Green’s Dictionary of Slang

ill-tempered.

1882

Pall Mall Gazette 4 May 2/2: ‘The omee [...] is humpish to-night,’ remarks the durrynacker.

see humpy adj.² (2)

(US) a brothel .

1921

in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 144: Frankie she worked in a hump-house.

(US) obsessed with sex .

1925

in E. Wilson Twenties (1975) 175: Why, he’s hump-nutty!

see separate entries.

1. to be depressed, miserable.

1873		Sl. Dict. (6th edn) 198: A costermonger who was annoyed or distressed about anything would describe himself as having ‘the hump’.
1885		Punch 10 Jan. 24: I had got the ’ump, and no error [...].
1898		W. Pett Ridge Mord Em’ly 237: One evening, I’d got a rare old ’ump of it; as down in the mouth as – well, I don’t suppose you can understand.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 24 Aug. 13/4: ‘What’s the matter, old man?’ / ‘I don’t know. Suppose I’ve got the hump.’ / ‘What about?’ / ‘Oh nothing! Everything!’.
1904		R. Free Seven Years Hard 69: ‘No foolin’ now,’ says he; ‘I’ve got the bloomin’ ’ump, and I can’t stand nothink. Wot d'you mean by arstin’ me to drink?’.
1910		Wodehouse Psmith in the City (1993) 15: ‘Father’s worried about something.’ ‘He looked as if he’d got the hump rather at dinner.’.
1914		Northern Star (Lismore, NSW) 24 Jan. 8/3: To have ‘the hump’ does not come from the camel’s back.
1950		S. Murphy Stone Mad (1966) 186: He has the humps now.
1981		(con. 1920s) P. Crosbie Your Dinner’s Poured Out! 219: It gave me the hump, i.e. bored me.
1999		Observer Cash 3 Oct. 7: You won’t get the hump on holiday with good insurance.

2. to be over-sensitive or ‘touchy’, thus angry.

1899		R. Whiteing No. 5 John Street 295: Then you’ll fit the ’ump, an’ cuss the dye you tried to mike a lidy out of a fightin’ flower-gal.
1900		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘A Thinker’ Sporting Times 1 Sept. 1/4: His dad, the old chump, / Has got tired of Bill’s idling, and captured the hump.
1904		Truth (London) 5 May 1116/2: To use an expressive slang phrase, the whole Unionist Party has got the hump.
1918		Kia Ora Coo-ee 15 Mar. 14/3: At all parades the ‘winds up,’ and in the lines as well, / Till we all get the hump of it, and it’s the truth to tell, / We strafe the Orderly Sergeant, and wish he were in Hell!
1928		(con. WWI) H.F. Cruikshank ‘So This Is Flanders!’ Battle Stories July 🌐 Jerry had suddenly got the hump.
1938		F. Anthony ‘Rivals’ in Me And Gus (1977) 64: After I had straightened the hump out of my back.
1949		R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 152: Put a hump on himself like a ferret ... shaping up to me.
1977		G.F. Newman Villain’s Tale 50: All right, Dolly, you got the hump. What’s the problem then?
1986		R.G. Barrett Godson 152: ‘[I]t surely puts a chill in the air when that man’s got the hump’.
1985		J. Sullivan ‘To Hull and Back’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Look, don’t, don’t get the hump with us.
1996		J. Cameron It Was An Accident 52: Once he got the serious hump after he got shot on my account.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 36: The sad cunt took the hump and fucked off.
2000		Guardian G2 1 Feb. 16: Would Lennon get the hump if the modfather didn’t consult him before blowing all their savings on a customised Velocifero and a quantity of hard oak flooring?
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 19: It’s a sure sign you’ve been in the game too long, when a guy turns up to give you twenty large and you’re getting the hump cos it ain’t all facing the right way.
2007		N. ‘Razor’ Smith Raiders 2: The last thing you want is [...] to find that your wheelman has copped the hump with you and gone for a cuppa. [Ibid.] 5: Tough Tony [...] got the raving hump over injustice.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 39: Sonny [...] has only three moods — got-the-hump, hostile or mad ecstatic.
2017		L. McInerney Blood Miracles 56: ‘[She] is after getting the hump because of Pender’s conniptions, and fucking off in a taxi’.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers [41]: Don’t take the hump. Emily raises a brow.

to annoy, to irritate.

