Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US black) 126th St. in Harlem.

1939

D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 1 July 16: Down in ‘jump alley’ (West 126th street) they’re hollering about the importation of those six chorines.

(orig. US) to attack verbally, to berate.

1908		K. McGaffey Sorrows of a Show Girl Ch. xiii: The manager jumped all over her for mov ing.
1912		Van Loan ‘Little Sunset’ in Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 76: Gee! but that Jones is touchy [...] Jumped all over me for just suggesting that he better leave the kid somewhere.
1919		Van Loan ‘Excess Baggage’ in Score by Innings (2004) 398: I jumped all over Ben, but he denied everything.
1956		K. Vonnegut ‘The Boy Who Hated Girls’ in Bagombo Snuff Box (1999) 196: The school nurse just jumped all over me for being too nice to my boys. She says I get too involved, and that’s a very dangerous thing.
1960		P. Rabe Murder Me for Nickels (2004) 121: I’ll go [...] and have a talk with that man. Can’t have him jumping all over my help.’.
1977		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Black Gangster (1991) 42: You can’t even talk to your old man without him jumping all over you.
1993		E. Liebow Tell Then Who I Am 122: The week before, Kim ‘jumped all over Louise’ and is evicted permanently (‘We can’t have violence here, can we?’).
2001		‘Today’s media stories from the papers’ Guardian 13 Aug. 🌐 Eurosceptics jump all over a non-story about what Tony Blair may or may not have said to a Brazilian reporter.
2012		W.D. Myers All the Right Stuff 62: Old people like to do that to young people. They set you up to say something and then jump all over it.

1. (orig. US black) to misbehave.

1969		H. Rap Brown Die Nigger Die! 43: The dude in charge saw I could influence the other brothers, because when I jumped bad, they jumped bad.
1976		R. Price Blood Brothers 145: Shit, anybody even thinks a jumpin’ bad he’ll get eighty-sixed so fast.
1991		M. Duran Don’t Spit on My Corner 119: Jump bad with me now, punk.
2002		Simon & Burns ‘The Detail’ Wire ser. 1 ep. 2 [TV script] No, you out there all alone, jumpin’ bad.
2011		K.N. Moore Saving the African American Community from Violence 55: We seem to be ready to jump bad, have an attitude, pick a fight, and start a shoot-out at parties.

2. of events, to turn dramatic.

2004

Simon & Alvarez ‘Homecoming’ Wire ser. 3 ep. 6 [TV script] Them corners is all jumpin’ bad.

(orig. US) to disappear (usu. by leaving the country) and thus avoid a possible prison sentence while remanded on bail before trial; thus bail jump n.

1859		Matsell Vocabulum 47: Jumped his bail, run away from his bail.
1897		Eldridge & Watts Our Rival, the Rascal 123: Forfeiting, or ‘jumping,’ bail may be said to be the regular practice of these ‘bank sneaks’ whenever this privilege is open to them and they have the money to put up for the opportunity of running away [ibid.] 295: [S]he had been permitted to give bonds to the extent of $21,000 [...] and preferred to ‘jump’ her bail rather than to stand trial.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
1913		H. Kephart Our Southern Highlanders (1922) 210: He was let out on bond. Presto! he jumped it.
1919		Van Loan ‘His Own Stuff’ in Score by Innings (2004) 389: There won’t be any bail for you to jump.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 271: There’d always be time to jump it [i.e. a criminal charge].
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 144: I jumped bail and left the States.
1971		Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 179: ‘Jumped his bail, you mean?’ ‘Precisely, madam. He escaped to Canada in a false beard.’.
1978		S. King Stand (1990) 334: Two political prisoners who had jumped bail.
2001		(con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 8: Fourteen convictions. None child-support liens. Five bail jumps.

(US) to scold, to reprimand.

1985		(con. 1969–70) D. Bodey F.N.G. (1988) 142: I didn’t expect him to jump into my shit and it hurts my feelings.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 193: Instead of jumping into my shit, Gino simply walked on by as if ignoring me.
2004		Writing on the wall 🌐 And you jumped in my shit about trying to encourage bio fuels too.

to escape from prison; thus jail-jumper n.

