Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the head, the face.

1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 101/2: I immediately ‘officed’ to him what was up so as to keep his ‘chump’ still, and they passed by and went in the direction of the skittle ground.
1866		Wild Boys of London I 37/1: ‘He’ll know my chump again.’ [...] ‘What’s a chump?’ ‘Something as is good looking. Yours is a horful phisog.’.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1881		‘’Arry on Fashion’ in Punch 10 Sept. 110/1: Not up to the nines, not O.K., with last Season’s tile on my chump.
1892		‘’Arry in ’Arrygate’ (Second Letter) in Punch 15 Oct. 169/2: We’ve conjurers, worblers, phrenologists! One ’ad a go at my chump.
1908		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘When Love Began’ The Sporting Times 8 Feb. 1/3: A flare-up on Bank Holidays, with mirth, and dance and song, / Till their chumps are on the ache in ev’ry splinter.
1910		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Cost Of Living’ Sporting Times 25 June 1/4: As a last resource, he asked a friend who had a wiser chump / To resolve his doubts, and save him from a chronic state of ‘hump’.
1940		M. Marples Public School Slang 96: HEAD: Of the forty-two slang synonyms for head listed by Farmer, only block, chump, napper, nob and nut are associated with schools.

2. a person, esp. a regular working man.

1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 14/1: So off we went to the ‘lush drum’ where the ‘chump’ used to go [...] and asked if Mr. So-and-So was within.
1879		Newcastle Courant 12 Sept. 6/8: Here lies Joe Crump, / An honest old chump.
1893		S. Crane Maggie, a Girl of the Streets (2001) 22: I met a chump deh odder day way up in deh city.
1900		Boy’s Own Paper 1 Dec. 131: Well, if you’re not the meanest old chump that ever stepped!
1937		Hull Dly Mail 2 Mar. 5/5: The Duke [...] is an elfin, whimsical old chump.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 117: Chumps who have to rise and shine in the morning, slaves to the alarm clock, sure don’t understand us creative artists none.
1957		‘Weldon Hill’ Onionhead (1958) 144: [A] noble chump that wants to do the right thing.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 22: I don’ know dat chump – where he come from.
1977		E. Bunker Animal Factory 33: Ernie couldn’t wait for the chump to dig it out of his sock.
1986		J. Ellroy Suicide Hill 90: [H]e grabbed a West L.A. local paper and a candy bar and tossed the chump [i.e. a sales clerk] a dollar bill.
2003		J. Lethem Fortress of Solitude 423: Half the yoke-artists they clocked were chumps Dose knew from around the projects.

3. (also chumpie, chumpkin) as derog. use of sense 1, a fool; anyone gullible or easily taken in.

1875		N.Y. Times 28 Feb. 10/5: First of all, he [a burglar] introduced me [a reporter] to a new slang word. [...] I discovered that anybody was a ‘chump’ who did not thoroughly understand his business.
1883		Sporting Life 27 May 4: Maybe Manager Bancroft isn’t regarded as a chump by baseball people.
1883		Louisiana Democrat 14 Feb. 1/6: Well she must think I’m a bloomin’ chump.
1884		Leics. Chron. 3 May 1/1: What a chump of wood I must have been to go drinking cham!
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 19 Sept. 22/3: ‘We say it without fear of contradiction, Billy was as square as a chessboard. He was no chump. He never killed a man without cause. He never forgot to settle his score on the slate.’.
1886		N.Z. Observer and Free Lance (Auckland) 20 Mar. 23/1: Young cock sparrow looks a deuce of a chump in the naval’s rig-out. Pretty cocky!
1887		Wichita Eagle (KS) 24 Dec. 7/1: What excuse can possibly be offered for such words as [...] ‘sardine,’ ‘chump’ [etc.].
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 17: Chump, a fool, ‘off his head,’ insane.
1895		Mirror of Life 16 Feb. 14/1: ‘You must think that I’m a chump that can’t see past the end of my nose’.
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 14: That chump had a full house, nines on somethin’.
1901		Boy’s Own Paper 12 Jan. 232: What a chump old Holman was!
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 4 Sept. 2/6: Innercent enuff, like chumpkins, / [...] / For it’s chokey if they fail.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 17 July 1/1: In the missive the innocent referred to her future husband as a ‘bald-headed old chump’.
1907		W.M. Raine Wyoming (1908) 149: See what y’u done, y’u blamed chump!
1907		D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 22 June 12/1: ‘I shouldn’t have thought he’d ha’ been such a wooden-headed chump as to try and escape from the Stone Jug at Portland’.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 288: You, you chumps, you thick heads, you snivelling, drivelling fools, you’ll wear striped suits and wield pickaxes and answer to a number.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 17 July 4/6: ‘Chumps thou wert; to chumps returnest’ .
1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 338: If the People are chumps enough to elect you, then they deserve you.
1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 82: What a chump Judy’d be to even hesitate over a choice there, hey?
1926		Weston & Lee [perf. Bromley Carter] ‘Bachelor Ben’ 🎵 My married friends laugh and declare I’m a chump / But when I see their wives, I think,‘Umph! I’m no gump’.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 122: We had been posing as English travellers, but what does the chump do but answer the detectives in French that would do credit to an educated native.
1931		D. Runyon ‘Broadway Financier’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 209: She can see that he is nothing but a hundred-per-cent chump.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 140: A good outsideman [...] always has a chump to play for.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 32: Still other schemers figured they were chumps to be satisfied with merely legitimate trucking profits.
1974		R. Blount Jr About Three Bricks Shy of a Load 10: ‘Somebody you slap in the face and he don’t do anything. That’s the definition of a chump’.
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 91: None of my business of course, not being the kind of chump who undertook murder investigations.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 161: It afforded me no pleasure whatsoever to see him make such a complete and utter chump of himself.
1989		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 2: chumpie – insulting reference to another person, more frequently used in a friendly way as a joking insult. ‘Look at that chumpie over there. He thinks he’s bad.’.
1990		J. Wambaugh Golden Orange (1991) 51: We take down the chump.
1999		Guardian Rev. 25 June 5: Her useless chump of a husband lands them both in the brown stuff.
2000		Guardian Rev. 26 Feb. 8: But they blew it; they all turned out to be chumps.
2006		G. Iles Turning Angel 380: Why is Drew the worst kind of chump, Quentin?
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 173: A well-intentioned chump holding a shank for some inmate.

