# gumming

Pronunciation: say "GUM-ing" /ˈɡʌmɪŋ/

## Verb

1. Present participle of gum. — present participle and gerund of gum
   - Simple: The -ing form of gum. Use it after am, is, are, was or were, or to name the action.
   - _The printer is gumming the backs of the labels before they are cut._
   - _He spent the evening gumming photographs into the old album._

## Noun

2. The action of chewing or mashing food using the gums rather than the teeth.
   - Simple: Chewing food with the gums instead of teeth.
   - _Her gumming of the soft fruit was the only way she could eat after losing her teeth._
   - _The infant's steady gumming gradually wore down the rubber teething ring._
3. The action of fastening something with gum, especially applying gum-water to a lithographic stone.
   - Simple: Sticking things down with gum, especially putting a gummy liquid on a printing stone.
   - _The printer's gumming of the stone protected its blank areas from ink._
   - _Proper gumming kept the label fixed even in damp conditions._
4. A disease of plants, especially trees, marked by the oozing of gum from the bark or wood.
   - Simple: A plant disease that makes trees ooze a sticky, gum-like fluid.
   - _Severe gumming weakened the apricot trees throughout the orchard._
   - _The gardener treated the gumming before it could spread to nearby plums._
5. The manual removal of clay, called 'gum', from coal after it has been cut.
   - Simple: In old mines, the hand removal of clay from coal that has been cut.
   - _After the cutting, the gumming fell to the youngest workers in the seam._
   - _The gumming had to be finished before the coal could be hauled out._

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/gumming (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).