bum

Abbreviation of English Bulu, Cameroon.

bum

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Bulu (Cameroon).

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Bulu (Cameroon) terms

• IPA^(key): /bʌm/

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌm

Attested since the 1300s,^[1][2][3] as Middle English bom^[1] (found in John Trevisa's 1387 Translation of the 'Polychronicon' of Ranulph Higden, "his bom is oute"), of uncertain origin.^[1] Sometimes suggested to be a shortening of botme, botom, bottum (“bottom”), but this is contradicted by the fact that bottom is not attested in reference to the buttocks until the late 1700s.^[4][5] Suggested by some old^[4] and modern references to be onomatopoeic.^[3]

Compare also Old Irish, Scottish Gaelic bun (“base, bottom”).

bum (plural bums)

1. (informal or childish, chiefly Commonwealth) The buttocks.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:buttocks

   Okay, everyone sit on your bum and try and touch your toes.

   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:bum.
2. (informal or childish, chiefly Commonwealth) The anus.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:anus

   • 2013, Steven L. Ablon, Daniel P. Brown, Edward J. Khantzian, Human Feelings: Explorations in Affect Development and Meaning, page 132:

     John said that when he was little he stuck his finger in his bum and tasted his poopies and it was good.

   • 2015, Jonathan Nicholas, Who'd be a copper?: Thirty years a frontline British cop:

     What could the man possibly be hiding up his bum anyway?

   • 2016, Lisa Keenan-Lindsay, Cheryl Sams, Constance L. O'Connor, Maternal Child Nursing Care in Canada, page 118:

     Do you have intercourse (i.e., Do you penetrate your partner in the vagina or anus [bum]? Or does your partner penetrate your vagina or anus [bum])?

   • 2017, Jean Renvoize, Innocence Destroyed: A Study of Child Sexual Abuse:

     […] and said Daddy had put a finger up her bum.

3. (East Midlands, slang, vulgar) An act of anal sex.

   Go for a bum

• Bum is most common in the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand. In Canada, bum is mainly used when speaking to young children, as in Everyone please sit on your bum and we’ll read a story. In the United States, bum is not often used in this sense (though this may vary from dialect to dialect) except in conscious imitation of British English. The term butt is the most common term in North America except in professional contexts such as medical, legal, and scientific where buttocks is generally used or gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, etc. for the muscles specifically. Glutes is often used in sports medicine and bodybuilding. Ass (originally a dialectal variant of arse) is considered vulgar in North America, whereas backside, behind, bottom and rear are considered to be non-specific terms.

bum (third-person singular simple present bums, present participle bumming, simple past and past participle bummed)

1. (UK, Ireland, transitive, colloquial) To sodomize; to engage in anal sex.
   • 2016 December 3, “Soph Aspin Send”, performed by Millie B:

     Your bars are fake and my bars are real; / Is it true you got bummed on a field?

bum

2. (UK, Ireland, childish, euphemistic) An expression of annoyance.

   Synonym: arse (more vulgar)

   • 2010, Jill Mansell, Sheer Mischief‎^[2]:

     Maxine tried hers. ‘Oh bum,’ she said crossly. ‘The sugar isn’t sugar. It’s salt.’

1864, back-formation from bummer, from German Bummler (“loafer”), from bummeln (“to loaf”).

bum (plural bums)

2. (colloquial, sometimes derogatory) A homeless person, usually a man.

   Synonyms: street bum, tramp, vagrant, wanderer, vagabond; see also Thesaurus:vagabond

3. (colloquial, sometimes derogatory) A lazy, incompetent, or annoying person, usually a man.

   Synonyms: loafer, bumpkin, footler; see also Thesaurus:idler

   Fred is becoming a bum—he’s not even bothering to work more than once a month.

   That mechanic’s a bum—he couldn’t fix a yo-yo.

   That guy keeps interrupting the concert. Throw the bum out!

   • 1987, “Fairytale of New York”, performed by The Pogues:

     You’re a bum / You’re a punk / You’re an old slut on junk / Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed

   • 1988, Michael Weikath, “Keeper of the Seven Keys”, in Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part II, performed by Helloween:

     Man who do you just think you are? / A silly bum with seven stars

4. (colloquial, sports) A player or racer who often performs poorly.

   Trade him to another team, he’s a bum!

   • 2001, Laura Hillenbrand, Seabiscuit: An American Legend:

     Seabiscuit, wrote another reporter, “was a hero in California and a pretty fair sort of horse in the midwest. In the east, however, he was just a ‘bumʼ”

5. (colloquial) A drinking spree.

   Synonyms: binge, bender

bum (third-person singular simple present bums, present participle bumming, simple past and past participle bummed)

1. (transitive, colloquial) To ask someone to give one (something) for free; to beg for something.

   Synonyms: (British) cadge; see also Thesaurus:scrounge

   Can I bum a cigarette off you?

2. (intransitive, colloquial) To stay idle and unproductive, like a hobo or vagabond.

   Synonym: loiter

   I think I’ll just bum around downtown for a while until dinner.

3. (transitive, slang, British) To wet the end of a marijuana cigarette (spliff).