4. (also old chump) a general term of address, either derog. or teasing.

1873		Huddersfield Chron. 15 Jan. 3/6: The defendant addressed the complainant as ‘Old Chump’.
1879		‘’Arry on the Road’ in Punch 9 Aug. 83/1: I know a good ’oss when I see one; it isn’t for nothing, old chump, / As I ’se parted so free to the Coachies.
1884		‘’Arry at a Political Pic-Nic’ in Punch 11 Oct. 180/1: Fancy, old chump.
1900		Sporting Times 27 Jan. 3/4: Why, you chump, that card says ‘Blind.’ You’re deef ’n’ dumb.
1915		Birmingham Gaz. 5 July 4/7: Mind my hat, you silly old chump.
1919		Marvel 1 Mar. 5: Go on! Fire away, you chump!
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 192: ‘Thanks, chump,’ kidded Killarney.
1941		B. Schulberg What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 40: Hello, chump [...] welcome to Los Angeles.
1953		P. Larkin letter 6 Aug. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 208: So all’s well that ends well – that’s one life I haven’t ruined. (Not hers you chump – mine!!!).
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 223: Yeah, well we’ll see about that tomorrow, chump.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 203: Chump, that’s mellow with me.
1983		G. Tate ‘Santana’ in Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) 93: How do you know, chump?
1999		K. Sampson Powder 127: Open up, you chumps!

5. (US black) a second-rate pimp, one who just makes enough money to get by.

1972

Hall & Adelman Gentleman of Leisure 145: I ask my girls to work seven days a week [...] But Tracey’s twin sister has a chump. He lets her do anything and everything she wants – she works from twelve to two five days a week.

6. (US black) a disloyal gang member.

1969		R.L. Keiser Vice Lords 38: I never seen a Lord cop out [chicken out]—not a true Lord [...] A person who does not fulfill the obligations of physical support is derisively referred to as a ‘punk,’ or a ‘chump.’ .
1971		H.E. Roberts Third Ear n.p.: chump n. one who fails to meet his obligations of physical support of another gang member.
1996–2000		(con. 1940s) Deuce Ofay Productions ‘Jive Bible’ at JiveOn.com 🌐 Gravy on (one’s) grits: adj. Said of an individual who has proved to be a success in financial matters; Rich. ‘Why don’t Jeremy come ’roun hea’ no more? He always be out oozin’ an’ schmoozin’ a’ late.’ ‘He got gravy on his grits now, man. He don’t need ta’ be pimpin’ wit’ us at de quickie mart like we’s use to.’ ‘Dat Chump!’ ‘Sheeeeeit! Jive-ass foo’ wuz a gorilla pimp anyhow!’.

7. (US prison) a deliberate insult, implying the subject’s weakness and/or homosexuality; the spur to a fight.

1992

Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 35: Chump A derogatory term for a male inmate meaning he is homosexual and or weak. To call a person a chump will usually result in a fight if the person is willing to protect his reputation.