As verb. = (1) to trick, to cheat; and (2) to talk idly, or to speak slang.
d.1821. Randall, Diary (Grose, 3rd ed. [1823]). And thus, without more slum, began.
1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Slum—loose ridiculous talk is all slum! 'None of your slum' is said by a girl to a blarneying chap. . . . The gypsy language, or cant, is slum. . . . Dutch Sam excelled in slummery—'Willus youvus givibus glasso ginibus.'
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. That was his leading slum, and pretty well he sponged them too. Ibid. (1856), Gt. World of London, 46. Screevers or the writers of slums and fakements.
2. (old).—Originally a room [Grose: also see quots. 1823, s.v. sense 1 and infra]. Also 3 (modern) = a squalid street or neighbourhood; a rookery (q.v.): usually in pl. with 'back.' As verb. = (1) to explore poor quarters out of curiosity or charity; 2 (Univ.) to keep to back streets to avoid observation; and 3 (common) to keep in the background.
1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Slum . . . also the room in which persons meet who talk in that style [see sense 1]; thus we may have 'the little slum,' or 'the great slum,' 'a dirty slum,' or 'a pretty slum,' 'the back slum,' and a slum in front. Derived from slumber, to sleep, the molls and coves napping nine winks at those places.
1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii. 3. Let's have a dive amongst the cadgers in the back slums in the Holy Land.
1872. Black, Adv. of Phaeton, xviii. When one gets clear of the suburban slums and the smoke of Liverpool, a very respectable appearance of real country-life becomes visible.
1884. Referee, 22 June. A wealthy lady went slumming through the Dials the other day.
1885. Echo, 8 Sep. There is little in the author's observations on slums and slum life that has not been said before.
d.1894. Yates, London Life, i. ii. Gone is the Rookery, a conglomeration of slums and alleys in the heart of St. Giles's.
1897. Marshall, Pomes, 74. It was really a slum, where the greens always hum. Ibid., 97. But it [love] wouldn't be slummed like a worm in the bud.
4. (thieves').—A letter, a package: anything in hand.
5. (Punch and Judy).—The call; slum-fake = the coffin; slumming = acting.
1872. Braddon, Dead Sea Fruit, xiv. The gorger's awfully coally on his own slumming, eh?
Slumgullion, subs. (American).—A
representative; a servant
[Bartlett].
Slumguzzle, verb. (American).—To
deceive. Hence slum-*guzzling
= humbuggery [Bartlett].
Slummy, subs. (common).—A servant-girl.
Slump, subs. (Stock Exchange and
colloquial).—1. A sudden fall:
of prices; an ignominious failure:
e.g., a slump in Kaffirs. As
verb. = to fall heavily (Scots')
slump = all of a piece; to come
down with a rush.
1888. Howells, Annie Kilburn, xxv. What a slump!. . . That blessed shortlegged little seraph has spoilt the best sport that ever was.
2. (common).—A gross amount; the whole: e.g. 'a slump sum.' As verb. = to lump, or group together.
d.1856. Sir W. Hamilton, Works (Century). The different groups . . . are exclusively slumped together under that sense.
1870. W. Mathews, Getting on in the World, 20. Slumping the temptations which were easy to avoid with those which were comparatively irresistible.