1884		Adams & Jonghmans [perf. Charles Godfrey] ‘Masher King’ [...] A lump-ity, jump-ity, give you the hump-ity / Number one Masher of all.
1891		Dead Bird (Sydney) 3 Jan. 6/1: The rest of the rhyme might make modesty frown, / And give our friend Camphor the hump.
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 104: Give me the fair ’ump, it did.
a.1905		Murray, Leigh & LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] Sleep! Sleep! 🎵 He’ll never be no better and it fair gives me the hump.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 51: Pastin’ beastly bags fer Spats at a tizzy a drayload, it fair gi’s me the ’ump.
1916		‘New Church’ Times 8 May (2006) 66/2: How those bangs give me the hump.
1928		R. Hall Well of Loneliness (1976) 349: You’re not playing fair with that girl; the life she’s leading would depress a mother abbess. It’s enough to give anybody the hump.
1929		J.B. Priestley Good Companions 381: In fact the place gives me the hump, absolutely.
1934		T. Wood Cobbers 5: These medical inspections gimme the hump.
1965		E. Bond Saved Scene v: This dump gives me the ’ump.
1979		H. Leonard A Life (1981) Act I: Peculiar day, Good Friday: give you the hump.
1985		J. Sullivan ‘Sleeping Dogs Lie’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Let’s get out of here Del, he’s giving me the hump!
1999		Guardian Editor 15 Oct. 10: It gives her the right hump when she has to buy the larger sizes to fit over her boobs.

(US black) of a man, to be in the middle of sexual intercourse.

1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 191: Everybody feels like Superman with a helluva hump in his back.
1999		‘Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 196: The brother had a hump in his back and was making ugly faces.

to be in a bad mood.

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 198: ‘To have one’s hump up,’ to be cross or ill-tempered ? like a cat with its back set up.
1873		Sl. Dict.

of a man, to have sexual intercourse.

1960

C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 33: He crawled right in [to bed] beside her and made a hump in his back, without even being asked.

having sexual intercourse.

1982

P. Barker Union Street 3: ‘There’s some of us still trying to sleep.’ ‘No bloody wonder. On the hump all night.’.

see peddle one’s ass under peddle v.

to have sexual intercourse with someone.

1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 222/2: Throw one a hump. 1 [...] 2. To engage in sexual intercourse with one. 3. To be intimate with, as with a passive pederast.
1964		H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 58: [H]e was caught fuckin a stiff [...] He worked [...] in the morgue, and this nice lookin young head croaks so he throws a hump inner.
1984		W.J. Caunitz One Police Plaza 159: I took her into the bedroom, took off her cotton drawers, and threw her a hump.

a general excl. of disdain, dismissal, arrogant contempt.

1979

H. Leonard A Life (1981) Act II: In me hump it happened.

(US) Wednesday, the middle of the week.

1955		‘Aircraft Production Dispatcher’s Vocab.’ AS XXX:3 226: hump night, n. Wednesday night, which is over the hump of the week.
1966		Current Sl. I:3 4/2: Hump night, n. Wednesday.
1967		Current Sl. II:2 18: Hump, n. The middle of the week, ‘hump day.’.
2004		T. Fey Mean Girls [movie script] I’m gonna make you girls a ‘hump day’ treat.
2021		Twitter 19 May 🌐 I have homemade lasagne for dinner with garlic bread then I'm going to watch The King and I and eat ice cream. What is your hump day dinner?

(US) to work very hard.

1957		(con. 1943) A. Myrer Big War 285: I’ve been busting my hump for seven days.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 88: No matter how much you busted your hump trying to be one of them, you’d never belong, they wouldn’t let you.
1974		G.V. Higgins Cogan’s Trade (1975) 15: He’s down there, busting his hump, up to his ass in oil and stuff.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 154: She’d busted her hump [...] peeling shrimp at the dock.
1997		Pistone & Woodley Donnie Brasco [film script] Thirty years I’m busting my hump. What have I got?
2006		F.X. Toole Pound for Pound 67: After busting his hump in the gym, it was no fun to come home.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] You’re out there, busting your hump, all the time.

(US) to harass, to annoy, to persecute.

1970		D. Ponicsan Last Detail 107: Charlotte, don’t bust my hump.
1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 42: She would make me feel undesired and I would want to bust her hump for it.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] ‘How’s life treating you?’ [...] ‘Sykes is busting my hump’.

(US) to attack, to assault.

