chum up

English · Thesaurus

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

chum up

verb chums up · chumming up · chummed up

idiomatic, informal To be friendly toward (with or to) someone, especially in an ingratiating way; to form a friendship (with). I chummed up with a few of my new work colleagues.
UK, obsolete, slang, transitive To initiate (a new prisoner) through a ritual involving beating him with sticks and swords, accompanied by music, to extort money from him. They have a practice of “chumming up” a new fellow-prisoner—beating him with old swords and staves kept in the prison for the purpose, to exact a fee of a half-crown.
To apply chum to water as bait.
Similar: make friends
broadly To render a situation frenzied and confusing.

Translations

Every language

verb be friendly toward someone

中文	套近乎 tàojìnhu

Talk about this word

Cite this

MLA

"chum up." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/chum%20up. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

chum up. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/chum%20up

Chicago

"chum up." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/chum%20up.

BibTeX

@misc{chum_up_2026,
  title = {chum up},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/chum%20up},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}