Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to steal fruit, usu. apples, from orchards; thus any petty thief.

1851		S. Aus. Register (Adelaide) 11 Apr. 3/5: James Richards, alias Jemmy the Scrumper, labourer, was charged with committing a rape on Lydia Sarah Robinson.
1865		Sheffield Dly Teleg. 23 Dec. 9/1: Dick Greasy [...] ax’d me if I’d mak one to goa a scrumpin, that is, fetchin’ apples off sumboddy’s trees .
1875		Northampton Mercury 25 Sep. 6/1: Two of the lads [...] were seen to come out of the garden with apples and pears, and Edward Cox [...] said he had been ‘scrumping’ them.
1885		Northampton Mercury 5 Sept. 9/1: The other boys [...] asked if they were going ‘scrumping,’ or apple-stealing.
1898		E. Pugh Tony Drum 140: ‘I got a handkerchief. You ain’t.’ ‘I lost mine scrumpin’,’ he confessed ruefully. ‘I tied some apples up in it.’.
1912		Globe (London) 15 June 11/4: The Bench, as that was the first case of the ‘scrumping’ season [...] decided to deal leniently with the boys.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 20 Nov. 5/1: Got Luny on a tug scrumping wood in the river [...] What will the dredgers say, Ted?
1922		Northampton Mercury 22 Feb. 6/4: ‘Scrumping Not Proved’ Three Caldecote boys were summoned for sdtealing [...] appples.
1931		E. Blair ‘Hop-Picking Diary’ 19 Sept.–8 Oct. in Complete Works X (1998) 231: Scrump . . . to steal.
1959		A. Sillitoe ‘Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner’ in Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 16: We climbed over fences and went through fields, scrumping a few sour apples on our way.
1961		R.A. Norton Through Beatnik Eyeballs 22: We often rave to some manor where we scrump them little apples off the trees.
1971		T. Lewis Plender [ebook] ‘Remember that time old Pondy caught us scrumping in his orchard?’.
1988		J. Healy Grass Arena (1990) 11: In autumn we’d go scrumping fruit off the trees in the posh gardens.
2001		A. Sillitoe Birthday 105: I used to go scrumping, and no orchard was safe.
2020		M. Sheldrake Entangled Life 246: I’m sorry to say we made with most of [the apples] . I later discovered we were ‘scrumping’ — a dialect word of West Country provenance.