1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 243: If you insists on puchin’ along through yere I’ll turn in an’ crawl yer hump some.
1907		S.E. White Arizona Nights 149: Here I pick you up on the street and save your worthless carcass, and the first chance you get you try to crawl my hump. Explain.
1914		A.P. Man Jr ‘Further Word-List – Arizona’ in DN IV:ii 165: crawl one’s hump, v. phr. To kill one.
1928		(con. 1918) L. Nason Sergeant Eadie 47: And then to have his hump crawled by the first sergeant!
1934		O. Strange Sudden 54: There’s me, shiverin’ in my shoes, waitin’ for a big stiff to come an’ crawl my hump.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

(US) to hurry, to exert oneself.

1892		Harper’s Mag. Feb. 487/2: ‘We went fast enough then.’ ‘We do seem to be gittin’ a leetle less hump on oursel’s than we did then’ [DA].
1906		J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 137: get a hump on (one’s self), v.phr. To hurry; to show energy.
1913		Julie M Lippmann Making Over Martha (2005) 6: She don’t work hard enough, as it is. Get a hump on, mother! Get a hump on.
1921		E.R. Burroughs Mucker (2004) 119: I do know dat if we wants to get out o’ here we gotta get a hump on ourselves good an’ lively.
1940		(con. 1820s) W.E. Wilson Wabash 231: ‘Let’s git a hump on, Allen,’ Abe said; and the two boys dipped their oars deeper into the brown water.

to get in a temper, to become irritated.

1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1959		W. Hall Long and the Short and the Tall Act II: If there’s one thing that gets my hump, it’s knocking off – it’s looting.

1. to finish a job.

1944

C. Himes ‘Let Me at the Enemy’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 41: They finished out their rows and went over the hump.

2. (US) to pass one’s prime, to decline in ability.

1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 44: Everything’s copasetic until Speedy goes over the hump.
1957		(con. 1943) A. Myrer Big War 159: You think you can walk off and get out from under by going over the hump [...] Getting drunk.
1963		H.S. Thompson letter 1 Dec. in Proud Highway (1997) 424: I haven’t altered my conviction that this nation is going over the hump.

3. (US drugs) to become intoxicated by a drug, usu. marijuana.

1953

Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 309: go over the hump. To attain exhilaration from using drugs.

(US prison) to make an escape attempt.

1918

H. Simon ‘Prison Dict.’ in AS VIII:3 (1933) 27/2: HIT THE HUMP. Try to escape.

1. (orig. US) over the worst, past the midpoint of a job or experience, usu. an unpleasant one.

[1908		Denton (MD) Journal 24 Oct. 1/7: Slang of the Sailor [...] To re-enlist is to ‘slip over,’ and when more than half the enlistment is in, a sailor is ‘going downhill.’].
[1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 46: hump [...] the half-way point in a prison sentence. Example: ‘How long have you got yet on your bit? I’m just over the hump.’].
1927		C. Samolar ‘Argot of the Vagabond’ in AS II:9 390: To be over the hump and going down-grade is to be more than half-through with something,—a stretch of work or incarceration.
1938		D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981).
1941		B. Schulberg What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 102: I’m over the hump [...] From now on I can write my own ticket.
a.1949		N. Algren Little Lester’ in Entrapment (2009) 93: Upstairs, on the topmost tier [...] hustlers over the hump for redemption.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 150/2: Over the hump. [...] 2. (P) Past midpoint of prison sentence; at the beginning of the second half of one’s prison term.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore 69: Go down the hump – Of a drug addict taking the cure, [...] to be past the worst part.
1960		J.D. Macdonald Slam the Big Door (1961) 64: Troy has the idea a few more hundred thousand dollars will get it over the hump.
1977		J. Langone Life at the Bottom 202: That’s when you’re over the hump, Hump Night they called it, halfway home.
1997		L. Davies Candy 43: We got over the hump and were beginning to feel all right.

2. gone beyond return or reversal.

1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 205: Over the hump for redemption [...] they hurried forward all the faster into the darkness.
1964		H.S. Thompson letter 23 May in Proud Highway (1997) 453: Marxism is over the hump for the time being.

3. (US drugs) enjoying the peak of a drug experience.

1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 313: over the hump. Drug-exhilarated.
1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 199: over the hump (go) [...] To feel the full exhilaration of a narcotic.

(US und.) to create a distraction to facilitate a pickpocket’s manoeuvres, to work as a stall n.¹ (1)

1918

Jackson Dly News (MS) 1 Apr. 7/1: Crook Chatter [...] ‘Fresno Phil flew me a kite last week sayin’ they was a dozen raps against me for “throwin a hump” for him in St Louis’.