bum

1. 1.

   ask for and get free; be a parasite

   Synonymsmoochcadgegrubsponge

   Broaderobtain

   Narrowerfreeload
2. 2.

   be lazy or idle

   “Her son is just bumming around all day”

   Synonymsbum aroundbum aboutarse aroundarse aboutfuck offloaffrig aroundwaste one's timelounge aroundlollloll aroundlounge about

   Broaderidle

1. 1.

   of very poor quality; flimsy

   Synonymscheapcheesychintzycrummypunksleazytinny

   Similarinferior

   colloquialism

Other forms of bum

plural

bums·

past tense or participle

bummed

present participle

bumming

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about bum

What does bum mean?

bum means "a person who is deemed to be despicable or contemptible". That is the primary sense; the word has 7 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in bum?

bum has 1 syllable: bum. In IPA it is /ˈbʌm/.

What is another word for bum?

Close synonyms include rotter, dirty dog, rat, skunk, stinker. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is bum a common word?

bum is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.