gorm

verb

1. (UK, US, dialectal)To gawk; to stare or gape.

   “Passing through St. George's Square, Lupus Street, Chichester Street, he scarcely saw a soul; then, quite suddenly, he struck a dense crowd, kept back by the police, standing gorming at a great jagged hole in a high blank wall, a glimpse, the merest glimpse of more broken walls, shattered chimneys.”

   “"Tell Sannah to bring some coffee," said the young woman to a diminutive Kaffir boy, who stood gorming at us with round black eyes.”

   “They would stand in silence, mindlessly gorming at each other, […]”

   “In particular, we like to emphasize that, far from wasting our childhoods (not to mention adulthoods) mindlessly gorming at The Virginian and The Avengers, we spent those couch-potato years in rigorous preparation for our chosen career.”

2. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of gaum (“to smear”).

   “'It is quite ruined.' 'How did she do it? What a pity!' 'With paint—assisting in the painting of a garden-gate. She told me the pleasure of "gorming" it on was too irresistible to be resisted; and the poor little new gown in done for.'”

   “"It was in a little sprinkler bottle, an' I gormed it onto my vittles good an' thick. Lordy, Lordy, an' now I got to die!"”

   “For quotations using this term, see Citations:gorm.”

3. (colloquial, rare)To devour; to wolf down (food).

   “The bear came up to the berries and stopped. Not accustomed to eat out of a pail, he tipped it over, and nosed about the fruit "gorming" it down, mixed with leaves and dirt, […]”

   “[…] an itinerant bruin and with naught on his hands but time and an appetite, [to] wander from ravine to ravine and gorm down this delectable fruit.”

   “As Luohi said later, "He gormed it. Nay, he didn't eat it. He gormed it, the pig."”

4. (Appalachia, New-England, Southern-US, dialectal, often)To make a mess of.

   “I find the cheap shilling self-filling pen advertised in these pages excellent value—quite equal to that of fountain-pens I have paid ten times as much for. It is also durable. I am a careless person, and prefer to discard it when I have “gormed” it […]”

   “"Truth is, I've gormed it all up, Alistair. When it comes t' women — nice women anyway — I'm as caw-handed and cork-brained as any pimply boy."”