How to Use gum up the works in a Sentence

gum up the works

idiom

• With such tight deadlines, a handful of senators could gum up the works and force a government shutdown.
  — Peter Weber, The Week, 14 Dec. 2022
• One problem — among many — is that the WTO operates by consensus, so any one of its 164 member countries could gum up the works.
  — Jamey Keaten, ajc, 11 June 2022
• Republicans at the Statehouse, though, have proposed legislation the past two years that would gum up the works.
  — Ryan Martin, The Indianapolis Star, 29 Mar. 2021
• But in some crowded places like coffee shops, concert venues or airports, lots of people connecting to the same WiFi network can gum up the works.
  — Shira Ovide, Washington Post, 13 Dec. 2022
• A week and a half into training camp, the Ravens’ line looks capable of straddling the old school and the new school: a front that can gum up the works on second-and-1 runs and get after the quarterback on third-and-long drop-backs.
  — Jonas Shaffer, baltimoresun.com, 7 Aug. 2021
• There are links in that process that, while making these kinds of vaccines potentially more flexible, could still gum up the works given all the involved players.
  — Sy Mukherjee, Fortune, 5 Apr. 2021
• Given the narrow Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress, nearly any member has the power to gum up the works.
  — Grace Segers, The New Republic, 22 Sep. 2021
• But environmentalist allies have a loud voice and attorneys eager to file lawsuits that can gum up the works.
  — George Skelton, Los Angeles Times, 15 Aug. 2022
• Requiring a special counsel for every candidate who announces a campaign would be an easy way for the subject of an investigation to gum up the works.
  — Barbara McQuade, Time, 17 Nov. 2022
• Would this accelerate photosynthesis or just gum up the works?
  — Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 6 Dec. 2021
• Democrats can also gum up the works by simply doing the thing that voters sent them to Washington to do in the first place: repeatedly pass bold, popular legislation in the House that might form the spine of a 2021 governing agenda.
  — Jeff Hauser, The New Republic, 22 Sep. 2020
• Those committees have been able to advance legislation and nominations, but Republicans have been able to gum up the works to some degree thanks to tie votes and the procedural hurdles that come with them.
  — Aaron Blake, BostonGlobe.com, 7 Dec. 2022
• House rules are generally party-line votes (the rule for the debt ceiling bill was a rare exception), meaning that with such a narrow GOP majority, a few recalcitrant Republicans could gum up the works.
  — Grace Segers, The New Republic, 6 June 2023
• Verba said common mistakes people had been making were to include plastic bags, which gum up the works at the sorting facility, and putting items suitable for recycling inside plastic bags, thus requiring them to be tossed.
  — Peter Krouse, cleveland, 24 Sep. 2021

Last Updated: 29 Jul 2024