gum up

verb

To harm irreparably through inept handling; make a mess: ball up, blunder, boggle, botch, bungle, foul up, fumble, mess up, mishandle, mismanage, muddle, muff, spoil. Informal bollix up, muck up. Slang blow¹, goof up, louse up, screw up, snafu. Idioms: make a muck of. See correct/incorrect, help/harm/harmless.

Ruin or bungle something, as in The front office has gummed up the sales campaign thoroughly. This idiom is also put as gum up the works, as in John's changes in procedures have gummed up the works in the shipping department. [Slang; c. 1900]

The verb has one meaning:

Meaning #1: stick together as if with gum