Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. robbery with violence; thus one who commits it (see cite 1848).

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 261: ramp to rob any person or place by open violence or suddenly snatching at something and running off with it [...] A man convicted of this offence, is said to have been done for a ramp.
1832		Public Ledger 12 Nov. 3/3: Women and men who waylay inebriate persons for the purpose of robbery Ramps.
1848		Era (London) 12 Nov. 8/3: [O]ur fighting contributor [...] has thus poetically classed them:- [...] ramps (10), fences (11) and bilkers (12), and fakers (13) and smashers (14).
1895		J. Caminada Twenty-Five Years of Detective Life I 161: Watching them perform the ‘ramp’ – a sudden rush and bustle in which robberies are committed – a gentleman was almost pushed off the platform.
1935		R.T. Hopkins Life and Death at the Old Bailey 63: The following crook’s words and phrases date from the days of the old Old Bailey: [...] convicted of thieving – done for a ramp.

2. any form of swindle or fraud.

1830		Morn. Chron. 6 Mar. 4/2: He has been engaged in almost all the ‘out-and-out’ ramps which have been committed in the last ten years in the Metropolis; [...] he may be pronounced the Captain of the ‘swell mob’.
1861		Melbourne Punch ‘City Police Court’ 3 Oct. 234/1: The Mayor.– Prisoner at the bar, you are a dimber damber kiddy, but you are done for a ramp.
1883		G.R. Sims How the Poor Live 80: These [...] were mostly ‘ramps,’ or swindles, got up to obtain the gate-money.
1895		‘’Arry on the Elections’ Punch 27 July 39/1: Workin’ men on the Radical ramp? You should jest ’ear wot I ’ear, old pal.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 26 May 6/3: It is not the man with the most money and clothes who refrains fom doing a ramp now and then.
1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 20 Aug. 33/1: We’re trying to [...] forget the numerous instances of support in return for cash [...] obtained by some most notorious ‘ramps’ from the daily press.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 27 Mar. 4/6: [The] successful ‘ramps’ that the Browne crowd have brought off in pony-racing.
1917		‘Ian Hay’ Carrying On 183: [They] allow themselves to be used as stalking-horses for low-down political ramps.
1919		J. Buchan Mr Standfast (1930) 698: You English [...] think a fellow’s a dandy at handling your Government if he happens to have made a pile by some flat-catching ramp on your Stock Exchange.
1920		Appleton Post-Crescent (WI) 12 Apr. 3/2: ‘Ramp’ is the British word for our word profiteering.
1936		D. Footman Pig and Pepper (1990) 228: Do you remember Pemberton’s story about my being mixed up in a ramp with the Baltic and Eastern Industrial Bank?
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 227: His usual ramp was to find some credulous old lady and defraud her with a plausible story.
1966		J. Holledge Great Aust. Gamble 28: [A] knowledge of the turf, its ramps and its rackets that would make a present-day ‘shrewdie’ look like a Sunday School teacher [ibid.] 156: The ramp started with a circular which set out the claims of a spectacular plunger recently entered into the tipping field.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 24: He wondered about DI Allen in the Fraud Squad, whether he could be trusted. Coming to him as he had with the short-warning could have been a ramp.
2003		Observer Crime 27 Apr. 28: Ramp. A criminal swindle.
2013		D. Whish-Wilson Zero at the Bone [ebook] ‘It was obviously just a ramp, something that’s happening more and more, now the metal prices are rising’.

3. (Aus. Und.) a burglar.

1869

Australasian (Melbourne) 17 July 8/5: A ramp is a burglar.

4. a racecourse swindler; thus ext. to any type of swindler.

1890

Sporting Times 15 Feb. 5/4: Who would take the ‘tipsters’’ wrong ’uns, and the ‘ramps’ so tamely.

5. a spree, a boisterous good time.

1879

‘’Arry in Parry’ Punch 15 Nov. 217/1: There ain’t enough body about it, no row-de-dow rollick and ramp.

6. a spurious argument or similar commotion intended to disguise a swindle or confidence trick.

1923

J. Manchon Le Slang.

7. (UK und.) a hallmark.

1950

P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 191/2: Ramp. Hall-mark .

8. (Aus./N.Z. prison) a search, thus do a ramp, to search thoroughly.

1974		Adamson & Hanford Zimmer’s Essay 32: Possession of more than two ounces of tobacco is a breach of prison regulations, so the banker must have great administative skills in order to hoard his capital against the screws’ ramps.
1984		B. Ellem Doing Time 48: And when you hear a cell door opening late at night you listen very carefully [...] If it sounded like a ramp you’d try to get rid of your illegal stuff.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Ramp. A thorough going search of a cell by prison officers usually leaving the contents in disarray. As in ‘ramping a cell’.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 151/1: do a ramp n. to conduct a thorough search of an inmate’s cell.
2003		Observer Crime 27 Apr. 28: Ramp. A police search.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] Had the screws done a sneaky ramp and found my hiding place.