Definitions

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

  • noun A small boil or abscess on the gum, often resulting from tooth decay.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A small abscess on the gum.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) A small suppurating inflamed spot on the gum.

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

  • noun medicine A small suppurating inflamed spot on the gum.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a boil or abscess on the gums

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

gum +‎ boil

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Examples

  • ‘Toothache,’ growled Topsy, in reply, ‘not gumboil;’ the remedy suggested by Mrs Pulchop being for the latter of these ills.

    Madame Midas 2003

  • The crewman with the bat said, "Is this little gumboil telling the truth, mister?"

    The Martian Way Asimov, Isaac, 1920- 1955

  • George, my dear old school-chum, with the V.C., and his wife tells me of it as casually as if it had been a gumboil!

    Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 153, December 19, 1917 Various

  • "Listen to the doctor," Pearl commanded sternly, "or he'll raise a gumboil on ye."

    Sowing Seeds in Danny Nellie L. McClung 1912

  • "Listen to the doctor," Pearl commanded sternly, "or he 'll raise a gumboil on ye."

    Sowing Seeds in Danny 1908

  • They show teeth which in size and form are exactly the same as those of a thousand generations afterwards -- and suffering from gumboil too!

    The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4) A Plain Story Simply Told J. Arthur Thomson 1897

  • 'Toothache,' growled Topsy, in reply, 'not gumboil;' the remedy suggested by Mrs Pulchop being for the latter of these ills.

    Madame Midas Fergus Hume 1895

  • Mr. Flannery's mouth next week, I will open another keg of hard words and trace this gumboil theory to a successful termination, if I have to use up the whole ceiling of the patient's mouth.

    Remarks Bill Nye 1873

  • This might only indicate that Mr. Flannery had kept his mouth open too much during the summer, and sunburned the roof of his mouth, were it not that I also discovered traces of gumboil microbes of the squamous variety.

    Remarks Bill Nye 1873

  • I wish you would ask Mr. Flannery's immediate relatives, if you can do so without arousing alarm in the breast of the patient, if there has ever been a marked predisposition on the part of his ancestors to tubercular gumboil.

    Remarks Bill Nye 1873

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