Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • interjection Used to express surprise.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • A corruption or equivalent of vow, used in the expression “I vum,” a mild expletive or oath. Compare swan.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb US, colloquial To vow, swear.
  • interjection US An exclamation of surprise.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Alteration of vow.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Alteration of vow.

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Examples

  • The press is mostly in French and German — even the Zeitung vum Lëtzebuerger Vollek is in German, despite the Luxembourgish title and date header.

    Luxembourg « The expat numbat: from AU to NL 2009

  • August 1862, als éischt vu fënnef Kanner, gouf de Claude Debussy als Jong vum Manuel-Achille Debussy a sénger Fra Victorine agedroen.

    Archive 2008-06-01 2008

  • Klingon: Ta 'ghobe' meQ qul joq vum HoS daq juH Qovpatlh!

    Sound Politics: Qapla' batlh je 2006

  • "Well, I vum!" drawled the expressman, at length recovering speech.

    Cap'n Abe, Storekeeper James A. Cooper

  • "You millionaires 'round here git more time to read it than ever _I_ do, I vum!"

    Cap'n Abe, Storekeeper James A. Cooper

  • "I vum!" she exclaimed, sitting down for the first time in years "at the first table."

    Hiram the Young Farmer Burbank L. Todd

  • I shan't hev ter stand much on't, however; I'll be aout doors most of the time, when I _have_ ter, an 'I vum I'll be aout all the rest of the time because I _choose_ ter.

    Randy and Her Friends Amy Brooks

  • I thought I seen you hangin 'around Hope Drugg's store more'n a little lately; and I vum I thought

    The Mission of Janice Day Helen Beecher Long

  • Nouns ending in the Nominative Singular in - vus, - vum, - quus, exhibited two types of inflection in the classical Latin, -- an earlier and a later, -- as follows: --

    New Latin Grammar Charles E. Bennett

  • "I dew vum," a mild New England oath, "I do vow." idyl (i-dil), a short poem describing country life.

    Elson Grammar School Literature v4 William H. Elson

Comments

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  • A toady’s no more than a bum

    Pretending some tyrant’s his chum.

    There will be a reckoning,

    For Old Nick is beckoning.

    He’ll haste to that hearthside, I vum.

    January 21, 2018