Green’s Dictionary of Slang

jump v.

1. in sexual senses.

(a) to have sexual intercourse; thus jumping n.

[UK]Shakespeare Winter’s Tale IV iii: He has the prettiest love-songs for maids; [...] with such delicate burthens of dildos and fadings, ‘jump her and thump her’.
[UK]Fletcher Pilgrim II i: Are ye so hot? have ye your private pilgrimages? Must ye be jumping, joan?
[UK]T. Randolph Muses’ Looking-Glass IV iii: There is jumping Jude, heroic Doll, With bouncing Nan, and Cis, your worship’s sinner.
[UK]Mennis & Smith ‘Epigrams’ Musarum Deliciae (1817) 95: Old doting Claudius [...] Made drunk one night, and jumping but with Joan / Was forc’t not only to discharge the shot, / But keep the bastard which the gull ne’r got.
Westminster Wedding n.p.: Jumping Joan that can play in the dark.
[UK]C. Cotton Scoffer Scoff’d (1765) 238: Now as they thus, with pleasing Labor, / Did jump and jig to Pipe and Tabor.
[UK] ‘The Country-man’s Delight’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy II 124: O! how they do frig it, / Jump it and Jig it, / Under the Green-wood Tree.
[UK] in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy I 57: He that gets a Rich Bride, / Can jump when he’s to Generate.
[US]Bawdy N.Y. State MS. 5: She fed him ‘Force’ to give him power, / And now Jim jumps her every hour.
[US](con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 172: A big tough guy should only want to jump a girl, and think all the rest and the love was crap.
[US]I. Shulman Cry Tough! 85: I sure woulda liked to jump her.
[US]B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 16: He only went there to sleep or jump a broad.
[UK]F. Keinzly Tangahano 175: A guy didn’t have a snowflake’s chance in hell of jumping her now.
[US]San Diego Sailor 8: She let me jump her like she always did.
[UK]F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 30: Wayne’s a bloke who can jump anything. Women find him attractive, whereas you ...
[US]B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 147: When can we expect an in-depth article on the proper method of jumpin’ factory snatch?
[Ire]P. Howard PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 11: Want to know on what basis they [i.e. women] decide whether a goy is worth jumping?
[US](con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 89: They’d probably go home and jump their wives.

(b) to rape; to attack sexually.

[Ire](con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 169: The squaddy jumped a schoolteacher.
[US]‘Paul Merchant’ ‘Sex Gang’ in Pulling a Train’ (2012) [ebook] I didn’t jump her [...] she jumped me!
[US]T. Wolfe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1969) 148: Doing all the secret fiend things they most dreaded [...] jumping little high-assed mulatto wenches.
[US]Sepe & Telano Cop Team 73: He jumped my sister again last month [...] squeezing her breasts and sticking his fingers inside her panties.
[US]H.C. Collins Street Gangs 223: Jump To attack a person, or sexually attack.
[SA]C. Hope Separate Development 155: They did it just as I’m going to jump this lovely lady, this real babe, Dolores Mkwenzi.
[US]L. Berney Gutshot Straight [ebook] She wanted to jump him right there.
[US]J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 198: Somebody got jumped right here in this park [...] She was, like the girlfriend of the daughter of a friend of mine.

(c) (US black/campus) to seduce, to make determined or aggressive sexual advances.

[US]R.S. Gold Jazz Lex. xxii: Contrasting with the extravagant descriptiveness of jazz nouns, adjectives, and adverbs is the spareness of its verbs, most of which are action verbs, e.g., blow, cook, cop, dig, jump, knock, latch on, make, pick up, and put down.
[UK]T. Blacker Fixx 88: It suited Muriel’s purposes to claim that it was I who had made the first move, that I had jumped her.
[UK]K. Sampson Awaydays 111: I’m very relieved now that I didn’t follow through with the plan to jump Suzy.
[Aus]L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] I blushed when I remembered sucking his dick. I’d really jumped the guy.
[US]T. Piccirilli Fever Kill 26: She stirred beside him [...] ‘Are you going to jump me?’.

2. in Und. uses.

(a) (UK Und.) to open, i.e. a window.

[UK]J. Poulter Discoveries (1774).
[UK]Whole Art of Thieving n.p.: Undub the Jeger, and jump the Glaze open the Door, and lift up the Window.

