rum1
/rʌm
/noun [mass noun]
1An alcoholic spirit distilled from sugar-cane residues or molasses: she fortified herself with a large tot of rum [count noun]: buy him a rum and he’ll tell you his life story...
- As for the cocktails - gins, rums, vodkas and whiskeys mix effortlessly with exotic Indian and eastern fruits and flavours, the perfect balance of two cultures.
- Drinks range from fine rums and whiskies to brandy, while art works and coffee table books add to an ambience of exclusive sophistication.
- While flavors are all the rage in both vodkas and rums, the market for each spirit type differs.
1.1North American Intoxicating drink.He said it was the liquor, rum and rotgut, which made him ill, but all of our servants couldn't lift him up straight when the doctor came a visiting, and I reckon it was something worse.
Origin
Mid 17th century: perhaps an abbreviation of obsolete rumbullion, in the same sense.
Rhymes
rum2
/rʌm/adjective (rummer, rummest) British informal, dated
Odd; peculiar: it’s a rum business, certainly...
- It's certainly a rum old place, this Brave New World.
- Someone had decided to cajole this rum collection of musicians into an all-hands-to-the-pump version of John Lennon's Across the Universe.
- Since time immemorial man has caught fish and whales, but in the past three decades a rum situation has emerged.
Synonyms
odd, strange, peculiar, unusual, funny, bizarre, queer, weird, curious, abnormal, singular;
suspicious, suspect, dubious, questionable;
Scottish unco
informal funny peculiar
Phrases
a rum go
Derivatives
rumly
rumness
- I seem to remember the captain pointing out its rumness in a less polite way in the recent series too.
Origin
Late 18th century: of unknown origin.