English

Noun

gawm ‎(plural gawms)

1. Alternative spelling of gom (foolish person).
   • 1892, The Awkward Squads, in Littell's Living Age, volume 195, page 811:

     "E-y-e-s front ! Och, luk in front av ye, for the love o' marcy, an' don't be bigger gawms than y'are." Again he took up his parade before the squad.

   • 2002, Joseph O'Conner, Star of the Sea, Vintage 2003, page 10:

     The farmer would accuse his son of idleness; the son would retort that his father was a drunken gawm.

   • 2013, Flann O'Brien, O'Dea's Your Man, in Collected Plays and Teleplays (ISBN 1564789888), page 417:

     In twenty-wan years in this box I don't believe I've ever pulled down wan of those signal yokes without half-expecting a pint of stout to come out down below somewhere. And isn't it the right gawm I'd look if it did come.

Etymology 2

Verb

gawm ‎(third-person singular simple present gawms, present participle gawming, simple past and past participle gawmed)

1. (dialectal) Alternative form of gum (make sticky, or impair the function of)
   • 1909, Eugene Wood, The Merry Yule-Tide, in The New England Magazine, page 438:

     In just about a month to-morrow morning we'll crunch the candy into the rug at every step, and all we touch will be gawmed up and sticky.

   • 1920, The Monitor, page 13:

     A nation cannot get anywhere if it has things gawmed up.

   • 1905, Charles Battell Loomis, Minerva's Manoeuvres: The Cheerful Facts, page 78:

     "Might as well be dead as all gawmed up with that fly paper stuff."

Etymology 3

Verb

gawm ‎(third-person singular simple present gawms, present participle gawming, simple past and past participle gawmed)

1. (Britain, dialectal) Alternative form of gorm (gawk, gape)
   • 1885, Mary Catherine Rowsell, Traitor Or Patriot?: A Tale of the Rye-house Plot, page 278:

     "Ay, 'tis indeed," she went on, "and Mistress Ruth has eyes an' ears, an' uses 'em to better purpose than some folks I know" — and she threw a significant glance at her bewildered better half — "as can only stand gaffin' and gawmin' at a body."

   • 1888, W. R. Credland, A Farm in the Fens, in the Papers of the Manchester Literary Club, volume 14, page 267:

     “Now, yah ha done! and don't be gawming there, yah soft-headed chawbacon. Go hoam to yar mother!”

   • 1897, J. Carmichael, Man and Beast, in the Monthly Packet, page 392:

     ‘There, be off with you! how can I figure with you standin' gawmin' at me there like a stuck pig with an orange in its mouth!’

   • 1897, James Prior, Ripple and Flood: A Novel, page 368:

     "What does he want," she said, "gawmin' at me as if a wor a wild beast show?"