▪ I. bumper, n.1
(ˈbʌmpə(r))
[perh. from bump n.1 or v.1: with notion of a ‘bumping’, i.e. large, ‘thumping’ glass.]
1. a. A cup or glass of wine, etc., filled to the brim, esp. when drunk as a toast.
| 1676 D'Urfey Mad. Fickle v. i. (1677) 52 Full Bumpers crown our Blisses. 1774 Goldsm. Retal. 127 He cherish'd his friend, and he relish'd a bumper. 1856 Kane Arct. Exp. I. xiii. 151 A dinner of marled beef..and a bumper of champagne all round. |
b. Comb., as bumper-dram, bumper-toast.
| 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. iv, Drinking their meridian (a bumper-dram of brandy). 1839 Lockhart Ballantyne-humbug Few will doubt that he did..pledge, with hearty zeal, many a bumper-toast. |
2. slang. Anything unusually large or abundant. (Cf. whopper, whacker, thumper, etc.) Esp. freq. in attrib. use = exceptionally abundant or good (see also quot. 1864). Cf. sense 3.
| 1759 Gentl. Mag. XXIX. 271/2 In some of the midland counties, anything large is called a bumper, as a large apple or pear. 1859 Lang Wand. India 9 Tellwell and Long..have just lost a bumper—twenty-seven gold mohurs. 1864 G. Berkeley My Life & Recoll. I. 182 The country was immensely deep and the brook a bumper. 1864 Hotten Slang Dict. 89 A match at quoits, bowls, &c., may end in a ‘bumper game’, if the play and score be all on one side. 1885 Times (Weekly ed.) 2 Oct. 5/3 The floods will have the effect of giving a ‘bumper’ rubbee crop. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 18 Nov. 8/1 The past fortnight's bumper traffic. 1908 Daily Chron. 8 Jan. 4/4 So far as the foreign trade of this country is concerned, 1907 was a bumper year. 1955 Times 22 June 9/6 Instead of an expected crop of 600,000 bags there was a bumper crop of 1,400,000 bags. |
3. Theatr. slang. A crowded ‘house’ at a theatre.
| 1789 J. B. Watson Let. 25 Aug. in L. Sumbel Mem. (1811) III. 144 Her benefit, at Gloster, which, if a bumper, in every and the truest sense will be no more than I most cordially wish it. 1795 T. Wilkinson Wand. Patentee IV. 36 A bumper of a house. 1839 Dickens Nich. Nick. xxiv, This charming actress will be greeted with a bumper. 1886 Pall Mall G. 2 Aug. 3/2, I have heard a crowded house on a benefit night called ‘a bumper’. |
4. In Whist and other games: see quots.
| 1876 A. Campbell-Walker Correct Card (1880) Gloss. 11 Bumper. Winning two games—i.e. eight points—before your adversaries have scored. 1880 Besant & Rice Seamy Side xxxii. 282 After seeing a double bumper fooled away, his partner rose in silent dignity, and left the house. |
5. a. [f. sense 1 of the verb.] The buffer of a railway carriage (U.S.).
| 1839 Jrnl. Franklin Institute XXIV. 156 The bumpers or elastic cushions are to be attached..to the front and rear draw-bar. 1864 Sanatory Commission U.S. Army 110 note, The Bumper is surrounded by a stiff spring, which prevents the communication of the jar. |
b. (See quot.)
| 1868 Fairley Gloss. Coal-Mining ii. 5 A massive piece of iron, so heavy that when the cage is at the bottom of the cut, it will draw it empty to the top, and when the cage at the top is laden, it will act as a balance as the cage descends: this piece of iron is called the bumper. |
c. A log, bar, etc., serving as a fender or shock-absorber; spec. a metal bar attached to either end of a motor vehicle to lessen the shock in a collision. Also attrib. and Comb., as bumper-to-bumper adv. and a., (of cars) travelling very close together.
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 144 Bumpers, logs of wood placed over a ship's side to keep off ice. 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal-Mining 38 Bumpers,..projecting blocks of wood attached to pump spears for preventing damage in case of a break down. 1889 Cent. Dict., Bumper-timber, in some locomotives, a timber to which the cow-catcher or pilot is fastened, designed to receive the shock or blow of a collision. 1901 Law Times 11 May 29/2 An elevator car..passed downward until it struck the bumpers at the bottom of the shaft. 1926 Morris Owner Feb. 1600/2 The front face of the bumper bar is attractively finished in bright nickel plate. 1928 Punch 25 Apr. p. xxxiii (Advt.), ‘The Bumper with the Leaf Spring Buffer.’ This unique and ingenious feature evenly distributes and reduces the shock of an impact. 1938 ‘Ellery Queen’ Four of Hearts (1939) v. 75 Los Feliz Boulevard was jammed with cars crawling bumper to bumper. 1959 Manch. Guardian 18 May 1/1 A bumper-to-bumper traffic jam on roads. 1959 Motor 21 Oct. 346/2 Lights..repositioned behind the front bumper. 1967 G. Legman Fake Revolt 16 The bumpersticker approach to hallucinatory drugs and sex technique. |
6. a. One who or a thing that bumps; spec. Bookbinding = smasher1 3.
