Basic Guidelines For English Spellings
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informalBritishOne's mother.
‘she often goes round to see her mum, who lives nearby’as name ‘Jane worried all the way home about telling Mum’- ‘Her comparison of older mothers to teenage mums and her call for government intervention is likely to prove highly controversial.’
- ‘Here we speak to a first-time mum, a mother of four and that other essential to baby-making, a father, about their experiences of life after childbirth.’
- ‘Like his mum - and her mother before her - Tom suffers from aura migraines.’
- ‘His mum was a single mother who had a succession of boyfriends, none of whom were able to act as a father figure to him or his sister Denise.’
- ‘She wasn't my real mother - my real mum died when she had me - but I called her my mama.’
- ‘Was I jumping to conclusions thinking of my mum as a careless mother?’
- ‘But with my youngest daughter, we took the initiative and named her after Mum's mother's mum, Asantewaa.’
- ‘These results are great news for all mums, but working mums will feel particularly reassured.’
- ‘If your mum clicked with their mum then you would have a new friend whether you liked it or not!’
- ‘As much as the vast majority of people adore their mums, mums are still one of the most frustrating and annoying creatures to walk this planet.’
- ‘They are the ultimate ‘new men’, happy to gossip at the school gates with the mums while their own child's mother is out at work pursuing her career and bringing in the family income.’
- ‘Despite their loss, her mum Patti and family have now thrown themselves into raising cash for research into the rare disease.’
- ‘When my mum spoke it was more scary than receiving a beating.’
- ‘Recalling his hospital visits in his mother's last days, Hugh writes about how he made his beloved mum laugh by wearing her bedpan as a hat and blowing up surgical gloves to resemble udders.’
- ‘I am a working mum living in a rural village 17 km from Lismore.’
- ‘A defiant single mum plans to create a haven for her children and their friends to rebuild community spirit after standing up to nuisance neighbours.’
- ‘My mum lives in Scotland and she thinks I'm a star.’
- ‘‘I like to do the mum thing and help out at school and you cannot do that when you are working full time,’ she says.’
- ‘His mum Shirley was a devout Christian woman, a Methodist, just a touch humourless but endlessly patient, kind and smiling.’
- ‘The Robinson girls not only learned how to grow vegetables but also, thanks to the expert tutelage of mum Joan, how to cook them.’
Origin
Pronunciation
adjective
predicativeSilent.
- ‘They kept their engagement and pregnancy mum for months.’
- ‘Well the most wonderful thing happened last night, but I have to be mum on the subject, so I can't say a word.’
- ‘However, his doctors are still remaining mum on his condition until the complete tests take place later this week.’
- ‘We didn't really see much reason for it, but we remained mum all the same.’
- ‘He was mum as to whether the carrier plans to turn it on in the future.’
- ‘These shows depend on contestants remaining mum about the show's outcome until the airdate.’
- ‘The company is remaining mum on the core question about its instant messaging technology.’
silent, quiet, mute, dumb, tight-lipped, close-mouthed, uncommunicative, unforthcoming, reticent, secretiveView synonyms
Phrases
- keep mum
Remain silent, especially so as not to reveal a secret.
‘he was keeping mum about a possible move to West Ham’- ‘Think what you may; keeping mum gives me one secret more.’
- ‘A good friend can keep mum about your deepest darkest secrets.’
- ‘The CIA though has conveniently kept mum as of now.’
- ‘The fish sign took two people to make - you made a curved line casually on the ground with a toe, if the other person didn't add the other curve you kept mum.’
- ‘I kept mum about the fact I'd had an abortion.’
- ‘I presume that the teachers and administration kept mum and can only suppose that it was the boy himself who publicized his problems.’
- ‘The hospital authorities also kept mum about his visit.’
- ‘But New York Times staffers kept mum not so much out of fear of reprisals as out of respect for the institution.’
- ‘Defying the age of celebrity, and resisting the lucrative market for antiquities, the property owner kept mum about his treasure for decades.’
- ‘Many Gandhians who had kept mum during earlier riots are protesting this time and actively working for restoration of peace.’
silent, quiet, mute, dumb, tight-lipped, close-mouthed, uncommunicative, unforthcoming, reticent, secretiveView synonyms(as a request or warning) say nothing; don't reveal a secret.
