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gums

Noun
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The firm, pink flesh surrounding the base of the teeth; occasionally evoked in poetry for vivid physical or anatomical imagery.

Detailed Definition
Gums are the pink tissue surrounding the teeth. Lawrence uses the word in a vivid physical description of the snake’s mouth and drinking.
Example
Example in poetry:
Gums can mean the tissues around teeth, as in “Softly drank through his straight gums,” where the body is described starkly; In John Donne’s “The Flea,” bodily imagery makes intimacy both comic and unsettling, a useful comparison for physical diction; “Blood warmed his gums after the fall” uses the anatomical sense directly and vividly; Gums may also mean sticky plant resins: “acacia gums sweetened the dust,” showing the word’s distinct botanical meaning
Additional Notes
In "Softly drank through his straight gums," the word is anatomical and may be less familiar in this precise sense.; Found in the poem, Snake by D. H. Lawrence
Also Known As
resinous substances botanical exudates plant secretions
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