"rum" Definition

  1. like its opposite, QUEER, was formerly a much-used prefix, signifying fine, good, gallant, or valuable; perhaps in some way connected with ROME. Nowadays it means indifferent, bad, or questionable, and we often hear even persons in polite society use such a phrase as, “What a RUM fellow he is, to be sure,” in speaking of a man of singular habits or appearance. The term, from its frequent use, long since claimed a place in our dictionaries; but, with the exception of Johnson, who says RUM, a cant word for a clergyman(!), no lexicographer has deigned to notice it. “Thus RUMLY floor’d, the kind Acestes ran, And pitying, raised from earth the game old man.” _Virgil’s Æneid_, book v., Translation _by Thomas Moore_.

More About rum

Position in the dictionary: 2907 of 4022 slang words.
Next words in the dictionary: rum cull, rum-mizzler, rum-slim, rumbler, rumbowling, rumbumptious, rumbustious, rumgumption, rump, rumpus
Previous words in the dictionary: rule., rule the roast, ruggy, ruction, ruck, rubber, rubbed out, rub, rowdy-dow, rowdy

The Slang Dictionary's Entry for rum

Read The Slang Dictionary's historical definition of the slang word "rum" on this page. Also learn other useful information about "rum", including the position in the dictionary and the next and previous terms to be discovered.