(b) to break into, for the purpose of robbery; thus jumping n.

[UK]Vaux Memoirs in McLachlan (1964) 82: Lest the reader should be unprovided with a cant dictionary, I shall briefly explain in succession: viz., jumping [...] Getting in at the lower windows of private houses, and robbing the apartments of plate or other portable goods.
[UK]Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 54: ‘To jump a house,’ to rob it.
[UK]T. Taylor Ticket-Of-Leave Man Act IV: You’ve the tools ready to jump that crib in St. Nicholas Lane?
[UK] ‘Six Years in the Prisons of England’ in Temple Bar Mag. Nov. 537: ‘Jumping’ is getting into a house through the window.
[UK]Sl. Dict.
[UK]F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 434: We ’ad ought ’er jump the crib, cop the cherpin, and misle in an ’our and a ’arf.

(c) (UK Und.) to cheat, to defraud.

[UK]G. Parker Life’s Painter 169: A cockabrass. A fellow that stands at an ale-house door, when the gentlemen of the drop speak to a man, as they phrase it; that is, pick him up and take him to the above ale-house to jump him, or do him upon the broads, which means cards: as soon as ever they mizzle, if the flat suspects that he has been cheated [...] he comes out in a great hurry to the door, and asks the cockabrass which way such men went, the cockabrass points out a contrary way.
[US]B. Harte Luck of Roaring Camp (1873) 134: The old pro-pri-e-tor (he wriggled out the word and the point of his pick) warn’t of much account (a long stroke of the pick for a period). He was green, and let the boys about here jump him.

3. to use lit. or fig. force; to oppose.

(a) to take possession of something, e.g. a mine, to which someone else has already laid claiim.

in Wisconsin Hist. Mag. XIX 446: The quarter (near Plainfield, Ill.) that I claimed originally myself has been ‘jumped’ by a person with whom reasoning is of no avail [DA].
[US]‘Dan de Quille’ Big Bonanza (1947) 67: Newcomers who had no money prospected for leads or ‘jumped’ the claims of parties who had made locations.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 2 May 24/2: Why should a host of larrikins get the free passes, and jump the best seats in the trains.
[UK]D. Sladen in Barrère & Leland Sl., Jargon and Cant I 513/1: Jump, to [...] (Australian popular), to supplant in, to take. The difference between jump and ‘shake’ is that ‘shake’ implies stealing, and jump does not. A thief ‘shakes’ your watch; but if you take a seat in a railway-carriage, or on a coach that is engaged by some one else, you are only jumping it.
[US]M.H.E. Hayne Pioneers of the Klondyke 128: After the richest strikes [...] they did their level best to ‘jump’ the legal claims of men who had got in in proper time.
[Aus]E. Dyson ‘A Zealot in Labour’ in Below and On Top 🌐 Why, some o’ them minin’ sharks from the city would be down here an’ jump the claim afore I’d bin gone a week.
[UK]Boy’s Own Paper 1 Dec. 131: You just keep close here now, and see there’s no jumpin’ of this claim.
[US]Sat. Eve. Post 26 Feb. 27/1: I will not jump another man’s land [DA].
[Aus]T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 142: Everybody’s scared some other bloke’s going to jump him for his job, or his sheila, or something.

(b) (also jump in) to ambush, to attack, esp. a surprise attack; also to surprise (without violence).

