hum-box n.
1. a pulpit.
![]() | New Canting Dict. n.p.: hum box a pulpit. | |
, , , | ![]() | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725]. |
![]() | Life and Adventures. | |
, , | ![]() | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
![]() | New Dict. Cant (1795). | |
![]() | Dict. Sl. and Cant. | |
![]() | Lex. Balatronicum. | |
![]() | Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
![]() | Pelham III 268: Suppose Bess were to address you thus: ‘Well you parish bull prig, are you for lushing jackey, or pattering in the hum box?’. | |
![]() | Modern Flash Dict. | |
![]() | Mysteries of London I 60/1: H was a Hum-box, where parish-prigs speak. | |
![]() | Paved with Gold 309: He was nicknamed the ‘Amen bawler’ (parson) and recommended to take to the ‘hum box’ (pulpit). | |
, , | ![]() | Sl. Dict. |
![]() | Life and Death at the Old Bailey (1935) 168: The parson stands on his Humbox high. | in R.T. Hopkins|
![]() | Freeman’s Jrnl (Dublin) 28 Dec. 2/2: None but a disreputable Bohemian would ever have christned a pulpit a ‘hum-box’. |
2. (US) an auctioneer’s rostrum.
![]() | Vocabulum. | |
![]() | Aus. Sl. Dict. 37: Hum Box, an auctioneer’s rostrum. |
In compounds
a preacher.
![]() | Musa Pedestris (1896) 123: But if ever a pal in limbo fell, / He’d sooner be scragg’d at once than tell; / Though the hum-box patterer talked of hell, / And the beak wore his nattiest wig. | ‘The House Breaker’s Song’ in Farmer|
![]() | Bell’s Life in Sydney 2 Oct. 1/2: And when his time for going’s come / May hum-box patterer be dumb. |