gumption
(UK, Irish) Common sense, initiative, resourcefulness.
Seen in the wild
Fortunately the city had the foresight and gumption to bury the power lines in Fort Collins back in the early aughts!
Sometimes the gumption runs out when the chore is half complete even though there is no alternative task on the docket. I leaned the broom against the wall in case its presence will shame me into finishing
Definitions
(UK, Irish) Common sense, initiative, resourcefulness.
Comments
(US) Boldness of enterprise; aggressiveness or initiative.
As a balance to genius, which is ideally creative, gumption is required to control, to direct. Gumption is the power to realize the poetical worth of common sense. Without that power no man was ever truly great.
“Fortunately the city had the foresight and gumption to bury the power lines in Fort Collins back in the early aughts!”
— Bluesky· May 2026“Sometimes the gumption runs out when the chore is half complete even though there is no alternative task on the docket. I leaned the broom against the wall in case its presence will shame me into finishing”
— Bluesky· May 2026
Comments
(US) Energy of body and mind, enthusiasm.
Whatever the job turned out to be, if it went against her gumptions, she would make sure Gregory would have hell on his hands and make him eager to release her from the deal.
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UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
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