gum up
Britishverb
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to cover, dab, or stiffen with gum
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informal to make a mess of; bungle (often in the phrase gum up the works )
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Ruin or bungle something, as in The front office has gummed up the sales campaign thoroughly. This idiom is also put as gum up the works, as in John's changes in procedures have gummed up the works in the shipping department. [Slang; c. 1900]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
However, the Federation of Small Businesses has expressed reservations about the plan, warning that unlimited settlements "would be difficult and further gum up tribunals".
From BBC • Dec. 11, 2025
In part, that’s because of how easy it’s become to gum up the Senate.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 11, 2025
“Making it easier and less costly for insurers to deny claims, or for patients to file potentially dubious claims, could further gum up an already overloaded system rather than smoothing out the process.”
From MarketWatch • Oct. 21, 2025
Although it doesn’t gum up the works, why keep Harpagon as a male character, for example, and make Cleante a female one?
From New York Times • May 3, 2024
Meryl Lee and Mai Thi and I decided that we should find better ways to help Danny than putting gum up our noses.
From "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.