• → French: bummer
• → Norwegian Nynorsk: bomma

bum (comparative bummer, superlative bummest)

1. (slang) Of poor quality or highly undesirable.

   bum note

   • 1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 4:

     "So I can see my finish with that firm when this bum show is over." "Well, I think you're silly, the way you go out of your way to get McIntyre's goat. You do, don't deny it."

2. (slang) Unfair.

   a bum deal

3. (slang) Injured and without the possibility of full repair, defective.

   Synonym: (UK) duff

   I can’t play football anymore on account of my bum knee.

4. (slang) Unpleasant or unhappy.

   He had a bum trip on that mescaline.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:bum.

• bum trip

Back-formation from bum out.

bum (third-person singular simple present bums, present participle bumming, simple past and past participle bummed)

1. To depress; to make unhappy.

This expression is typically found in the passive voice or with the subject it. Thus one might use sentences such as

 It really bums me when it rains on a weekend.

 I get bummed every time my vacation ends.

But one would not normally say

 Mosquitos and horseflies bum me every time I go to the lake.

• Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “bum”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

See boom.

bum (plural bums)

1. (dated) A humming noise.

bum (third-person singular simple present bums, present participle bumming, simple past and past participle bummed)

1. (intransitive) To make a murmuring or humming sound.
   • 1722, William Hamilton, The Wallace:

     English men bum there [Stirling] as thick as bees.

Abbreviation.

bum (plural bums)

1. (obsolete) A bumbailiff.
   • 1705, Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees:

     About her Chariot, and behind, / Were Sergeants, Bums of every kind, / Tip-staffs, and all those Officers, / That squeeze a Living out of Tears.

• MBU, UMB, umb, umb-

Borrowed from English boom with orthographic adaptation.

bum m

1. (economics) boom

• “bum”, in FGJSH: Fjalor i gjuhës shqipe [Dictionary of the Albanian language] (in Albanian), 2006

From Proto-Nuristani *buma, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *bʰúHma, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to be”).

bum (Sanu)^[1]

1. earth

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈbum/ [ˈbum]
• Rhymes: -um
• Syllabification: bum

From Dutch slagboom (“boom barrier, boom gate”) or boom (“beam, barrier, tree, pole”). Doublet of bom.

• bom

bum (plural bum-bum)

1. boom barrier, boom gate (a bar or pole that can be lowered or raised to controll the traffic)
2. (figurative) customs (government agency that handles taxes of imported goods)

   Synonyms: bea cukai, duane, pabean

From English boom, a onomatopoeic word.

bum

1. (economics, business) boom (a period of prosperity, growth, progress, or high market activity)

• “bum”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

bum m (genitive singular bum, nominative plural bumanna)

1. (sailing) boom

• crann scóide
• bumaile

From Proto-Kuki-Chin *bum.

• IPA^(key): /bum/

bum

1. to swindle, cheat, trick

• Lorrain, J. Herbert (1940), “bum”, in Dictionary of the Lushai language, Calcutta: Asiatic Society

• IPA^(key): /ˈbum/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -um
• Syllabification: bum
• Homophone: boom

Onomatopoeic.

bum

1. boom (sound of explosion)
2. bang (any brief, sharp, loud noise)

Borrowed from Dutch boom.

bum m inan

1. alternative form of bom

Borrowed from English boom.

bum m inan

1. alternative form of boom

• bum I in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• bum II in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• bum in Polish dictionaries at PWN

• Rhymes: -ũ
• Hyphenation: bum

Onomatopoeic.

bum!

1. boom (sound of explosion)

From English boom.

bum m (plural buns)

1. boom (a rapid expansion or increase)
   • 2023, Djalma do Nascimento Sousa, chapter 145, in Memórias do Sul do Maranhão, Maranhão, published 2023, page VIII:

     O "bum" do gado só veio com a crise do arroz no final de 80 para início de 90;

     The cattle boom only came with the rice crisis in the late 80s and early 90s;

• “bum”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “bum”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Onomatopoeic.

bum

1. boom

bum (Cyrillic spelling бум)

1. (Kajkavian) first-person singular future of biti

Borrowed from English boom or onomatopoeic

bum

1. boom, bam

• IPA^(key): /ˈbum/ [ˈbũm]
• Rhymes: -um
• Syllabification: bum

Onomatopoeic.

¡bum!

1. boom (used to suggest the sound of an explosion)
2. boom (used to suggest something happening suddenly and unexpectedly)

• pum
• pop

Borrowed from English boom.

bum m (plural bums)

1. alternative form of boom
   • 2024 September 21, Sebastián Forero Rueda, “Los hijos de los inmigrantes del bum de los 2000 conquistan su espacio en España: una generación que creció mientras sus padres cuidaban de otros”, in El País, Madrid: Ediciones El País, S.L., →ISSN:

     Era el primer bum migratorio en el país, cuando España pasó a convertirse definitivamente en un país receptor de migración después de décadas como un país de emigrantes.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• “bum”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

bum m

1. tree

• Siebenbürger Sachsen

bum

1. romanization of 𐌁𐌖𐌌

• IPA^(key): /bum/

bum (genitive buma, plural bums)

1. act of building

• bumäd
• bumot

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /bɨ̞m/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /bɪm/

bum

1. soft mutation of pum (“five”)