, []
    • 1920, Outdoor Recreation: The Magazine that Brings the Outdoors In:
      [] an itinerant bruin and with naught on his hands but time and an appetite, [to] wander from ravine to ravine and gorm down this delectable fruit.
    • 1980, Michael G. Karni, Finnish Americana, page 5:
      As Luohi said later, "He gormed it. Nay, he didn't eat it. He gormed it, the pig."

Etymology 4

Supposed by some to be related to gormless and/or gorming, and by others to be related to gorm (smear) (itself probably related to gum (make sticky; impair the functioning of)).[1]

Alternative forms

Verb

gorm (third-person singular simple present gorms, present participle gorming, simple past and past participle gormed)

  1. (dialectal, chiefly Southern US, Appalachia, New England, often with ‘up’) To make a mess of.
    • 1910, English Mechanic and World of Science, volume 91, page 273:
      I find the cheap shilling self-filling pen advertised in these pages excellent value—quite equal to that of fountain-pens I have paid ten times as much for. It is also durable. I am a careless person, and prefer to discard it when I have “gormed” it []
    • 2008, Christine Blevins, Midwife of the Blue Ridge (ISBN 0425221687), page 133:
      "Truth is, I've gormed it all up, Alistair. When it comes t' women — nice women anyway — I'm as caw-handed and cork-brained as any pimply boy."

References

  • Maine lingo: boiled owls, billdads & wazzats (1975), page 114: "A man who bungles a job has gormed it. Anybody who stumbles over his own feet is gormy."
  • Smoky Mountain Voices: A Lexicon of Southern Appalachian Speech (1993, ISBN 0813129583): "gorm: [v. to make a mess.] If a house be in disorder it is said to be all gormed or gaumed up (B 368)."
  1. Smoky Mountain Voices: A Lexicon of Southern Appalachian Speech (1993, ISBN 0813129583)

Cornish

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *gurm, from Proto-Celtic *gurmos.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɡɔrm/

Adjective

gorm

  1. dark brown

Mutation


Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish gorm (blue), from Proto-Celtic *gurmos. Cognate with Welsh gwrm (dusky).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɡɔɾˠəmˠ/

Adjective

gorm (genitive singular masculine goirm, genitive singular feminine goirme, plural gorma, comparative goirme)

  1. blue
  2. (of people, skin) black

Declension

Obsolete spellings

Derived terms

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
gorm ghorm ngorm
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References


Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Old Irish gorm (blue), from Proto-Celtic *gurmos. Same root as Welsh gwrm (dusky).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈkɔrɔ̃m/

Adjective

gorm (comparative guirme)

  1. blue
  2. Of blue-green to verdant colour, when applied to plants.

Derived terms

Related terms

See also

Colors in Scottish Gaelic · dathan (layout · text)
     dearg      uaine      buidhe      ?      bàn
     {{{crimson}}}      magenta      ?      gorm      pinc
     guirmean      gorm      orainds      glas      ?
     dubh      purpaidh      donn      liath      saidhean

Mutation

Scottish Gaelic mutation
Radical Lenition
gorm ghorm
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References