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gum up the works

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gum up the works
to prevent a machine or system from operating correctly In bad weather, twice as many people use their cars on the road, which really gums up the works.
See be up a gum tree
See also: gum, up, work

gum up the works
to prevent a machine or system from operating correctly The project was going really well until that software upgrade gummed up the works.
Related vocabulary: gum up something
See also: gum, up, work


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Kim said he dreads the new employee who can gum up the works.
All it took was a single errant driver - in this case, Gavin Charles Kleintop, who allegedly was driving drunk - to gum up the works for tens of thousands of commuters.
An independent auditor would just gum up the works, asking too many questions, giving the fine print too fine a reading and maybe pointing out that we've heard these promises before and asking: Isn't it odd that the developers want to improve housing for the homeless by building a new football stadium?
 
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