‘I know I can rely upon your discretion, mum's the word’- ‘Go out and have some fun, but remember, mum's the word!’
- ‘But the best thing of all about all the hand-outs in this welfare state is that mum's the word, when it comes to explaining to taxpayers why you need their money.’
- ‘The mystery is certainly captivating Washington, while mum's the word at the White House.’
- ‘For when it came to telling her mother of her dramatic ordeal, Jenny decided it was a case of mum's the word.’
- ‘But she knew that it was going to be mum's the word and Faith would find out when she arrived in the principal's office Monday morning.’
- ‘He also said not to mention that I was paid to write an update for him, so mum's the word.’
informal
informal
Origin
Late Middle English imitative of a sound made with closed lips.
Pronunciation
noun
informalA cultivated chrysanthemum.
- ‘Whether you want to compete or simply collect mums, the National Chrysanthemum Society has 43 chapters across the country.’
- ‘Saint Mary's Church was decorated with pink and white mums.’
- ‘Autumn's butterflies - fritillaries and migrating monarchs - match the burnt-orange mums just beginning to bloom.’
- ‘Then the first cold front rolls in, slays the mums, frosts the lawn, whistles down the chimney and signals the reign of the new season.’
- ‘Jaws gaped, dessert was quickly served, and the topic moved to something like the appropriate watering time for mums.’
- ‘Autumn-colored mums, pink carnations and fucshia orchids lining the streets.’
- ‘The flower lady buffed the bouquet out with orchids, mums, other fragrant weird blooms I don't know the names of, and various greens.’
- ‘Pumpkins, bales of hay, mums in colors that mimic the trees, a few scarecrows and a wooden black cat complete the package.’
- ‘When my primroses have served their cheerful spring purpose, it will be easy to replace them with pots of other colorful summer favorites such as mums, asters, or a geranium.’
- ‘However, if you live in a climate with winters marked by regular hard freezes, you can improve your mums ' winter survival by cutting off tops after new growth begins in spring.’
- ‘A hollowed pumpkin is a fitting place to tuck a small pot of mums or an arrangement of fresh or dried flowers.’
- ‘The deep green fine-textured foliage of mums is remarkably aromatic, lending a distinctive ambience to the containers in which they are planted.’
- ‘Garden mums give us a burst of color in the fall when used to replace the annuals we have enjoyed since spring.’
- ‘Put tall plants behind short ones and plan to have continuous color from the first flowering bulbs of early spring to hardy mums, which will withstand a light frost.’
Origin
Late 19th century abbreviation.
Pronunciation
verbmums, mumming, mummed
[no object]Act in a traditional masked mime or a mummers' play.
‘after they had masked and mummed, away they went’- ‘He was the first to draw scholarly attention to the custom of Christmas mumming in Newfoundland and its accompanying traditional drama, as evidenced in the standard work on the subject, Christmas Mumming in Newfoundland.’
- ‘It's an old tradition, which, along with wassailing and mumming, we have performed over the years in and around Skipton, and many people, especially those young in heart, enjoy the music and dance in which all are invited to participate.’
- ‘The common and consistent point is that they took a selection of historic performance practices - morris dances and sword dances, mumming, and others in England - and declared them to be the survivals of ancient sacrificial rituals.’
- ‘He and others argued that English morris dancing and sword dancing, and mumming, were closely linked, and in fact represented the surviving fragments of a once-united, pan-European sacrificial ritual.’
- ‘The English writers thought they found sacrifice in sword dancing and mumming, which sometimes included mock killings; surely this reflected ancient sacrifices, faded to rude play acting?’
- ‘The section on popular masking proceeds through chapters on early masking, carnival, and mumming, all of which pursue a contextual approach to these forms.’
- ‘The mummers wore oversized, wire-constructed costumes and carried little umbrellas as they mummed along.’
- ‘An essential part of the mumming tradition was audience participation, with the crowd hissing the dragon and cheering St George to victory, and that's probably where we get our robust pantomime backchat these days.’
- ‘The Camloch Mummers have been invited to the festival this year, and responses to a questionnaire on the mumming or rhymers tradition are asked for.’
Origin
Late Middle English compare with mum and Middle Low German mummen.
Pronunciation
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