1886		‘Lady Kate, the Dashing Female Detective’ in Roberts et al. Old Sleuth’s Freaky Female Detectives (1990) 14/2: ‘Is he a regular?’ ‘Yes; he’s over from England. He’s a dead regular; been at it all his life, [...] he’s very high-toned, and they say the best “jail-jumper” in the world — a regular, natural-born Jack Shephard.’.
1900		Ainslee’s Mag. 151/1: You’ll get a sweet-scented lot o’ information as to what’s the best way ter jump jail to prevent hangin’.

to commit suicide.

1993

M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read How to Shoot Friends 31: The inconsiderate blighter didn’t even think of the hole in the ozone layer when he decided to jump off the perch.

(US) to abscond, esp. from a hotel or lodging, without paying one’s bill.

1879		Amer. Punch Oct. 109/2: The circus spring-board vaulter never gets arrested for ‘jumping his board’ [DA].
1888		Chicago Herald n.p.: He arose at early dawn and jumped his bill [DA].
1939		R. Chandler ‘I’ll Be Waiting’ in Red Wind (1946) 127: She jumped her bill.

see jump up someone’s ass

to pay a debt for a third party.

1875

Wagga Wagga Advertiser (NSW) 23 Oct. 4/2: . If the Honorable Charlie were hard-up [...] wished to do a bill, [...] Bob was the accommodating friend who, to use the expression in vogue among the money lending fraternity and its victims, ‘jumped on his back’.

(orig. US black) to be annoyed or irritated, to take offence.

1936		‘Hectic Harlem’ in N.Y. Amsterdam News 8 Feb, sect. 2: JUMP SALTY – act highbrow.
1939		Rosetta Crawford ‘My Man Jumped Salty On Me’ 🎵 I’ve been mistreated and I don’t mind dyin’ / Cause that man jumped salty on me.
1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 124: Now don’t jump salty, ’cause your jive is faulty.
1956		A. Childress Like One of the Family 23: I know it was my idea and please don’t jump so salty, because I am goin’.
1961		M. Braly Felony Tank (1962) 102: Don’t jump salty with me.
1969		C. Himes Blind Man with a Pistol (1971) 84: She flew salty and said if they smelt where she’d been making love with her own husband, that was only natural.
1977		J.L. Dillard Lex. Black Eng. 37: Salty meaning ‘angry, annoyed, in a bad mood’ occurs frequently in inner city slang; jump salty can mean ‘turn sour or hostile’.

(US) to quit, to renege.

1933		in Seff & Seymour Footlight Parade [film script] You jumped ship. What’s your game? [HDAS].
1973		Bernstein & Woodward All the President’s Men 279: [T]he President was going to have to jump ship on the Watergate at some point soon.
1988		(con. 1940s) C. Bram Hold Tight (1990) 236: But you’ve jumped ship for me. Why?
1999		Observer Mag. 22 Aug. 14: I wasn’t going to be a butcher, and that’s what was waiting for me at the end of the road. So I jumped ship.
2000		Guardian Guide 8–14 Jan. 19: Outraged at the final decision a week ago of [...] Jodie Foster to jump ship on the project.
2005		C. Buzzell My War (2006) 23: A lot of people change their minds, wimp out, jump ship [etc.].
2012		T.P. McCauley ‘Lady Madeline’s Dive’ in ThugLit Sept./Oct. [ebook] ‘[M]aybe they ought to jump ship and join up with Rothmann’s bunch’.
2014		T. Black Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] It’s Leanna . . . she’s jumped ship.

(US black) to act in a foolishly ‘clever’ manner.

1974

V.E. Smith Jones Men 9: The dude jumped smart and Joe cracked him.

(US black) to threaten or victimize someone.

1979

Grandmaster Flash & Furious Five ‘Superrappin’ No. 1’ 🎵 It takes a sucker’s man to try to jump my hand.

(US black) to act properly, to be honest, usu. in context of a sexual relationship.

