▪ I. frump, n.
(frʌmp)
[Of unknown origin; possibly shortened from frumple.]
† 1. ? A sneer, ? a derisive snort. Obs.
| 1589 R. Harvey Pl. Perc. 4 You vse the nostrils too much, and to many vnseasoned frumps [to a man, as if he were a horse]. 1592 Greene Disput. 24, I gaue him slender thankes, but with such a frump that he perceiued how light I made of his counsayle. 1650 Trapp Comm. Deut. xxiii. 4 As God takes notice of the least courtesie shewed to his people..so he doth of the least discourtesie, even to a frown or a frump. |
† 2. A mocking speech or action; a flout, jeer. Obs.
| 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. (1580) 188 You brought a shillyng to ninepence..and so gave hym a frumpe euen to his face. 1598 R. Barckley Felic. Man (1631) 99 Esteeming those things as the frumps of fortune, which ye exalt above the skies and take for felicitie. 1616 Beaum. & Fl. Scornf. Lady ii. iii, Sweet Widow leave your frumps, and be edified. 1651 Howell in Cartwright's Poems b 8 b, They dash thee on the Nose with frumps and rapps. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Frump, a dry Bob, or Jest. |
† 3. A derisive deception, a hoax. Obs.
| 1593 Hollyband Fr. Dict. (Halliw.), To tell one a lie, to give a frumpe. 1668 Davenant Man's the Master ii. i, These are a kind of witty frumps of mine like selling of bargains. 1791 Pegge Derbicisms Ser. ii. (E.D.S.), Frump, an untruth, a story. |
4. pl. Sulks, ill-humour. Now dial.
| 1668 Dryden Evening's Love iv. i, Not to be behind hand with you in your Frumps, I give you back your Purse of Gold. 1678 ― Kind Kpr. i. i, Why should you be in your frumps, Pug, when I design only to oblige you? 1823 Scott Peveril xl, When the Duchess of Portsmouth takes the frumps. 1823 Moor Suffolk Words s.v., If insolent withal, she [a cross old woman] would be said to be frumpy or frumpish or ‘in her frumps’. |
5. A cross, old-fashioned, dowdily-dressed woman. Also rarely, said of a man.
| 1817 Godwin Mandeville I. xi. 261 They voted me a prig, a frump, a fogram. 1840 Barham Ingol. Leg., Hamilton Tighe 97 All the best trumps Get into the hands of the other old frumps. 1859 G. Meredith R. Feverel xlii, I looked a frump. 1888 Rider Haggard Col. Quaritch I. 231 ‘Hang me..if she has not taken up with that confounded old military frump’. |
b. said of a dowdy dress.
| 1886 G. R. Sims Ring o' Bells, &c. ix. 229 She taught me..how to make pretty dresses..for half what my ugly old frumps of gowns..used to cost me. |
▪ II. frump, v.
(frʌmp)
[Connected with frump n.]
1. trans. To mock, flout, jeer; to taunt, insult, browbeat, snub. to frump off: to put off with jeering answers. Obs. or arch.
| 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. II. 34/1 He taketh the man to be overlavish of his pen in frumping of his adversaries with quipping taunts. 1606 Holland Sueton. 149 Whom..Caius was wont to frump and flout in most opprobrious termes as a wanton and effeminate person. a 1625 Fletcher Chances iii. i, Was ever Gentlewoman So frumpt off with a foole? 1655 W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. i. 116 God suffers somtimes the infirmities of his people to be known by the wicked (who are ready to check and frump them for them). 1753 School of Man 288 How can your spirit bear that Aglae shall daily be frumping you. |
| ¶ ?erron. 1841 Tait's Mag. VIII. 561 Conceiting himself, when he is only frumping the face of his own whim, to be beating..a whole world of buckramed giants into jelly. |
† 2. intr. To scoff, mock. Const. at. Obs.
| 1566 Drant Horace's Sat. iii. B iij b, One Mevius did frumpe and floute at Nevie then awaye. 1583 Golding Calvin on Deut. xiv. 81 These skoffers which are alwayes frumping. 1611 Dekker Roaring Girle Wks. 1873 III. 202 We are but frumpt at and libell'd vpon. 1662 Rump Songs ii. 60, I do not love for to frump. [1851 S. Judd Margaret xvii. (1871) 148 The riders screamed, cross-bit, frumped and hooted at each other.] |
† 3. To sulk, be in a bad temper. Obs.
| 1693 Southerne Maid's Last Prayer iii. i, My wife frump'd all the while and did not say one word. |
4. trans. To put in a bad humour, vex.
| 1862 H. Marryat Year in Sweden II. 59 Gustaf, frumped at the non-arrival of the Garter, placed the portrait of Charles Edward..opposite his own in the palace. |
Hence ˈfrumping vbl. n. Also ˈfrumper, one who ‘frumps’.
| 1598 Florio, Motteggiatore, a frumper, giber or iester, a quipper. 1611 Cotgr., Mocquerie..a mocking, flowting, scoffing, frumping. Ibid., Mocqueur, a mocker, flowter, frumper. 1664 Cotton Poet. Wks. (1765) 31 Pray young Man leave off your Frumping. 1677 Holyoke Lat. Dict., A frumper, sannio. |