▪ I. lumper, n.
(ˈlʌmpə(r))
[f. lump v. + -er1.]
1. a. A labourer employed in loading and unloading cargoes, esp. timber. b. Sc. (See quot.)
| 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Lumpers, persons who contract to unload ships. 1796 Colquhoun Police Metrop. (ed. 3) 54 The prevailing practice of discharging and delivering the cargoes of ships by a class of aquatic labourers, known by the name of Lumpers and Scuffle-hunters. 1825 Jamieson, Lumper, one who furnishes ballast for ships, Greenock; apparently from its being put on board in the lump. 1840 Marryat Poor Jack xviii, They go on board as lumpers to clear the ships. 1892 Daily News 5 Dec. 5/5 He was a rigger and lumper. |
2. slang. a. A kind of river-thief (
cf. 1).
b. (See
quot. 1851.)
c. A militia-man.
d. A small contractor, sweater.
| a. 1781 G. Parker View Soc. II. 78 They then commence Lumpers, which is skulking about ships, lighters, &c...stealing old iron..or whatever comes to hand. |
| b. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour (1864) I. 413 He understood by a ‘Duffer’, a man who sold goods under false pretences, making out that they were smuggled..; whereas a ‘Lumper’ would sell linens [etc.]..which..were made to appear new when they were old, or solid when they were flimsy. |
| c. 1869 Blackmore Lorna D. xxxviii, He was going to bring the lumpers upon us, only he was afeared, last winter. |
| d. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour (1864) II. 374 The first man who agrees to the job takes it in the lump, and he again lets it to others in the piece... The men to whom it is sublet only find labour, while the ‘lumper’, or first contractor, agrees for both labour and materials. 1892 Labour Commission Gloss., Lumpers, contractors, middlemen, sweaters. 1902 Westm. Gaz. 29 Mar. 9/1 In working in America for what are called ‘front lumpers’. |
3. Taxonomy. A taxonomist who is unwilling to use minute variations as a basis for the establishment of a large number of different species or genera.
| 1857 Darwin in Life & Lett. (1887) II. 105 It is good to have hair-splitters and lumpers. 1894 Cornh. Mag. Mar. 295 Modern biologists are divided into the two camps of the splitters and the lumpers. The first are in favour of making a species out of every petty..variety; the second are all for lumping unimportant minor forms into a single species. 1945 A. Young Prospect of Flowers xx. 151 Botanists are divided into two classes, ‘splitters’ and ‘lumpers’, ‘splitters’ being those who split plants into a large number of species and sub-species, while ‘lumpers’, impatient of minute distinctions, are inclined to lump them together. 1967 A. W. Jones Introd. Parasitol. xxix. 419 The more conservative taxonomists, called irreverently ‘lumpers’, defended established categories from attack by the radical ‘splitters’. 1972 Sci. Amer. Nov. 60/2 One can use the work of many different taxonomists, without regard to whether they are ‘lumpers’ or ‘splitters’ in their method of classification, as long as the work is self-consistent. |
4. Ireland. A coarse variety of potato.
| 1840 Tait's Mag. VII. 278 [In Ireland] though their condition haply should not be much bettered, under any change, it is impossible that it can be worse, while lumpers will grow. 1841 Lever C. O'Malley xxviii, You son of a lumper potato. 1843 ― J. Hinton xxvii, A miserable mud hovel, surrounded by, maybe half an acre of lumpers. |
▪ II. ˈlumper, v. Obs. exc. dial. [Cf. lamper, lomper Obs. Also lump v.3 5.] 1. intr. To move clumsily; to stumble or blunder along. Also
fig.| 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 91 [They] have alwayes hetherto in the interpretation of that Epistle, gropyngly lyke nightowles lumpred in darknesse. Ibid. 311 As men you may lumper and trippe. 1787 Grose Prov. Gloss., Lumper, to stumble. A lumpering horse. W[est]. 1898 T. Hardy Wessex Poems 206 Over piggeries, and mixens..They lumpered straight into the night. |
† 2. In
pa. pple. ? Spread out.
Obs.| c 1650 in Furnivall Percy Folio I. 114 Her lyppes lay lumpryd' on her chyn. |