hum n.2
1. nonsense, a trick, a hoax; a whispered lie; thus run a hum on v., to cheat, to hoax.
World No. 164 n.p.: Now if this be only a hum (as I suppose it is) upon our country apes, it being blown in the World will put an end to it [F&H]. | ||
‘A Tale’ Poems (1774) 182: There, my good critics, lies the hum. | ||
Songs Comic and Satyrical 64: I’ll try if I can’t tip old Boney a hum, / If not, why, may-hap he hums me. | ‘The Jolly Soul’||
Works (1794) I 436: He threaten’d – but, behold! ’twas all a hum. | ‘Ode Upon Ode’||
Sprigs of Laurel 2: I’ll run a hum on him. | ||
Sporting Mag. Nov. IX 108/1: The Ladle appear’d, and don’t think it a hum, / It quickly whipp’d into the old woman’s b—. | ||
Sporting Mag. Dec. XXIII 164/2: Dismal was quizz’d – it all turns out a hum. | ||
Rejected Addresses 112: My stars, in the air here’s a knife! I’m sure it cannot be a hum. | ‘Macbeth’ in Smith||
Fancy 34: Oh, lovely chum! / You, or your son, have told bouncing hum! | ‘King Tims the First’ in||
National Advocate (N.Y.) 12 Feb. 2/2: After consulting with Mr. Hamilton, De Grass found that he had been rather too precipitate, and that, in all probability, the bond and mortgage were all a hum. | ||
Letters of Major J. Downing (1835) 123: And the public good is now a-days ‘a hum’. | ||
Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 213: It’s ‘No Go!’ – it’s ‘Gammon!’ – it’s ‘all a Hum’. | ‘Row in an Omnibus’||
‘A Week in Oxford’ in Bell’s Life in Sydney 25 Oct. 4/3: What lecture have I on Wednesdays, at this unseasonable hour?—it's all a hum, Tom. | ||
Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Dec. 87/2: Don’t listen to gypsy’s hums. | ||
Six Days in the Metropolis 85: ‘Tell me all about it [i.e. a charity concert] — all a ‘hum’ was it not?’ [...] ‘Well, there was a screw loose’. | ||
Dick Temple II 246: It has been said [...] that my good work is all a hum. | ||
Doctor 49: A hum and a huff, And none o’ the real stuff [F&H]. | ||
‘’Arry on Marriage’ Punch 29 Sept. 156/1: Married life may be ticketed honey, but I know it’s more of a hum. |
2. (UK Und.) a liar, equated in majority of recorded citations with a Methodist [also hum-box n.].
Dict. Sl. and Cant n.p.: humm a liar, canting deceitful fellow, lowest order of methodist. | ||
Flash Dict. [as cit. 1809]. | ||
Modern Flash Dict. 18: Hum – a liar, a canting deceitful Wesleyan methodist. | ||
Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835]. | ||
New and Improved Flash Dict. n.p.: Hum a liar; a methodist. | ||
Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 23 Feb. 28/2: [of an adultress] [He] married a wife who turned out a ‘hum,’ / Though he thought she was a lady. |
3. something unpleasant.
‘’Arry on St. Swithin’ Punch 4 Aug. 49/1: Dog-days is all a dashed hum. |
4. (Aus.) a cadger, a scrounger; thus on the hum, begging, cadging.
Sport (Adelaide) 1 Feb. 12/2: They Say [...] Look out for your money, Peck! Sticky fingers and beer hums in the mob. | ||
World of Living Dead (1969) 130: The ‘hum’, the unskilled derelict [...] who stands upon the ‘pub’ corner kerb, ‘bites’ all and sundry. | ||
Townsville Daily Bull. (Qld) 10 Aug. 16/4: I had a great old spin, and plenty of company. You know what a town it is for hums. | ||
Western Mail (Perth) 12 Oct. 10/4: Tobacco he cadged, so he was also a hum. | ||
Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 136: Rigby’s a twister. He’s a hum and a liar. | ||
Pairs and Loners 81: There’s some blokes on the track you just can’t get along with. Nuts, hums, crawlers, top-offs, twisters. |