1940		‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 2 Nov. 10/5: They Say that Margaret Taylor and Sonny Wade ‘jump steady’, but her heart is still aglow for John Sanders.
1953		L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 5: The party begins to jump steady again, the big toast shouts, ‘Play on in if you can’t cut a rug make like a bouquet’.
1960		I. Freeman Out of the Burning (1961) 209: I am off this crap. Anybody wants to jump smooth with me is welcome.

(US) to attack, to turn hostile.

1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 130: Everything seemed to be going wrong for me and Bud – the whole town jumped stink on us.
1959		Murtagh & Harris Who Live In Shadow (1960) 55: Those cats jumped stink on their own boy. They was better than brothers to me in the old days and now they jumped stink.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 52: Macho, their president, jumped stink and said, ‘Time man, we got heart, we deal with our manos’.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 45: Jump stink in a minute: they heard you was bad.
1984		M. Pinero Three Plays 17: You gotta jump stink right quick on the place, because you think everybody is out to make you or take something away from you.

(US) to behave in an unpleasant manner.

2017

D. Winslow The Force [ebook] The security guys at the door tried to jump ugly.

(US) to attack, verbally or physically.

1974		National Lampoon Oct. 84: My old man’s been jumping up my butt ever since I racked up the Pinto [HDAS].
1975		Sepe & Telano Cop Team 141: You little no good hump [...] I’m gonna jump your ass . . .
1976		(con. 1969) C.R. Anderson Grunts 80: I ain’t gonna get my ass jumped again today.
1997		E. Little Another Day in Paradise 131: You want some of my fine brown ass go ahead and jump on it.
2002		‘RC Cola of Evil’ Daily Recap 21 Aug. 🌐 Blake tells Edmund to jump up his ass and die.
2012		http://cosmicdifferentiation.tumblr.com/ 4 Mar. 🌐 If you are such an avid Gaga fan you’d know she's is about expressing yourself and your opinions, I did just that and you jumped up my ass about it.

(US campus) a greeting.

1981		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 7: what’s jumping – what’s going on?
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 100: Question forms such as these versions of how are you? signal that a response is in order: [...] what it is? what’s going down? what’s happening? what’s jumping? what’s shaking?

(orig. US) a coarse dismissive excl; euph. for go fuck yourself! under fuck v.

c.1930		(con. late 19C) N. Kimball An Amer. Madam (1981) 126: ‘You girls value yourselves like what you have isn’t as common as whale pee.’ I told him to go jump himself.
1985		E. Gundy Disappearance of Gregory Pluckrose 97: ‘Oh, go jump yourself,’ I snapped somewhat peevishly.
1999		N. Ingrams ‘Astraying Voyages 00:01’ on Evilnet.net 🌐 ‘I will let you live, only because you are more experienced in using the jump mechanism.’ ‘Go jump yourself, you two bit bastard,’ slurred Captain Alston.

(W.I.) a shoe made from old automobile tyres and very common during WWII.

1952

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).

alcohol, liquor.

1843

R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 368: Wot can he want at the Cock-and-Bottle [...] He doesn’t need any more jumpin’ powder than he has in his pocket, surely!

(US) a plainclothes police officer employing aggressive, surprise tactics.

1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 518: From radio cars and unmarked Cavaliers, Turner and Hurricane and all the other jump-out boys will be watching the crew.
2009		D. Lehr Fence 94: The ‘Jump-out Boys’ [plainclothes Boston P.D. Officers] and Smut did eventually have a memorable clash.
2021		J. Fenton We Own This City 4: [T]he officers most likely to make up the plainclothes units known around town as ‘knockers’ or ‘jumpout boys,’ a reference to their aggressive tactics.

(US black) alcohol, which ensures that one keeps ‘jumping’.

1935		Lucille Bogan [song title] Jump Steady Daddy.
1948		Dan Burley ‘Back Door Stuff’ 30 Oct. [synd. col.] They gotta [...] buy the chicks some Jump Steady.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 112/1: Jump-steady. (Borrowed from Negro jargon) Gin. ‘Nine or ten jump-steadies and a couple of muggles (marijuana cigarettes) and up goes your gage (emotion reaches a peak).’.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 187: Hard liquor also had its own vernacular labels – [...] do-it fluid, jump steady, swag; and panther piss and white lightning for home brew.

