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gazump

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gazump¹

  • /ɡəˈzʌmp/ UK
  • /ɡəˈzʌmp/ US

Rhymes with -ʌmp

Where it comes from

Possibly from Yiddish גזלן (gazlen, “thief, bandit”).

verb gazumps · gazumping · gazumped · gazoomph · gazumph

  1. UK To swindle; to extort.
  2. Australia, UK To raise the selling price of something (especially property) after previously agreeing to a lower one. If one believes that morality plays no part in such a transaction, and that the law is all that prevails, then I believe society is the poorer. Clearly no surveyor refuses to act for a client who gazumps — but while the practice is legal it can hardly be described as moral, and the position of the s
  3. Australia, UK To buy a property by bidding more than the price of an existing, accepted offer. I can disclose that Mrs Blair had an offer of £2,765,000 accepted on a five-storey Georgian house in a fashionable area of central London, which she planned to give to daughter Kathryn.¶ However, actress Talulah Riley, 31, who played spoiled Annabelle Fritton in two St Trinian’s films, gazumped her
  4. Australia, UK To trump or preempt; to reap the benefit underhandedly from a situation that someone else has worked to create. The tactic was to gazump the Labour Party and the FOL by a major restructuring of the tax system.

noun gazumps · gazoomph · gazumph

  1. Australia, UK The act of gazumping.

gazump²

  • /ɡəˈzʌmp/ UK
  • /ɡəˈzʌmp/ US

Rhymes with -ʌmp

noun gazumps

  1. US, dated, slang An automobile. "Phoney" Thorpe, '06, and "Shorty" Winchester, '01, have been driving their "90 HP Gazumps" through the wilds of New Jersey, but otherwise keeping on the job.
  2. A politician who takes bribes. This year's crop of "nite bloomin' wood-be mayors" includes such famous gazumps as Mac Hoyne, Tom Carey, Barney Mullaney, possibly Carter H., Wilhelm Thompson, and the devil knows who else.

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MLA

"gazump." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/gazump. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

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

Chicago

"gazump." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/gazump.

BibTeX
@misc{gazump_2026,
  title = {gazump},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/gazump},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}