lump, v.³ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

lump v.³

1. to haul about, to carry a heavy weight.

1856		C. Reade It Is Never Too Late to Mend 1 19: Don’t go lumping the chine down under his nose now.
1891		H. Lawson ‘The Cambaroora Star’ in Roderick (1967–9) I 158: And if there’s any lumping in connection with the Star, / Well, I’ll find the time to do it.
		Illus. Police News 9 Apr. 11/3: Plaintiff: Well, I can assure you she ‘lumps’ out her purse— His Honour: What do you mean by ‘lumps’ out? (Laughter.) Plaintiff: Oh! I beg your Honour's pardon. I meant to say that she took it out of her pocket.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Mar. 20/3: Various papers have complained about this, and demanded their wholesale sack and replacement by loyal Australasian lumpers, but it is no good. Apparently the Australasian won’t lump.
1913		Sport (Adelaide) 28 June 9/4: They Say [...] That He was going to the Port for a job timber lumping.
1921		(con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 27: A few miles of lumping all this stuff along and we realise the truth of Darky’s saying, ‘A man wants to be strong in the back and weak in the head to make a good infantryman.’.
1930		L. Lower Here’s Luck 278: See if there is anybody there that ain’t recovered yet. If there is, lump ’em out.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 55: Maybe doin’ a bit of wheat-lumpin’ at harvest or bag-sewing at thirty bob a week as a hand-out from your starving cocky relatives.
1963		(con. 1944) L. Glassop Rats in New Guinea 83: I could not imagine the Japs lumping mines over the towering mountains.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 17: I don’t suppose it can be any worse than lumpin’ beef.
1992		R.G. Barrett White Shoes 34: I don’t feel like lumping this [i.e. a box] back in the heat.

2. (UK Und.) to steal packages while in transit.

1882

Star (Guernsey) 23 Feb. 4/2: A pickpocket would soon lose the delicacy of manipulation [...] if he were to take to blue pigeon flying (stripping empty houses of lead) or lumping (‘lifting’ packages in transit).

3. (US gambling) to bet heavily.

1886

Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 24 July 7/3: When he stole he lumped It— —there never was a mean hair in Plin’s bead—and went for a stake of $100,000.

4. to pawn.

1904

R. Free Seven Years Hard 122: Perhaps the reader may not be aware that [...] rum is ‘Nelson's blood’; that ‘gaffing’ is gambling ; ‘lumping,’ pawning.

In phrases

lump it (v.)

(UK Und.) to drain a glass in a single swallow, to ‘knock back’.

1873

Sl. Dict.

lump the lighter (v.)

to be transported [fig. use of SE lump, to load + lighter, a vessel used for loading/unloading ships].

1781		G. Parker View of Society II 30: Sentencing some more to be crapped; others to lump the Lighter; and others to nap the Stoop.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		‘Scene in a London Flash-Panny’ Matsell Vocabulum 98: Whew! I know the kiddy like a copper, and I saved him once from lumping the lighter by putting in buck.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 47: Lump the Lighter, transported.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.].

lump v.3

In phrases

lump v.³