1. (US prison) to join in a gang fight (for your own gang).

2023

Rayman & Blau Riker’s 246: If you didn’t [join the fight] [...] they going to be like, ‘Yo, you didn’t fight. You didn’t jump in’.

2. see separate entry.

(Aus.) to give evidence.

1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxv 6/3: jump the box: To give evidence in favour of a charged person in court.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 32: Jump the Box Give evidence in court.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Jump the box. To go queen’s evidence.

to desert, to run off.

1965

A. James America’s Homosexual Underground 134: I made up my mind to jump it the next time we hit Havre.

see under Jim Crow n.

see separate entries.

see separate entry.

(Aus.) to barter one’s horse for liquor.

1886		Daily Tel. 20 Mar. n.p.: Then the unhappy man would, in bush parlance, jump his horse over the bar, that is to say, he would, for a paltry sum, sell his horse, saddle and bridle, and all, to the lambing-down landlord [F&H].
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 89: JUMPING YOUR HORSE OVER THE BAR: bush this is the last act in the knocking down of a cheque. If a person on the spree sells his horse or mortgages it to the publican so as to prolong his spree, he is said to have jumped his horse over the bar. Rather a serious matter in districts where the chances of work are far apart and a horse a necessity to a man looking for work.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Nov. 16/3: [M]ost of our fellows are fighting, cursing, blaspheming and drinking, drinking, drinking! – notwithstanding the fact that this may be their last shearing cheque for a year or two to come. When their cheques are melted they’ll jump their horses over the bar, and then, maddened and weakened, will have to foot it away across those endless downs to God knows where.
[1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Sept. 29/2: So I played the giddy goat, / Till I cashed me cobbler note; / Then I saddled up me neddies an’ I mounted for a jump. / Jump – at a jump, I cleared the bar an’ pump; / But I rode for landlord’s winnings – like many another chump].
1935		Queenslander (Brisbane) 10 July 2/1: A man might ‘swamp his cheque’ and ’jump his horses’ over the bar, but he will not part with his bundle.

see under bones n.¹

see separate entries.

see separate entry.

(US prison) to make an escape.

1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
1939		Howsley Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl.
1976		M. Braly False Starts 186: Those on the prod, about to jump the fence, might think twice.

see jump n. (1d)

see under joint n.

to lose control, to disappear.

1953

R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 85: You want to know why and how and when the guy jumped the rails, and then fix it so that he doesn’t do it again.

see under rattler n.

see hop the twig v.

see bark up the wrong tree v.

(US) to panic, to lose control, to be terrified.

2001

Levontaun Diaryland.com 11 Jun. 🌐 The next morning I woke up late, so I was jumping through my ass (not literally) trying to make it to Portland for my flight.

(US) to throw a tantrum; to scream and shout.

1972		D. Pearce Pier Head 53: Old bears like that bastard? They just scream and howl and jump through their asshole [HDAS].
1976		P. Conroy Great Santini (1977) 409: The cheerleaders are so happy they’re ... they’re jumping through their own assholes.

see separate entries.

see jump on v.

(US black) to have sexual intercourse.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 162: I don’t get too much enjoyment outa jumpin’ up and down.

(US black/campus) an expression of astonishment.

[1896		P.L. Dunbar ‘A Negro Love Song’ in Lyrics of Lowly Life 110: Seen my lady home las’ night / Jump back, honey jump back. / Hel’ huh han’ an’ sque’z it tight, / Jump back, honey, jump back].
1965		James Brown ‘Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag’ 🎵 Jump back, Jack.
1975		J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 90: Hey, jump back, Jack! I made my decision.
1985		(con. 1969–70) D. Bodey F.N.G. (1988) 103: Jump back, for chrissakes!
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 101: Reactions of sympathetic disbelief include as if, get outta here, gimme a break, jump back, no way, and whatever.

see under ass n.