| 1881 Instr. Census Clerks (1885) 43 Rocker or Bumper. 1887 C. C. Rhys Minora Carmina 267 Up at Oxford by eights on the Isis, The gloom of bumpees and of bumpers the glow. 1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §279 Bumper (tin boxes, etc.), packs into bundles, scrap tinplate left from stamping or cutting, by shovelling it into iron box, ramming or bumping it into compact shape with long-handled iron ram. Ibid. §409 Bumper, a planker who operates a bumping machine; places felt forms in a sort of trough, sets machine in motion, so that forms are bumped about against arms of machine. 1951 S. Jennett Making Books xi. 171 The machine appropriately called the smasher or the bumper..is in effect an automatic clamp. |
b. Cricket. A bumping ball (see bump v.1 2 b).
| 1855 Bell's Life in London 19 Aug. 8/3 From the fact of the ground not being a good wearing one, the ‘bumpers’ of Lillywhite could not be mastered. 1904 Westm. Gaz. 24 May 3/2 With the likelihood of..an occasional ‘bumper’ even such great batsmen..might have failed. 1955 Times 30 Aug. 3/2 Heine bowled a number of rude, honest bumpers. |
c. bumper car = Dodgem.
| [1949 M. Laski Little Boy Lost iii. xiv. 195 ‘We'll go in the bumpy-cars,’ he said, and climbed into a bright blue car.] 1959 P. Brown As far as Singapore vi. 124 They are big amusement parks... They have bumper cars. 1960 New Left Rev. Jan.–Feb. 52/1 Going to a fair to ride on the bumper cars. |
▪ II. bumper, n.2
[f. bump v.2 and n.2]
In comb. bog-bumper = bittern.
| 1866 Inverness Cour. 4 Jan., The bog-bumper. 1887 Jessopp Arcady 56 ‘Were there any bitterns here?’ ‘Why, you must mean Bog Bumpers.’ |
▪ III. ˈbumper, n.3 colloq.
[-er6.]
A bumping-race.
| 1906 D. Coke Bending of Twig x. 157 The Bumpers, to give them their familiar name, are split in such a way that a day of rest is allowed in the middle of the four days' racing. 1910 H. W. Chaundry Rec. Rowing Club S. Philip & S. James', Oxf. 13 Each of its two crews secured four bumps in the City ‘Bumpers’. |
▪ IV. ˈbumper, n.4 Austral. and N.Z. slang.
[App. telescoped form of butt n.3 and stump n.1 3 + -er1 3.]
A cigarette end.
| 1916 Anzac Book 47/2 While we was standin' to arms 'e lights up a bumper. 1945 Salt 2 July 43/2 Tom is busily engaged searching in the dust for enough bumpers to roll a smoke. 1958 R. Stow To Islands ii. 42 Galumbu, resigning it, requested ‘Bumper, bodj,’ and Heriot, after stubbing it placed the butt in the open mouth. 1967 Southerly XXVII. 212 He patted the bare mattress..where a bumper had burned a hole sometime in the past. |
▪ V. ˈbumper, v.1
[f. bumper n.1]
a. trans. To fill (a drinking-vessel) to the brim. b. trans. To toast in a bumper. c. intr. (and with object it) to drink bumpers or toasts.
Hence bumpering vbl. n. (attrib. in quot.).
| 1696 W. Mountague Delights Holland 40 They [the Dutch] Bumper it but seldom. 1789 Burns Whistle viii, I'll..bumper his horn with him twenty times o'er. 1795 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Hair Powd. Wks. 1812 III. 301 Ye bumper it in England's cause. 1808 Cumbrian Ballads No. 75. 175 Come, bumper the Cummerlan lasses. 1859 M. Scott Tom Cringle xviii. 510 We all sang and bumpered away. |
▪ VI. ˈbumper, v.2
[? connected with bump v.1 or n.1]
intr. Frequentative and dim. of bump: to make or receive slight bumps; to cause jolts.
| 1822 Blackw. Mag. XI. 159 A hand-gallop, in which I trust you will think that Peggy [i.e. Pegasus] has bumpered very seldom. |