How to Use gum up the works in a Sentence

gum up the works

phrase

• Scott used comedy to grease the narrative wheels; here, the laughs tend to gum up the works.
  — Hannah Jocelyn, New Yorker, 19 Mar. 2026
• 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
• Would this accelerate photosynthesis or just gum up the works?
  — Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 6 Dec. 2021
• Conversely, the opponents of a president only need to gum up the works for one year, and then the calendar takes over and does it for them.
  — Susan Shelley, Oc Register, 4 Jan. 2026
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• Given this geographic breadth, nationalist trade policies that limit cross-border exchange and investment could easily gum up the works.
  — Inês Azevedo, Foreign Affairs, 13 Apr. 2020
• In its efforts to augment social interactions, Cluely can actually gum up the works of the human conversation machine.
  — Julie Beck, The Atlantic, 18 Nov. 2025
• 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
• Theoretically, either could gum up the works — denying the president a governor slot — by holding onto those positions rather than resign, though that would not be the historical norm.
  — Neil Irwin, Axios, 18 July 2024
• As for more accountability, as some skeptical Republicans demand, whatever measures add to our understanding of where money is going are useful; purely pretextual demands meant to gum up the works aren’t.
  — The Editors, National Review, 6 Dec. 2023
• Many of the mechanisms of Indian politics, including its protections for political dissent and independent judiciary, gum up the works of Modi’s ideological revolution.
  — Zack Beauchamp, Vox, 22 May 2024
• The problem with that is, while Democrats have sufficient numbers in Washington to gum up the works at the federal level, Maryland Republicans face Democratic supermajorities in both the State Senate and House of Delegates.
  — Chris Roemer, Baltimore Sun, 9 Apr. 2026