Gorms vs Gormy - What's the difference?
gorms | gormy |
(gorm)
To gawk; to stare or gape.
* 1922 , Elinor Mordaunt, Laura Creichton , page 110:
* 1901 , New Outlook , volume 67, page 408:
* 1990 , Jean Ure, Play Nimrod for him (ISBN 0370311841), page 96:
* 2005 , Lynne Truss, The Lynne Truss Treasury: Columns and Three Comic Novels (ISBN 1101218266):
(to smear).
* 1884 , Margaret Elizabeth Majendie, Out of their element , page 70:
* 1909 , Augusta Kortrecht, The Widow Mary'', in ''Good Housekeeping , volume 48, page 182:
* (seeCites)
To devour; to wolf down (food).
* 1885 James Johonnot, Neighbors with Claws and Hoofs, and Their Kin , page 105:
* 1920 , Outdoor Recreation: The Magazine that Brings the Outdoors In :
* 1980 , Michael G. Karni, Finnish Americana , page 5:
To make a mess of.
* 1910 , English Mechanic and World of Science , volume 91, page 273:
* 2008 , Christine Blevins, Midwife of the Blue Ridge (ISBN 0425221687), page 133:
(rfv-sense) Axle grease.
Clumsy, awkward, ungainly, klutzy.
* 1990 , John Gould, There Goes Maine! (ISBN 0393245691), page 1187:
* 1990 , Maurice Shadbolt, Monday's Warriors: A Novel (ISBN 0879239158), page 5:
* 2009 , Stephen King, Under the Dome: A Novel (ISBN 1439148503), page 682:
* 2010 , Pat Cunningham, A London Werewolf in America (ISBN 1606017713), page 32:
* (seeCites)
* 1914 , Edward Henry Peple, The prince chap, a comedy in three acts (1992 reprint ISBN: 5877390015), page 50:
* 1916 , Clarke Abigail, Edward Everett Hale at Harvard College'', part IV, in ''The Unitarian Register , volume 95, page 583:
As a verb gorms
is (gorm).As an adjective gormy is
clumsy, awkward, ungainly, klutzy or gormy can be .gorms
English
Verb
(head)gorm
English
Etymology 1
A variant of (m) (from (etyl); compare (etyl) ), with the ‘r’ being a vowel-lengthening device common in non-rhotic dialects of English. See (m) for more.Alternative forms
* gawm (UK dialects)Verb
(en verb)- 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.
- "Tell Sannah to bring some coffee," said the young woman to a diminutive Kaffir boy, who stood gorming at us with round black eyes.
- They would stand in silence, mindlessly gorming at each other,
- 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.
Etymology 2
A variant of (m) (itself likely a variant of (m)), with the ‘r’ being a vowel-lengthening device common in non-rhotic dialects of English.Verb
(en verb)- '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.'
- "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!"
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
(en verb)- 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,
- 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.
- 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 (m) and/or (m), and by others to be related to ).Smoky Mountain Voices: A Lexicon of Southern Appalachian Speech (1993, ISBN 0813129583)Alternative forms
* gaumVerb
(en verb)- 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
- "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)."Etymology 5
Noun
Quotations
* (English Citations of "gorm")References
* ----gormy
English
Etymology 1
Related to the largely synonymous word (m).Adjective
(-)- And not always with finesse — the Lombard clanked and churned, and a man who is like a regular Lombard may be a bit gormy and sometimes apply brute strength when he might do the work easier if he'd stop and think a little.
- Kimball was never one to argue with a comrade's eyes and ears, not even those of a gormy jeezer like Connolly.
- The Killian boy was carrying a chair, and making difficulties with it; he was what old-time Yankees would have called “a gormy lad.”
- Just the sort of place gormy Eugene would pick to hold a family get-together.
Synonyms
* gormingReferences
* John Gould, ?Lillian Ross, Maine lingo: boiled owls, billdads & wazzats (1975), page 114 * Sidney Oldall Addy, A Supplement to the Sheffield Glossary , volume 22, issue 2 (1891), page 24Etymology 2
From (m)/ (see those entries for more).Adjective
(-)- The first thing you have got to do is to wash them gormy 'ands
- "When I bought my tamarinds I eat one or two and then discovered that I had left my handkerchief at home, my hands were a little gormy , so I washed them in Frog Pond."