[UK]Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 54: ‘To jump a man,’ to pounce upon him and either rob or maltreat him.
[UK]Sportsman 7 Nov. 4/1: Notes on News [...] The wife-beater who jumps his wife’s ribs in.
[UK]Sl. Dict.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Aug. 24/4: But now they run him in among a lot of degraded sots, who cannot take a drop of liquor without becoming possessed of a mad desire to wallow in gore. Ten to one, a few of these will dream he’s the missus, and jump his face out of all decency.
[UK]D. Sladen in Barrère & Leland Sl., Jargon and Cant I : Jump, to [...] The word is still used by the lowest classes in London, in America, and Australia, among whom [...] ‘to jump a bloke’ signifies either to cheat him, violently plunder him, ill-treat, or seize.
[US]F. Harris ‘The Best Man in Garotte’ in Elder Conklin & Other Stories (1895) 163: Jedge, we’re sorry you’ve been jumped, here in Garotte.
[US]Van Loan ‘The Revenge of Kid Morales’ in Taking the Count 277: Charlie might have jumped him right there [...] He’s awful hot-headed.
[US]D. Hammett ‘One Hour’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 256: If these men decided to jump me, I could down just one of them before the other three were upon me.
[US](con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 169: They ought to go back and jump the bastard.
[US]N. Algren Neon Wilderness (1986) 74: I was just walkin’ down Chicago like I said [...] when the officers jumped me.
[US]C. Himes Imabelle 57: You jumped me on 129th Street right after midnight.
[US]Laurents & Sondheim West Side Story I iv: riff: Who jumped A-rab this afternoon? bernado: Who jumped me the first day I moved here?
[US]C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 58: [as 1957].
[US](con. 1960s) D. Goines Black Gangster (1991) 79: The kid didn’t have the slightest idea why they were jumped.
[UK]T. Wilkinson Down and Out 160: There’s one fella in there that’s been mugged about a dozen times. His mates get him drunk, then jump him.
[UK] in R. Graef Living Dangerously 99: These kids jumped my mate.
[Scot]I. Welsh Filth 329: As he shows me out that fuckin collie tries to jump me again.
[US]J. Stahl I, Fatty 40: She was some stranger who jumped me out of nowhere.
[Scot]L. McIlvanney All the Colours 102: ‘Let’s jump the fucker’.
[US](con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 157: ‘You can stay here all you want.’ ‘You mean all I hadda do was get jumped?’.
[Aus]D. Whish-Wilson Zero at the Bone [ebook] ‘I’ve spent the night tooling up. I’m gonna jump the bastards in the airport car park’.
[UK]‘Aidan Truhen’ Price You Pay 47: Three guys jumped me [...] in my own place.
[Scot]G. Armstrong Young Team 18: ‘Cunts jumped us’.
[US]S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 178: ‘[F]our brothers tried to jump me and make me their cell-block bitch’.

(c) (US, orig. west) to rob .

[UK]Hotten Sl. Dict.
[UK]D. Sladen in Barrère & Leland Sl., Jargon and Cant I 512/2: Jump, to [...] The word is still used by the lowest classes in London, in America, and Australia, among whom ‘to jump a crib’ signifies to rob a house.

(d) to beat up.

[Aus]Bell’s Life in Sydney 12 Mar. 3/3: The defendant had threatened ‘to jump her inside out’, in consequence of which threat she felt in great bodily feur.
[Aus]K. Tennant Battlers 121: How would you like to have a lot of blacks jump on your ribs?
[US]R. Prather Always Leave ’Em Dying 48: All of a sudden those bums jumped me; somebody else clobbered me from behind.
[UK]P. Carstairs Concrete Kimono 38: They jumped me as he slowed down at some small bar. It was an excellent place for a beat-up.
[Can]J. Mandelkau Buttons 42: He was jumped by half a dozen skinheads and we jumped them.
[US] P. Munro Sl. U.
[US]L. Bing Do or Die (1992) 25: If me and my homeboys jumped you, they wouldn’t do shit about it.
[UK]Guardian Weekend 9 Dec. 22: Then these four elephants jumped me [...] these Railtrack elephants were trying to provoke me to assault them.

(e) (S.Afr.) to seize goods wrongfully.

[UK]Partridge DSUE (8th edn).
[SA]C. Pettman Africanderisms.

(f) (US Und.) of police, to raid.

[US]Phila. Eve. Bulletin 5 Oct. 40/3: A ‘dump’ is a contrivance whereby the bartender can get rid of the evidence in a hurry when he is ‘jumped’ – that is, raided.

(g) (US) to rebuke, to criticize.

[US] in F. Roe Army Letters from an Officer’s Wife (1909) 268: Faye says that the men were [...] simply trying to keep their rifles from being marred and scratched, for if they did get so they would be ‘jumped’ at the first inspection.
Herald (Los Angeles) 28 Oct. 9/1: That made Dan wild and he jumped all over Mike [...] He accused Mike of being a traitor.
[US]F.L. Packard ‘Coogan’s Last Run’ in Top-Notch 1 Feb. 🌐 ‘You’re jumping a man pretty hard, aren’t you, Mr. Carleton?’ he said resentfully.
[US]S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 79: Once in a while I got to assert my authority, and I jumped him.
[US]Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 112: Jump. – [...] to admonish.
[US]B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 98: Don’t jump me [...] Nick’s the brain.
[US]J. Thompson Savage Night (1991) 109: She might blow up — jump Jake about it or give it away to someone else.
[US]Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 806: jump – To admonish.
[US]H. Rhodes Chosen Few (1966) 156: He knew why he had lit into Dorsey [...] I jumped this boy because I was pissed at Jackson.

