bum
58
7.1
- noun
- /bʌm/
- NSFW
:
vagabundo
- The bum sat on the sidewalk, hoping for spare change from passersby.
- homeless bum
- sleeping bum
- street bums
Examples
-
At various points, several bums warm their hands at trash-can fires.
Fiction book (1992) -
Scott told a story about a bum they had found one morning sleeping in their yard.
Fiction book (1993) -
But actually this is the bum who lives here with us.
-
Go out and arrest a bum to get them off your back?
-
I knew that bum was trouble.
-
The dark figure of a bum starts walking towards him.
Fiction book (1991) -
You were nothing more than a street bum when I pulled you out of the gutter.
-
The old bum that Phil never noticed before is lying there, huddled against a wall.
Fiction book (1993) -
Through the plate glass window, two bums share a meat food snack.
Academic text (2007) -
Phil kneels on the cold ground beside the old bum who lies huddled against the wall, immobile.
Fiction book (1993)
Synonyms
36
8.4
A person who travels from place to place without a home and looks for temporary work
28
6.1
A person who has no home and travels, often begging or doing casual work
25
7.7
A person who has no home and moves from place to place, often begging
Antonyms
Idioms
Compounds
- Offensive
A person, often a company leader, who gets government money they do not deserve
- Slur
A rude word for a person who gets government money and is seen as not trying to work
How Lazy
Surface Forms
Etymology
Bum for a homeless person comes from 19th-century slang for someone with no steady job who begged or did odd jobs, so a 'bum' is a person who lives without a permanent home.