Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. tasty, delicious, flavoursome; thus n. yumminess, lit. or fig. deliciousness.

1863		Dunfermline Sat. Press 4 July 5/3: Here the [black] boy rubbed his stomach, and grinning with delight, said ‘Yummy yummy! plenty belly full’.
1934		in Webster New International Dict. (2nd edn).
1943		T. Marvin ‘College for Crooks’ Ten Detective Aces Feb. 🌐 ‘Sure you won’t eat these pickles, Phil? They’re yummy.’.
1955		J.P. Donleavy Ginger Man (1958) 228: Bacon and eggs, tea, bread and butter. Yummy.
1969		Aus. Women’s Wkly 30 Apr. 67/1: That’s a yummy cup of beef tea.
1979		B. Gutcheon New Girls (1982) 271: The little green one is yummy stewed and served with hard-boiled eggs.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 119: Even ‘bread and scrape’ (or scratch) once usually a meagre film of dripping, but now more often ‘marge’, is ‘yummy’ if you’re hungry.
1999		Indep. Rev. 26 July 2: The jungle can offer no yummier delicacy than the still warm brain of a recently killed colobus.
2002		D.H. Sterry Chicken (2003) 9: The steak is warm and yummy.
2011		J.J. DeCeglie Drawing Dead [ebook] All the gooey warm pink yumminess.

2. used similarly of people, objects, experiences etc.

1891		R. Morton ‘Gay Paree’ 🎵 Dick began to play the goat – he Chucked his girl beneath the chin! – Called her ‘Yummiest of Totties!’.
1899		Kipling ‘The Last Term’ Complete Stalky & Co. 274: Pretty lips – sweeter than – cherry or plum, / Always look – jolly and – never look glum; / Seem to say – Come away. Kissy! – come, come! / Yummy-yum! Yummy-yum! Yummy-yum-yum!
1959		E. De Roo Go, Man, Go! 38: ‘Yummy,’ she purred, then raised her big toe to the light switch again.
1960		E. De Roo Big Rumble 129: It’s double or nothing tonight. Yummy!
1961		Mad mag. Oct. 23: I just love that yummy hunk of man.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 218: yummy cute, handsome.
1970		L. Sanders Anderson Tapes 215: [of jewelry] [S]ome simply yummy original glass, enamel and cloisonné pieces.
1985		J. Sherwood Botanist at Bay 38: Hey fellers, this sheila’s a beaut [...] We’ve picked ourselves a yummy bit of crumpet.
1991		W.T. Vollmann Whores for Gloria 42: Jack said stop whining you chocolate covered yummy little black bitch.
1998		P. McCabe Breakfast on Pluto 1: Just give me Vic Damone, South Pacific, plus a yummy stack of magazines. [Ibid.] 73: Oh yummy Bertie, I love you so, do it to me again!
2000		Indep. Rev. 7 June 7: She considered her toes to be quite spendidly attractive in their unvarnished state. I did too. Yummy-yummy.
2015		S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 115: Yummy teacher seeks teenage boy for extracurricular lessons in sex education.
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 8: ‘That yummy fur shop that’s having a clearance in peschaniki muffs’.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 357: Jackie [Kennedy] called Biarritz yummy.