(h) to stop and question, as of police.

[US]F. Francis Jr Saddle and Mocassin 146: Doc Gilpen the Marshal jumped him.
[Aus]‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (2004) 325: We lying down and our horses hung up not far off for fear we might be jumped by the police at any time.
[US]C. Woofter ‘Dialect Words and Phrases from West-Central West Virginia’ in AS II:8 357: The principal jumped me about throwing the snowballs.
[Can]J. Mandelkau Buttons 41: When we arrived more than forty police jumped us – took our names and addresses from our licenses.

(i) (US campus) to punish.

[US]E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 44: jump, v. To haze.

(j) (US) to accuse.

[US]W.M. Raine Bucky O’Connor (1910) 106: ’Twas just like the fool officers to jump an innocent party.

(k) (Aus./US/UK black) to arrest.

[US]Phila. Eve. Bulletin 5 Oct. 40/4: Here are a few more terms and definitions from the ‘Racket’ vocabulary: [...] ‘jump,’ to arrest.
[US]‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 66: I headed back to Oregon and got jumped up at Bend as a fugitive from McNeil.
[US]G. Scott-Heron Vulture (1996) 109: When the Man jump Lee an’ beat his ass, you gon’ be glad you didn’t know nuthin’.
[UK]J. Morton Lowspeak 83: Jump [...] (UKBlack) – to arrest.
[US]C. Fletcher Pure Cop 113: They’re always getting jumped; they’re always getting jailed.
[US](con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.

4. in sense of movement or evasion.

(a) (US) to leave, to abscond, to quit, from duty or to avoid payment.

implied in jump bail
[US]H.L. Williams Joaquin 4: Your term out, Ned? or did you jump Sing Sing?
[US]J. Miller First Fam’lies in the Sierras 94: Even the head man of the company [...] jumped a first-class poker game [...] to come in and weigh out dust [DA].
[US]Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 3 Jan. 10/3: Voules, book-keeper for R.G. Houston [...] has — jumped the town’.
[US]Lantern (N.O.) 29 Sept. 2: On several different occasions culprits have jumped their bondsmen.
[US]C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 69: I decided to jump Slopesville and line out for the eastern seaboard.
[US]H. Green Maison De Shine 87: We’ll jump this burg to-morrow.
[US]J. Lomax Cowboy Songs 151: He jumped his bond at Tyler.
[UK]C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 162: I told him he could sue me for jumping it on the spot, and tried to come away and the milk with me.
[US]P.A. Rollins Cowboy 199: An Indian tribe occasionally ‘jumped’ its reservation.
[Aus]Dly Mercury (Mackay, Qld) 22 June 11/4: Liberty, with an empty tucker-bag, loses its charms, and hence the reason why those who jump trains worry little over arrests.
[US]V.F. Nelson Prison Days and Nights 88: He was sent to the State Reformatory [...] and on being released promptly ‘jumped’ his parole.
[Can]R. Service Ploughman of the Moon 201: The monkey-faced man collected our blankets and checked them through. This was to prevent us from jumping the train on the way.
[US]F. Brown Dead Ringer 57: We’re jumping a day early with nothing to lose.
[US]J. Thompson Swell-Looking Babe 73: You figure on jumping the country.
[UK]‘Raymond Thorp’ Viper 75: She must have jumped Soho overnight.
[US]C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 195: They’d put out an all-points on Barris when they found he’d jumped his bond.
[US]Long Beach Press-Telegram 14 Dec. 8: It’s been heaven but I think I’ll jump for earth translates simply as the evening’s over.
[US]E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 134: Selma told me you jumped parole.
[US]S. King Stand (1990) 334: Two political prisoners who had jumped bail.
[UK]J. Morton Lowspeak 83: Jump [...] to escape.
[Aus]Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Jump. 2. To abscond. As in ‘to jump bail’.

(b) (US) to leave without paying one’s bill; thus jump n. an act of absconding.

