Degommy

Degommy: (French – Dégommé). Ungummed. Unstuck. Used of officers relieved or removed from commission for failure. Dégommer was a French army term before the War. In the War, it obtained special notiety owing to Marshal Joffre's wholesale "retiring" of generals in September 1914. Properly, the word means to take the gum out of silk fabrics.