chummage
(ˈtʃʌmɪdʒ)
[f. chum + -age.]
1. The system of ‘chumming’ one person upon another; the quartering of two or more persons in one room. Hence chummage-ticket.
| 1837 Dickens Pickw. xlii, You'll have a chummage ticket upon twenty-seven in the third, and them as is in the room will be your chums. 1859 Sala Tw. round Clock (1861) 103 The time-honoured system of ‘chummage’, or quartering two or more collegians in one room, and allowing the richest to pay his companions a stipulated sum to go out and find quarters elsewhere. |
2. The fee demanded of a ‘new chum’ (Prison slang), or that paid as described in prec. quot.
| 1777 Howard Prisons Eng. 16 A cruel custom obtains in most of our gaols, which is that of the prisoners demanding of a new comer, garnish, footing, or (as it is called in some of the London gaols) chummage. 1837 Dickens Pickw. xlii, The regular chummage is two-and-sixpence. |