Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to rob with violence or by snatching an item and running off; thus done for a ramp, convicted of a violent crime; ramping n. and adj.

1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: To Ramp. To snatch, or tear any thing forcibly from the person.
1822		Egan Life and Adventures of Samuel Hayward 107: He actually ramped* one of the dashing Cyprians of her elegant shawl, in her crossing Bow-street. [*A cant phrase for stealing by violence, or tearing any article off an individual’s back].
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.
1830		Lytton Paul Clifford I 149: The latter personage, giving him a pinch in the ear, shouted out, ‘Ramp, ramp!’ and Paul found himself surrounded in a trice by a whole host of ingenious tormentors [...] this initiatory process, technically termed ‘ramping,’ reduced the bones of Paul, who fought tooth and nail in his defence, to the state of magnesia.
1842		Colonial Times (Hobart) 26 Apr. 3/2: [T]he prisoner said [...] he might get ‘bellowsed’ for the soldier that they ‘ramped’.
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 26 Feb. 1/4: If ve dussent do summut agin Sal Bolts agin, vy ve must ramp him.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 72: ramp To snatch; to tear any thing forcibly from the person. Pickpockets are said to be ramping a man when a number of them rush on him as if in a great hurry to pass, but manage to run against him, and in the flurry pick his pocket.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1864		Bell’s Life in Sydney 12 Mar. 4/3: They sealed the job with lots of whacks / [...] The police their efforts cramping, / Made the ‘sharps’ regret their only motto was the lay on ramping.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 21 Sept. n.p.: I ‘twigged’ them [i.e. a gang of pickpockets] ‘ramp’ a pair of opera-glasses from a ‘rep’ and thank that is all that they ‘touched’.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 65: Ramp, to rob with violence, ramping is generally done in gangs, which bustle the victim.
1906		O.C. Malvery Soul Market 288: I have often heard descriptions of these ‘ramping’ expeditions; how such a man was ‘bounced’ out of two quid [...] or another ‘held up for a fiver’.

2. to swindle, thus n. ramping.

c.1850		Peeping Tom (London) 32 128/2: [G]entlemen engaged in the soft (forged notes), the hard (smashing), ramping, sneaking, doing a panny, making a reader, or picking up a cat and her kittens — the cat being a quart pot and the kittens pints!
1884		Sporting Times 30 Aug. 5/4: mr. Gubins sez ooray i shall be rampin em on York rasecoarse.
1892		Chambers Journal 13 Aug. 517/2: The neighbour who’s ramped the man that trusted him.
1895		Mirror of Life 11 May 6/2: [T]he ramping and raids committed by the hangers-on of pugilism eventually caused that institution to wither and decay.
1903		A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 143: Bill had got [...] a couple of thousand pounds, all made by ramping and welshing.

3. to force someone to pay their debts.

1897

Daily News 3 Sept. 3/5: Charge of ‘ramping’ a book-maker.

4. (Aus./W.I.) to play around, lit. or fig; thus ramping as adj.

[c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: To Ramp, to Play rude Horse-Play].
1914		Queenslander (Brisbane) 30 May 43/1: I expect Florrie’s about sick of bein’ ’ere with you ramping around all day.
1918		C.J. Dennis ‘Jim’s Girl’ in Digger Smith 65: This Digger Smith ’as fairly got / Me rampin’ with ’is ‘’arf man’ rot.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 340: Men always goes rampin’ about a woman that’s got ’em beat in the way of bein’ incomprehensible.
1955		J. Morrison Black Cargo 180: You ramping savage! Couldn’t you control yourself.
1995		Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 45: Ramp wid to play around (usually used in the negative): u. me don’t ramp wid food/I’m a serious eater.
2001		(con. 1981) A. Wheatle East of Acre Lane 20: Royston [...] was rolling about underneath the ironing board [...] ‘Stop ramping under de ironing board.’.
2015		J. Spades ‘Chicken Soup’ 🎵 [I] don’t / Ramp with niggas that I smoke with in my living / Room.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 29: Watch the boy eat deh, him nah ramp wid his food.

5. (Aus., also romp) to search a prisoner and/or their cell.

1902		‘The Wasp’ ‘Tales of the Penance Track’ in Bulletin 31 May 31/2: ‘[W]e can’t hide [contraband] with you screws always romping a man going in and out’.
1919		V. Marshall World of Living Dead (1969) 83: It would take minutes to make him secure, for he must deliver up his braces, his boots, his books, and be ‘ramped’ to the skin.
1950		Aus. Police Journal Apr. 117: Ramp, search a prisoner in gaol, as distinct from a search anywhere else.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxviii 10/3: ramp: To search a person or place.
1979		Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 2 Aug. 9/3: He heard noises from Gage’s cell, but presumed the cell was being ‘ramped’ (searched).
1984		B. Ellem Doing Time 48: Since security ramped ‘B’ Division last week I’m very much aware they could do the same here.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 151/1: ramp v. to search an inmate’s cell.

6. (UK und.) to place false stamps or hall marks on an item .

1935

Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 9: Ramped: Falsely stamped or hall marked.

7. (UK black) to tease, to banter, to trick.

[1857		Paul Pry (London) 15 Aug. n.p.: And for ramping and tearing about that there song, / And saying you’ll find out who wrote it ere long. / You can’t do it, Matilda, so keep yourself quiet].
1997		C. Newland Scholar 28: He ain’t rampin’ either, he reckons he’s gonna kick you up in the football tournament.
2001		(con. 1981) A. Wheatle East of Acre Lane 11: You’re not ramping, are you? [Ibid.] 77: Char! [...] De man’s only ramping wid you.
2004		Dizzee Rascal ‘Everywhere’ 🎵 Gotta get that dough. I ain’t rampin’.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 107: Them man ain’t ramping. Head gone.