rummy

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɹʌmɪ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɹʌmi/
• Rhymes: -ʌmi

Unknown, with much speculation. Perhaps related to rum via poker slang, or ultimately from German Ruhm.

rummy (usually uncountable, plural rummies)

1. A card game with many rule variants, conceptually similar to mahjong.

rum +‎ -y

rummy (comparative rummier, superlative rummiest)

1. Resembling or tasting of rum.

   a rummy flavour

2. (UK, colloquial, dated) Peculiar; odd.
   • 1920, P. G. Wodehouse, Jill the Reckless, page 28:

     “You say rummy things and you do rummy things. What I mean to say is, you're impulsive.”

rummy (plural rummies)

1. A rum-drinking alcoholic.
   • 1991, Stephen King, Needful Things:

     No one has forgotten Frank Dodd, the crossing guard who went crazy here twelve years ago and killed those women, and they haven't forgotten the dog, either, the one that came down with rabies and killed Joe Camber and the old rummy down the road from him.

Unadapted borrowing from English rummy.

rummy n (uncountable)

1. rummy