2. (military).—A brother-in-arms.
1890. Rudyard Kipling. Plain Tales (3rd ed.), p. 264. Oh! where would I be when my froat was dry? Oh! where would I be when the bullets fly? Oh! where would I be when I came to die? Why, Somewheres anigh my chum.
Verb, trs. and intrs. (colloquial).—To occupy a joint lodging, or share expenses; to be on the closest terms of intimacy with another; to be 'thick as thieves'; or 'thick as hops.' French slang has être dans la chemise de quelqu'un; also être du dernier bien avec quelqu'un.
1730. Wesley, wks. (1872) XII., 20. There are . . . some honest fellows in College, who would be willing to chum in one of them. [m.]
1762. Churchill, The Ghost, bk. II. Old Maids and Rakes are join'd together. Coquettes and Prudes, like April weather, Wits forc'd to chum with Common Sense.
1836. C. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, p. 339 (ed. 1857). 'Why I don't rightly know about to night,' replied the stout turnkey. 'You'll be chummed on somebody to-morrow, and then you'll be all snug and comfortable.'
1864. Temple Bar, Nov., p. 587. We choose our own carriages, and either leave our fellow trippers altogether, or, making a selection, chum in parties of three or four.
1871. Mortimer Collins, Mrq. and Merch., II., v., 143. She . . . found herself chummed upon a young person who turned out to be . . . a . . . slattern. [m.]
1877. Besant and Rice, With Harp and Crown, ch. xii. Here are City clerks, who, by chumming together, are able to afford one festive evening in the week at the Oxford.
New Chum, subs. (Australian).—A new arrival in the colony; a 'greenhorn'; or 'tenderfoot.' For general synonyms, see Snooker.
1861. Earles, Ups and Downs of Australian Life, p. 199. 'I suppose you're a stranger, or as we calls 'em, a new chum, ain't you?'
1886. E. Wakefield, Nineteenth Century, Aug., p. 173. In these colonies [Australia], where pretty nearly every one has made several sea voyages, that subject is strictly tabooed in all rational society. To dilate upon it is to betray a new chum.
1889. Town and Country, 16 Feb. 'Answers to Correspondents.' New Chum (Forbes):—The first instalment will be due, etc.
Chummage, subs. (old).—Money
procured by the practice of
chumming together; but various
extensions of meaning appear to
have been in vogue at different
periods.—See quots. [The practice
alluded to in quot. 1777, was
the rough music made with pokers,
tongs, sticks, and saucepans, for
which ovation the initiated prisoner
had to pay or 'fork out' a
certain sum of money, or submit
to being deprived of its equivalent
from among his personal effects;
otherwise called chumming up.]
1777. Howard, State of Prisons in England and Wales, quoted in J. Ashton's The Fleet, p. 295. A cruel custom obtains in most of our Gaols, which is that of the prisoners demanding of a new comer Garnish, Footing, or (as it is called in some London Gaols) chummage.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Chummage: money paid by the richer sort of prisoners in the Fleet and King's Bench to the poorer for their share of a room. . . . A prisoner who can pay for being alone, chooses two poor chums, who for a stipulated price, called chummage, give up their share of the room.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, xlii. The regular chummage is two-and-sixpence.
1859. G. A. Sala, Twice Round the Clock (1861), 103. The time-honoured system of chummage, or quartering two or more collegians in one room, and allowing the richest to pay his companions a stipulated sum to go out and find quarters elsewhere.
Also used as an adjective.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xlii., p. 364. You'll have a chummage ticket upon twenty-seven in the third, and them as is in the room will be your chums.
