Green’s Dictionary of Slang

dimber adj.

1. (UK Und.) pretty.

1637		Dekker ‘Canting Song’ in Eng. Villainies (8th edn) O2: Bing a waste to Rome-vile then / Oh my dimber wapping Dell.
1648		Dekker ‘Canters Dict.’ Eng. Villainies (9th edn).
1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 48: Dimber, Pretty.
a.1674		‘The Rogues . . . praise of his Stroling Mort’ Head Canting Academy (1674) 20: [as cit. 1637].
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1725		‘Vain Dreamer’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 46: It was a dimber, drowsy mort, / She slept, I durst not wake her.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict. 18: Pretty – Dimber.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Dimber, pretty; (cant) a dimber cove; a pretty fellow; a dimber mort; a pretty wench.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 121: Dimber mot – a pretty lass.
1833		‘A Chaunt by Slapped-up Kate and Dubber Daff’ in Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 46: But of all the rum mots, that I’ve chaff’d with, or kiss’d, / Dimber Polly’s the biddy for me.
1842		Egan ‘Miss Dolly Trull’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 143: Of all the mots in this here jug, / There’s none like saucy Dolly; / And but to view her dimber mug / Is e’er excuse for folly.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1871–82		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).
1881		Newcastle Courant 9 Sept. 6/5: Through the partially opened door [...] he saw a ‘dimber’ looking damsel.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 47: Buss her, wap in rogue’s rum lingo, for, O, my dimber wapping dell.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks 29/1: Damber, dimber, dainty, a combination of an attractive girl, a clever thief and an efficient leader.

2. smart, active, adroit.

1837		Disraeli Venetia bk 1 Ch. xiv n.p.: ’Tis a dimber cove, whispered one of the younger men to a companion [F&H].
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

In compounds

dimber cove (n.) [cove n. (1)]

(UK Und.) a handsome man.

1785, 1788, 1796

Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Dimber, pretty; (cant) a dimber cove; a pretty fellow; a dimber mort; a pretty wench.

dimber mort (n.) [mort n.¹ (1)]

a pretty young woman.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) II.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
c.1750–1882		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 24: Dimber Mort, a pretty girl.