scooming

A northern Scottish word for being exceptionally nosey, fishing for gossip and generally being a curtain twitcher. Even though scooming means looking for gossip, the word 'scoom' as a noun means gossip. One can be labelled a 'scoomer' if they are known to deliberately and desperately look for gossip. Scoomers can be found slow driving past your house or round all five streets in your village at night for hours... or perhaps even in the local shop pretending to look at apples or (other healthy things they'd never actually buy) but is actually listening very carefully to everything you are saying. Once the scoomer has found their prey, the scoomer will not be satisfied until they receive their supply of scoom. Everyone can be guilty of scooming but every village has their super scoomer. Most likely used in the rural areas of the Scottish Highlands in the north.