Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) (Aus./US) to take pride in oneself, to fancy oneself; thus humped, proud.

1847		W.T. Porter Quarter Race in Kentucky and Other Sketches 177: Ef thar are anything he humps hisself on besides ugly, it is his manners among the fimmales.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 19 Oct. 7/3: The Hillgrave people are [...] humped on their slugging abilities.
1928		C. McKay Home to Harlem 213: How the brown-skin babies am humping it along! Strutting the joy-stuff! Invitation for a shimmy.

(b) (US) to exert oneself, to work hard; as imp. hump yourself!, get on with it!

1845		W.T. Porter Big Bear of Arkansas (1847) 126: He was breathin’ sorter hard, his eye set on the Governor, humpin’ himself on politics.
1860		Cadiz Democratic Sentinel (OH) 30 May 1/2: What you doin’ you lazy loafin’ nigger? [...] hump yo’sef! You idle, stupid fellow.
1872		‘Mark Twain’ Roughing It 32: Our party made this specimen [i.e. a jack-rabbit] ‘hump himself,’ as the conductor said.
1884		(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 92: Git up and hump yourself, Jim! There ain’t a minute to lose.
1887		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Oct. 12/1: He would have liked to strike and say he would not hump any more adjective grass, but the poor garden coster’s donkey daren’t – it was more than his place was worth.
1890		Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 16 Aug. 6/1: Tony [Pastor] is humping himself to give the public what they want, and is succeeding very well.
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 94: I’m goin’ against a tough proposition, and I’ve got to hump myself to keep up.
1902		S.E. White Blazed Trail 160: Our boys died doing their duty – the way a riverman ought to. Now hump yourselves! Don’t let ’em die in vain!
1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 256: Hump yourself.
1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 27: Hump yourself now and git out this here order!
1933		J.T. Farrell Gas-House McGinty 313: From now on, you’re gonna hump.
1940		O. Strange Sudden Takes the Trail 192: Hump yoreself, yu makeshift; there’s some tall climbin’ ahead o’ yu.
1955		R. Bissell High Water 157: We will have to hump to get through Canton tomorrow, though, by God.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 15: All whores have one thing in common just like the chumps humping for the white boss.
1974		M. Cherry On High Steel 69: All you do is hump yourself blue in the face.
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 5: Humping and hauling ass all the way.
1993		T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 12: The team leader [...] told me to circumvent the field and hump through the jungle to investigate a small mound of loose red dirt.

(c) (US) to travel fast, of people or objects.

1848		Ladies’ Repository (N.Y.) Oct. VIII:37 316/2: Hump, move quick.
1904		J. London Sea Wolf 237: ‘We’ll make it, I think; but you can depend upon it that blessed brother of mine [...] is just a-humping for us’.
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 210: Just a big rube that’s read the bosses’ ads an’ come a-humpin’ to town for the big wages.
1969		Milwaukee Jrnl (Accent) 9 Jan 1/6: hump: to run rapidly.
1971		H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: humping v. 1. walking rapidly.
1973		J. Wambaugh Onion Field 174: [of fast driving] Crist said, ‘Screw the beat. Let’s hump.’ Odom drove [at] one hundred and forty miles per hour.
1976		(con. 1969) C.R. Anderson Grunts xiii: In the bush the grunts humped, walked, after two enemies, the VC [...] and the NVA. [Ibid.] 49: Just how fucking far we gotta hump today, anyway?

(d) (US/Aus.) to carry heavy objects; esp. in milit. use, patrolling with a heavy pack, weapon, supplies etc.

