gum up

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In part, that’s because of how easy it’s become to gum up the Senate.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 11, 2025

“Making it easier and less costly for insurers to deny claims, or for patients to file potentially dubious claims, could further gum up an already overloaded system rather than smoothing out the process.”

From MarketWatch • Oct. 21, 2025

Malformed proteins not only fail to carry out their tasks, they can accumulate and eventually gum up the inner workings of cells.

From Science Daily • Apr. 30, 2024

But Mr Day said these were "ingeniously countered" with either pumped-in sugar based viscous fluid to gum up the clockwork mechanism, or a magnet known as "the clock stopper" which would disrupt its iron parts.

From BBC • Dec. 26, 2022

Meryl Lee and Mai Thi and I decided that we should find better ways to help Danny than putting gum up our noses.

From "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt