noun
Gollum
GAH-luhm
noun
1
Someone who acts obsessive, secretive, and twisted the way Tolkien's Gollum character does, especially over a prized possession.
"He gets all Gollum whenever anyone touches his phone."
"She hunched over her laptop like a total gollum, refusing to let anyone see the screen."
verb
1
To behave in a hunched, muttering, possessive way, imitating the character Gollum.
"Stop gollum-ing over the last slice of pizza."
How to Use Gollum
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishActing like the obsessive, sneaky, "my precious" character from The Lord of the Rings.
Common pairings
go full gollum
act like a gollum
Word Forms
Gollumed past tense, Gollums plural, Gollums singular
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Etymology
From Gollum, the tormented creature in J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth stories, originally called Sméagol before the name changed to describe the strange swallowing noise he made.