Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. odd, peculiar, bizarre; thus rummily adv.

a.1800		Old Song in N&Q Ser. 7 IX 97: Although a rummy codger, Now list to what I say.
1832		Satirist (London) 8 Apr. 117/3: ‘Then,’ rejoined rummy Sammy [i.e. Samuel Rogers], ‘I’ll tell you’.
1841		‘Coat Of Other Days’ Dublin Comic Songster 247: My four-and-nine looks rather rummy, / Exposed to Sol’s bright rays.
1849		Sam Sly 17 Mar. 3/3: ‘I say, Jem, there's a rummy-looking bloke.’ ‘Oh, vot a slasher’.
1854		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) II 174: I don’t want to ask any old dowager I happen to fall in with at a tea-fight [...] whether she’s well up in the naughty tales and rummy nuisances that we have to pass no end of our years in getting by heart.
1857		Lancaster Gaz. 24 Oct. 5/6: An elderly gentleman who has his own ideas [...] is a rummy old cove.
c.1861		‘A Night in a London Workhouse’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 137: Oh my, what a rummy go.
1866		J. Greenwood Night in a Workhouse 15: Why, you are a rummy chap!
1871		Gympie Times (Qld) 11 jan. 3/6: If he meets an eccentric man he calls him a ‘rummy old cove’.
1874		J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 104: All the fun consisted in Caseley calling the judge ‘old bloak’ and the counsel ‘rummy codgers.’.
1882		‘F. Anstey’ Vice Versa (1931) 158: There’s young Tom on the box; don’t his ears stick out rummily?
1884		Leicester Chron. 21 June 12/2: Here’s a rummy go! Just look at that!
1894		H. Lawson ‘Spooks of Long Gully’ in Roderick (1972) 248: He never heard nothing, but he saw some ‘rummy’ things.
1896		F. Hutcheson Barkeep Stories 9: ‘T’ings is lookin’ awful rummy’.
1899		‘Pot’ & ‘Swears’ Scarlet City 215: This is about the rummiest commission that I ever undertook.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 13 Mar. 11/3: I’m Hartmann whose rummy old rig / All gutter-bred larrikins gig.
1905		Marvel 23 Dec. 665: ‘Rummy go!’ muttered Kippers.
1911		Truth (Sydney) 1 Jan. 8/3: Rummy coves as gets a living / In some ways what’s werry queer.
1912		P.C. Wren Dew & Mildew 417: ‘It’s rummy, say what one will’.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 10 July 4/2: Jack MacG. is a lad with rummy ideas. He even runs down ‘Sport’ .
1919		J. Buchan Mr Standfast (1930) 474: I soon got to know a surprising lot of people, and they were the rummiest birds you can imagine.
1921		A.A. Milne Dover Road in Three Plays (1922) Act I: Dashed rummy sort of hotel!
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 90: The thought of strolling with this rummy specimen undeniably gave me a most unpleasant sinking feeling.
1942		Whizzbang Comics 82: Rummy, that’s what I call it.
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 62: That’s a rummy mob she gets round her.
1982		A. Maupin Further Tales of the City (1984) 62: This sweet, but rummy society matron.

2. first-rate, excellent, thus as adv. excellently, properly.

1829		Pierce Egan’s Wkly Courier 22 Mar. 4/1: ‘Let’s do the thing rummy; put on the stoppers — give your red rags a holiday’.
1830		W.T. Moncrieff Heart of London II i: Cracksmen, buzmen, scampsmen, we [...] On the spice gloak high toby / We frisk so rummy, / And ramp so plummy.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 51: They were, indeed, nothing else but rummy ones.
1837–8		‘Slashing Costermonger’ in Cuckold’s Nest 10: I’m called by all the mots around, / The slashing costermonger, / The rummy costermonger.
1842		Egan ‘Jack Flashman’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 142: Saying —look, marm, when next you split, / I’ll finish you with a rummy hit!
1865		‘When We Went Out A Shooting’ in Rambler’s Flash Songster 37: A rummy parody on ‘When we went out a Gipseying.’.
1876		Besant & Rice Son of Vulcan II 324: How much? It’s a rummy ramp – but how much?
1887		‘’Arry on Angling’ in Punch 30 July 45/1: It’s one of the rummiest sights.