Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a dud cheque or other fraudulent monetary draft, a counterfeit banknote; also attrib.

1884		Sporting Times 2 Feb. 5/4: £200 is the limit of his confidence, and ‘stumers’ are an unknown quantity with him.
1890		Sporting Times 18 Jan. 3/5: The first volume of the Man of the World has come out with N. S. neatly inscribed on the back, which doesn’t mean what you usually see on your stumers, dear boys but New Series.
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 29 Mar. 7/1: Before he could be released a stumer for £100 turned up.
1891		Sporting Times 7 Mar. 1/3: He handed old Tinny his stumer stake, / And, as winnings, a stumer quid.
1900		Sporting Times 10 Feb. 2/2: No stumers, Hanover Jacks, clogs, stools, umbrellas, pinched prices [...].
1909		Sun. Times (Perth) 12 Dec. 1/5: Papered over with cronks and stumers that the callous banks refuse.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 26 June 2nd sect. 12/7: S’pose you’ve ratted Lenny Darlot of a spark. / Or cashed a stumer in a Terrace bank.
1912		E. Pugh City Of The World 236: You wouldn’t find me trying to pass any stumers.
1916		Brisbane Courier 8 July 13/4: ‘A dollar to a stumer cheque,’ he wagered with himself, ‘she’s forgotten my name again’.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 273: Stumer, A: [...] a dishonoured cheque.
1931		Sydney Morn. Herald 13 Feb. 5/2: I got this stumer cheque.
1940		S. Lister Mistral Hotel (1951) 197: There is some subtle and quite unmistakable aura about the man who is about to pass a ‘stumer’.
1944		P. Cheyney They Never Say When 18: Tell him to get in touch with Effie and get that stumer cheque from her and issue a writ against Swayle.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 215/1: Stumer. [...] 4. A forged check.
1963		R.L. Finn Time Remembered (1985) 69: America borowed freely from Yiddish [...] ‘stumer,’ ‘schmaltzy,’ ‘shamus’.
1987		P. Johnson History of Jews 435: The Allies [...] issued during the war a lot of post-dated cheques to countless nationalities whose support they needed. When the peace came some of the cheques bounced and the Arabs, in particular, found they had been handed a stumer.

2. (Aus./N.Z.) a person without money, a defaulter, a bankrupt; thus stumered adj., bankrupt.

1894		Truth (Sydney) 6 May. 6/5: The committee of the West Australian Jockey Club have [...] endorsed the disqualification of Towton and his horse Carbine [...] It’s not all beer and skittles for ‘stumers’ in W.A.
1898		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 Dec. Red Page: A stoomer or stumer is a man without money.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 145: STOOMER: gambling and racing a broker, a bankrupt, a defaulter.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 12 Oct. 6/5: [M]any significant winks were exchange'd when a supposed ‘stumer’s’ name was mentioned.
1909		Eve Post (Wellington) 24 Sept. 6/5: ‘The Stumer’ - The gentleman referred to is on a holiday visit to Australia.
1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 245: Another bloomin’ stumer, Dunny.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 73: Stumer, (in gambling or racing) a bankrupt, a defaulter.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 109/2: stumered bankrupt or exhausted.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

3. (Aus./UK) in horse-racing, a horse that will not win, often deliberately so.

1873		Sl. Dict. 289: Shtumer a horse against which money may be laid without risk.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 69: Safe ‘Un, Dead ‘Un, Stiff ‘Un, Sthumer [sic], racing terms for a horse that is not allowed to win.
1895		Mirror of Life 20 Apr. 10/4: ‘Run and back it,’ says Jem to his clerk, taking [...] all the previous winning to back a horse which more often than not proves to be a ‘stumor’.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 215/1: Stumer. 1. (Among race-track gamblers) A horse with no chance to win.
1943		J.A.W. Bennett ‘Eng. as it is Spoken in N.Z.’ in AS XVIII:2 Apr. 91: A horse that runs crooked is said to be stumered, apparently derived from Glasgow sporting slang.
1979		(con. 1930s) J. Wolveridge He Don’t Know ‘A’ from a Bull’s Foot 10: We all knew that [...] Stumers were the horses my old man kept backing.

4. something or someone worthless, useless, a ‘flop’; thus stumered adj., worthless, useless.

1890		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘The Rejected’ Sporting Times 29 Mar. 1/3: Each gem of wit and humour was regarded as a stumer.
1913		A. Lunn Harrovians 91: Don’t slime away like that, you little stumour.
1924		‘Sapper’ Third Round 623: Even if that bloke is a stumer, our hands are tied.
1936		‘Banjo’ Paterson Shearer’s Colt 143: She [...] had been wondering how she would face her co-religionists if she brought them what is known in certain financial circles as a ‘stumer’.
1946		P.L. Soljak N.Z. 116: stumer: failure; to run a stumer: to lose a race.
1979		F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 187: As explanations go it was a right shtoomer, but it might have been daft enough to be true.

5. (UK Und.) a certainty.

1930

(con. 1910–20s) D. Mackenzie Hell’s Kitchen 120: Stumer ... a certainty.

6. a fool.

1966		Eve. Press 21 Nov. n.p.: Stewmers are the next best thing to goms, but whilst a countryman was once pointed out to me as being a stewmer, you’ll find a few culchies who are goms [BS].
1969		P. Boyle All Looks Yellow to the Jaundiced Eye 57: He has a clear view of all comers and you can see by the look on his face that a stumer is on its way.
1987		(con. 1920s) L. Redmond Emerald Square 99: Deasy, the biggest, thickest ‘stumer’ in class, lurched to his feet.

7. a state of agitation.

1932		Auden in Rev. Eng. Studies (1978) Aug. 284: Poor old Ma in a perfect stuma.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 73: Stumer, in a, in a ‘stew’, worried, angry.

8. a blunder, a mistake.

1999

Ian Dury ‘Bed O’ Roses No. 9’ 🎵 I knew it might turn out to be a schtumer / Nothing would surprise me anymore.