to feel like a bum
- idiom
- Offensive
:
sentirse un inútil
- Whenever I spend a whole day watching TV, I feel like a bum.
Examples
-
She felt like a bum when all her friends got promotions and she didn't.
-
After failing the exam, he couldn't help but feel like a bum for days.
-
I feel like a bum today.
-
She felt like a bum after missing work.
-
After failing the exam, I really began to feel like a bum.
-
When he sat on the couch all day, he couldn't help but feel like a bum.
-
After weeks of doing nothing, she started to feel like a bum.
Synonyms
To feel very lazy and not want to do anything
To feel very ashamed and worthless after doing something embarrassing
Antonyms
How Worthless
298
3.0
550
1.0
- Offensive
21
3.8
355
1.0
57
2.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is directly compositional: 'feel' (experience) + 'like' (similar to) + 'a bum' (an idle/worthless person) yields 'feel similar to a lazy or worthless person.' A B1 learner who knows the constituent words can therefore infer the meaning 'to feel unproductive or worthless.' This comparative pattern (feel like X) is common across languages, supporting full transparency.
Etymology
Feel like a bum comes from the old word bum for a person who sits on the street with no job or home. That picture of someone sitting and doing nothing helps explain why the phrase means 'to feel worthless, lazy, or unproductive'.