bum (plural bums)

1. (US, Canada, colloquial, sometimes, derogatory) A homeless person, usually a man.
2. (US, Canada, Australia, colloquial) A lazy, incompetent, or annoying person, usually a man.

   Fred is becoming a bum - he's not even bothering to work more than once a month.

   That mechanic's a bum - he couldn't fix a yo-yo.

   That guy keeps interrupting the concert. Throw the bum out!

   • 1987, The Pogues - Fairytale of New York

     You're a bum

     You're a punk

     You're an old slut on junk

     Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed

   • 1988, Michael Weikath, "Keeper of the Seven Keys", Helloween, Keeper of the Seven Keys: Part II.

     quote en

3. (US, Canada, Australia, colloquial, sports) A player or racer who often performs poorly.

   Trade him to another team, he's a bum!

   • 2001, Laura Hillenbrand - Seabiscuit: An American Legend

     Seabiscuit, wrote another reporter, “was a hero in California and a pretty fair sort of horse in the midwest. In the east, however, he was just a ‘bumʼ”

4. (colloquial) A drinking spree.

• (hobo) hobo, homeless person, tramp, vagrant, wanderer, vagabond
• (lazy person) loafer, bumpkin, footler, idler, lout, yob, yobbo, layabout
• (drinking spree) binge, bender
• See also Thesaurus:vagabond
• See also Thesaurus:idler

• French: vagabond
• German: Penner, Wohnsitzlose
• Italian: vagabondo, fannullone, barbone
• Portuguese: sem-teto
• Russian: бомж
• Spanish: vagabundo, vago

• French: tocard

bum (bums, present participle bumming; past and past participle bummed)

1. (transitive, colloquial) To ask someone to give one (something) for free; to beg for something.

   Can I bum a cigarette off you?

2. (intransitive, colloquial) To stay idle and unproductive, like a hobo or vagabond; to loiter.

   I think I'll just bum around downtown for awhile until dinner.

3. (transitive, slang, British) To wet the end of a marijuana cigarette (spliff).

• cadge (British)

• French: taper
• German: schnorren
• Italian: oziare, vagabondare
• Portuguese: implorar
• Russian: кля́нчить

• French: glander, glandouiller

bum (comparative bummer, superlative bummest)

1. Of poor quality or highly undesirable.

   bum note

2. Unfair.

   bum deal

3. Injured and without the possibility of full repair, defective.

   I can't play football anymore on account of my bum knee.

4. Unpleasant or unhappy.

   He had a bum trip on that mescaline.

• (defective) duff (UK)

• German: mies, schlecht, miserabel, erbärmlich, armselig
• Italian: scadente

• German: unsauber, unfair, unlauter, unredlich, unehrlich

• German: nachhaltig beschädigt

bum (bums, present participle bumming; past and past participle bummed)

1. To depress; to make unhappy.

bum (plural bums)

1. (dated) A humming noise.

bum (bums, present participle bumming; past and past participle bummed)

1. (intransitive) To make a murmuring or humming sound.

bum (plural bums)

1. (obsolete) A bumbailiff.
   • 1705, Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees:

     About her Chariot, and behind, / Were Sergeants, Bums of every kind, / Tip-staffs, and all those Officers, / That squeeze a Living out of Tears.