[US]Cincinnati Enquirer 7 Sept. 10/7: Jump – [...] to leave without paying a bill.
[NZ]N.Z. Observer (Auckland) 22 Jan. 186/2: His name is Dalziel, and the way he could ‘jump’ towns with his company, and leave hotels in the lurch, was a caution. As a grand finale he has ‘jumped’ the company now, and left it in durance for board and minus five weeks' salary. We don't blame him so much for this last jump; it was such a bad company.
[UK]Mirror of Life 8 Sept. 14/4: [headline] jumped their hotel bill.
[US] (ref. to 1920s) G. Duffy Warden’s Wife 140: It is only a misdemeanour to ‘jump’ a hotel bill.

(c) (US campus) to miss a class; to drop a course.

[US]W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 20: jump v. 1. To absent one’s self from class. 2. To drop a course.
[US]E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 44: jump, v. To absent one’s self from a lecture.

(d) (US) to leave a job.

[UK]M. Frayn Now You Know 71: Sometimes I got the push, but most of the time it was me that jumped.

(e) (also bust a light) to fail to stop at a red traffic light or stop signal; usu. in phr. jump the lights.

[US]A. Hynd We Are the Public Enemies 153: His cab jumped a red light.
[US]D. Gregory Nigger 113: I jump every light, but nothing happens.
[US]R. Daley Prince of the City 231: They sailed up an exit ramp, sped along the service road, and jumped the stop sign.
[US]J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 86: Just then the Mercedes gunned it on the yellow and busted the light on Gower Street.

(f) to travel, to move.

[US]E. Torres Carlito’s Way 59: I’d jump up to Harlem in my Lincoln and play stickball in the street.

5. (Aus.) of a convict, to become a prison warder.

[Aus]M. Clarke Term of His Natural Life (1897) 408: I’ll never ‘jump it’ [...] if they cut me in half first.

6. (Ulster) to convert from Catholicism to Protestantism for the material advantages such a change would confer; thus jumper n.

[Ire]Somerville & Ross Some Irish Yesterdays 74: The kitchenmaid, in tears, followed suit, because the cook had called her a ‘jumper’ (i.e., a pervert to Protestantism).
[Ire]T. Gallagher Paddy’s Lament n.p.: Their parents had escaped the poverty and serfdom of a tenant farmer’s life by ‘jumping’ from Catholicism, with its stigma, to Protestantism, with its job opportunities [BS].

7. (Aus.) to understand, to work out [? play on SE jump to a conclusion].

[Aus]Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.

8. to secure free travel, either by getting a lift or by avoiding payment.

[UK](con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 134: I [...] jumped a ride in a Tommy motor lorry.
[UK]N. Lucas Autobiog. of a Thief 190: We had about 5 dollars (Canadian) between us [...] I decided that our best chance was to ‘jump’ the emigrant train which was leaving [...] for Montreal.
[SA]N. Devitt Famous S. Afr. Trials 148: They bargained with the cabby, but as he wanted to charge them five pounds for the drive they refused. [...] So they ‘jumped’ a train outside Pretoria station.
[Aus]Sydney Morn. Herald 11 Dec. 7/3: If he manages to secure a lift he ‘jumps it’.

9. (US) to inform.

[US]A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Jump, to tell; squeal.
[US]Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 27 Apr. 7/6: A cat who [...] has been the solid sender and his knowledge conk jumped with jive.

10. (US) vtr. to promote; of a salary, to increase.

[US]P.J. Wolfson Bodies are Dust (2019) [ebook] ‘They jumped you to Inspector.’ [...] ‘I want to be on top’.
[US]B. Short Black and White Baby 290: He jumped my salary to forty dollars a week.

11. in sense of pleasure.

(a) (orig. US black) of a place of entertainment, e.g. a nightclub, to pulsate with energy, to be full of excitement; usu. as jumping, esp. in phr. joint is jumping.

