1830. Moncrieff, Heart of London, ii. 1. We frisk so rummy. Ibid. We chaunt so rummy. Ibid., i. 2. Good night, my rum-'uns. Ibid., i. 1. Rummy Spitalfields wipes.
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood (1864), 180. Rum Gills and Queer Gills, Patricos, Palliards, &c. Ibid., 60. With them the best Rumpads of England are not to be named the same day! Ibid., 199. I want a little ready cash in Rumville—beg pardon, ma'am, London I mean. Ibid., 190. I know you can throw off a rum chant. . . . I heard you sing last night at the hall.
1844. Selby, London by Night, i. 2. What's in the wind, my rum cull.
1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., I. 341. Not one swell in a score would view it in any light than a ream concern.
1886. Stephens and Yardley, Little Jack Sheppard, 37. Farewell to Old England for ever, Farewell to my rum culls as well.
2. (common).—In modern slang (by inversion) rum = indifferent; bad; questionable; odd: as adj. rummy (or rumly). Whence (3) rum = anybody or anything odd or singular in habit, appearance, &c.; rum-Ned = a silly fellow (B. E.); rum duke = a half-witted churl (but see sense 1); to come it rum = to act (or talk) strangely.
1729. Swift, Grand Question Debated. A rabble of tenants and rusty dull rums.
1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 155. Well said, Ulysses, cries the king (A little touch'd tho' with the sting Of this rum speech).
17[?]. Old Song [N. & Q., 7 S., ix. 97. Although a rummy codger, Now list to what I say.
1781. Parker, View of Society, I. 48. 'Blow me up (says he) if I have had a fellow with such rum toggys cross my company these many a day.'
1803. Sharpe [Correspondence (1888), i. 18]. They were angry with rums, they were troubl'd with bores.
1812-15. Nichols, Lit. Anec., v. 471. The books which booksellers call rums appear to be very nnmerous, . . . yet they are not really so.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, 'Jack Holmes's Song.' Some wonder, too, the tits that pull This rum concern alone, so full.
1829. Somerset, Day After the Fair. Well, dang it! though she's a rum one to look at, she's a good one to go.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, xvi. "You're a rum 'un to look at, you are," thought Mr. Weller.
1840. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (Hamilton Tighe). And the neighbours say, as they see him look sick, "What a rum old covey, is Hairy-faced Dick!"
1877. Besant and Rice, Son of Vulcan, II. xxvii. How much? It's a rummy ramp—but how much?
1882. Anstey, Vice-Versa, xi. There's young Tom on the box; don't his ears stick out rummily?
1888. Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, i. What a rum thing a man should laugh when he's only got twenty-nine days more to live.
1892. Kipling, Barrack Room Ballads, 'Route Marchin'.' There's that rummy silver grass.
1899. Whiteing, John St., v. Rummy lot dahn there.
Rumble, subs. (colloquial).—A
seat for servants at the back of a
carriage: also rumble-tumble
(which likewise [Grose and
Vaux]) = a stage coach. See
Dickey and quot. 1830.
1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, xxv. His favourite servant sat in the dickey in front (rumble-tumbles not being then in use). Ibid. (1858), What Will He Do, &c., I. 15. From the dusty height of a rumble-tumble . . . Vance caught sight of Lionel and Sophy.
1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, xiv. A discontented female in a green veil and crimped curls on the rumble.
Verb. (old).—To try; to search; to handle.
1821. Haggart, Life, 14. I was rumbling the cloys of the twigs.
1886-96. Marshall, Beautiful Dreamer ['Pomes,' 65]. I rumbled the tip as a matter of course.
