An old or dialectal term for a crowd of people or things; a confused mass or jumble.
From Old English or dialect sources; the exact origin is uncertain, but it may relate to Old English 'ceorl' (man/commoner) or similar Germanic roots indicating groups of common people.
Words like 'chiurm' that have faded from use preserve glimpses of how people saw the world—when you had a word specifically for 'a confused mass of commoners,' it reveals social attitudes from centuries ago.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.