---

• n  ineffectual chewing (as if without teeth)
• v  cover, fill, fix or smear with or as if with gum
• v  grind with the gums; chew without teeth and with great difficulty
• v  become sticky
• v  exude or form gum

• The GOP has been successful in gumming up the works of the Senate in recent years, forcing Reid to file for cloture a record 97 times last session well over the previous record .
• Engineers added a plastic plate beneath the shifter to prevent spilled coffee and other flotsam from falling into the mechanism and gumming it up.
• The complexities of mortgage securities and the uncertainty surrounding future home prices and the economy, it seemed, were gumming up the system.

• mumbling
• gum
• mumble

News & Articles

---

• A dubious grant for a dubious outfit: James Varney
  There has been much talk and congressional attention lately over the IRS gumming up the works of tax-exempt applications from conservative groups. Perhaps more of that should be directed toward the groups that are already exempt.   One that might...
  June 16, 2013 - New Orleans Times-Picayune

Quotes

---

• Hal Rogers in Washington Post
  Democrats want to "look aggressive on homeland security. This bill will waste billions of dollars, and possibly harm homeland security by gumming up progress already under way," said Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky.
• Timothy Geithner in International Herald Tribune
  Geithner said the United States was committed to removing troubled assets from banks that are "gumming up the system" by contributing to uncertainty over the depth of bank losses.
• Mack Brown in SportingNews.com
  I think when I get through and I'm gumming my food, it will mean a lotpersonally, Brown said of trying to win the Big 12. "As far as today, it would give these kids, these coaches and this university something we haven't done since we've...