Green’s Dictionary of Slang

mummer n.

1. the mouth.

1788

17901800181018201830184018501860

1862

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 268: I took him such a lick of his mummer.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1862		E. de la Bédollière Londres et les Anglais 316/1: mummer, [...] la bouche.

2. an actor.

1818

18501900

1926

1818		‘Thomas Brown’ Fudge Family in Paris Letter III 28: Some mummers by trade, and the rest amateurs.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 139/2: We call strolling acting ‘mumming,’ and the actors ‘mummers’.
1871		Newark Advertiser 18 Jan. n.p.: A party of mummers visited the towns and villages of North Nots [...] and highly diverted the inhabitants by their dancing, singing of old songs, and the play of the Hobby Horse [F&H].
1887		W.E. Henley ‘Villon’s Straight Tip’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 177: Suppose you try a different tack, / [...] / At penny-a-lining make your whack, / Or with the mummers mug and gag?
1893		Daily Tel. 30 March, n.p.: The proprietor [...] when the popular comedian went away, [...] said how delighted he should be to see him again, although he was a mummer [F&H].
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Jun. 12/4: Meantime, Kenningham, acting 40 times as well, fell comparatively flat. Mummers should never flaunt their marriage-lines.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Sept. 9/3: Mummers come and mummers go; / Each short season closes ; / Time, that rules the passing show, / Withers all the roses.
1915		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Comedians All’ Sporting Times 17 Apr. 1/2: We are all of us mummers throughout our brief puff.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.

In phrases