1853		implied in hump one’s swag under swag n.1
1863		J. Goldie 3rd Diary 19 Feb. in Beattie Pioneers explore Otago (1947) 147: Digger custom, we humped our swag containing our house, our bed, our grub, and the necessary instruments .
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Jan. 5/4: Now mount your musty pulpit – thump, / And muddle fat clod-hoppers, / And let some long-eared booby ‘hump’ / The plate about for coppers.
1901		H. Lawson ‘Romance of the Swag’ in Roderick (1972) 499: I’ve helped hump and drag telegraph poles up cliffs [...] where horses couldn’t go.
1918		Dagger [London] Dec. I 5/2: Get off this blinkin’ planet / If you ’opes to ’ump your pack.
1920		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Feb. 9/3: [H]umping Australian wheat from the land where it was rotting .
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 122: Hump, To: To lift. To carry.
c.1940–5		‘Myles na gCopaleen’ Best of Myles (1968) 64: The brother has the landlady humped down to Skerries.
1957		D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 47: Two other women came in humping grizzling babies.
1961		(con. 1920s) J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 7: You could have scraped more gold and silver of our kitchen hearth than Snow White’s little mob could have humped in a week.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 14: You got yer sword and yer spear, and yer shield that that other mug’s humping for yer.
1976		P. Theroux Family Arsenal 223: I’d give you a good price and hump it up to the King’s Road.
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 94: You think I am a powder puff or soggy stuff thus to be shaped to humping ladies’ underwear round retailers.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 204: I don’t care if you see them hump out a side of beef.
2000		P. Roth Human Stain 255: We did a lot of humpin’, but sooner or later you knew you’d get back to that fifty.
2010		K. Richards Life 93: I need money to hump these drums on the tube.

(e) (orig. Aus.) often constr. with it, to tramp, to trudge, to go on foot; also in fig. use.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 9 May 9/2: In the translation, the ‘comedy’ appeared to have been left behind, and the stupidity alone humped along.
1899		‘Steele Rudd’ On Our Selection (1953) 5: So we humped it—and talk about a drag!
1930		K.S. Prichard Haxby’s Circus 270: So we humped it.
1962		H.S. Thompson letter 6 June in Proud Highway (1997) 342: Then hump around the streets waiting for Time to tell me what happened.
1973		H. Leonard Da (1981) Act II: I think I’ll hump off.
1978		T. O’Brien Going After Cacciato (1980) 16: Humping to Paris, it was one of those crazy things.
1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 346: We’re humping up the seven steps to Tommy’s building.
2003		A. Swofford Jarhead 10: MIllions of Kuwaiti guest workers [...] have humped across the dry desert to the relatively safe haven of Jordan.
2023		D. Grann Wager 148: Bulkeley and his companion trekked across the island, humping with their heavy muskets over mountains.

(a) to botch, to spoil.

1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 228/1: Then there was poor Jael Denny, but she was humped, sir, and I’ve told you the reason.
1871		C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. 51: To ‘hump,’ in street parlance, is equivalent to ‘botch,’ in more genteel colloquialism.

(b) (US) to beat up.

1895

J. London ‘And ’Frisco Kid Came Back’ in High School Aegis X (4 Nov.) 2–4: I tole ’m how me ole man uster ’ump me ole woman w’en he got an edge on.

(c) as a dismissive v. or excl.

1881		Northern Trib. (Cheboygan, MI) 5 Nov. 3/1: I told that rooster to ‘hump himself’.
1920		E. O’Neill Beyond the Horizon I ii: Hump! You’re pilin’ lie on lie!
1949		H. Robbins Dream Merchants 248: If they don’t like it, they can go hump ’emselves.
1955		J.P. Donleavy Ginger Man (1958) 178: Hump your old King [...] Bollocks the King.
1966		P. Boyle At Night All Cats Are Grey 250: Hump you, I’ll bloody soon wipe that look off your dial.
1977		P. O’Farrell Book of Irish Farmers’ Jokes 41: And hump you and your bloomin’ gate.
1989		H. Leonard Out After Dark 152: Hump the girls.
1997		RTÉ Radio News 8 July I was told I should just have told him to hump off [BS].
2012		D. O’Donnell Locked Ward (2013) 122: I see Man U humped you guys at the weekend.

(d) to make someone else suffer, to exploit, to harm.

1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 104/1: hump v. [...] 2. To cheat; to send to prison unjustly; to abuse or maltreat.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 9: Them’s the humped — I’m going with the humpers. [Ibid.] 85: They was humping me on the deal.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 4: Just more folks humping the dollar.

(e) to suffer.

1961

C. Cooper Jr Weed (1998) 190: She was going to hump it.