[US]Ted Yates This Is New York 11 Oct. [synd. col.] I heard Saratoga Springs was ‘jumpin’’.
[US]H.A. Smith Life in a Putty Knife Factory (1948) 75: Before long the joint was jumpin’.
[US]I. Shulman Cry Tough! 208: It was after one in the morning and the party in Shimmy’s suite was still jumping.
[US]J. Blake letter 20 May in Joint (1972) 20: Because one of the trusties here last night took off for the altogether elsewhere, the joint is jumping.
[US]Kerouac On the Road (The Orig. Scroll) (2007) 115: He said she was a marvellous cook and everything would jump.
[US]Mad mag. Sept. 21: We’re goin’ to make the joint jump, I mean!
[UK]‘Raymond Thorp’ Viper 29: The hot music that ‘really gets the joint a’ jumping’.
[US]H. Whittington Forgive Me, Killer (2000) 74: The Ubangi Club was jumping when I got there.
[US]Mad mag. Oct. 12: And now the joint is jumpin’ with the sound of Casey’s blast.
[US]C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 326: Saturday night in Harlem. The bars will jump. The precinct station will have a busy night. The hospital’s emergency ward will jump.
[US]N. Heard Howard Street 24: It was hard going because the joint was jumping tonight.
[US]Cab Calloway Of Minnie the Moocher and Me 2: By now the place is jumping.
[US]N. Pileggi Wiseguy (2001) 130: I could hear that the place was jumping.
[US]Snoop Doggy Dogg ‘Gin and Juice’ 🎵 Two in the mornin and the party’s still jumpin.
[US]Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 170: That place was jumpin’.
[Scot]V. McDermid Out of Bounds (2017) 245: ‘Wow, this place is jumping,’ she said.

(b) (US black) to dance, to have fun.

[US]Cab Calloway ‘Are You All Reet?’ 🎵 Are you all reet? / Jump in the groove and go!
[US]Hughes & Bontemps Book of Negro Folklore 461: I could hear the King’s band playing some kind of a real jump number. Believe me, they were really jumpin’ in fine fashion.
[US]Lonnie Johnson ‘Fine Booze and Heavy Dues’ 🎵 Everybody starts to jumpin’, when the clock is strikin’ nine.
[US]E. Torres Carlito’s Way 29: When you’re highrollin’ in the bread you’re bound to be out there jumpin’ come midnight.

(c) to achieve success.

Ted Yates 8 Oct. [synd. col.] The record was ‘really jumpin’’ [...] In three years it has sold 500,000 copies.

12. (US black) to act, to behave; usu. in combs. such as jump salty etc.

[US]R. Ellison Invisible Man 427: All right, daddy, you don’t have to jump evil on me.
[US]P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 199: Before you jump frantic, why don’t you just wait and see what they do.
[US]A. Young Snakes (1971) 42: I dont want you to go jumpin all jiggedy just cause I tell you this.
[US]T.R. Houser Central Sl. 31: jump bad To break bad. To get tough with someone. To verbally threaten [...] ‘You jump bad with the sissy, but I don’t see you hopstylin’ with no police.’.
[US](con. 1968) Bunch & Cole Reckoning for Kings (1989) 256: Maybe you oughta listen to people who’ve been here a while before you start jumping airborne ranger.

13. (US black) to occur, to happen; see also jump off v. (3)

[US]J. Archibald ‘Knife Thrower’ in Popular Detective June 🌐 So what jumps here?
[US]Mezzrow & Wolfe Really Blues 26: The First World War was jumping then.

In compounds

jump alley (n.)

(US black) 126th St. in Harlem.

[US]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.

In phrases

jump all over (v.) [note synon. US dial. uses jump out, jump up]

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

[US]K. McGaffey Sorrows of a Show Girl Ch. xiii: The manager jumped all over her for moving.
[US]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.
[US]Van Loan ‘Excess Baggage’ in Score by Innings (2004) 398: I jumped all over Ben, but he denied everything.
[US]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.
[US]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.’.
[US](con. 1960s) D. Goines Black Gangster (1991) 42: You can’t even talk to your old man without him jumping all over you.
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?’).
[UK] ‘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.
[US]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.
jump bad (v.)

1. (orig. US black) to misbehave.

[US]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.
[US]R. Price Blood Brothers 145: Shit, anybody even thinks a jumpin’ bad he’ll get eighty-sixed so fast.
M. Duran Don’t Spit on My Corner 119: Jump bad with me now, punk.
[US]Simon & Burns ‘The Detail’ Wire ser. 1 ep. 2 [TV script] No, you out there all alone, jumpin’ bad.
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.

[US]Simon & Alvarez ‘Homecoming’ Wire ser. 3 ep. 6 [TV script] Them corners is all jumpin’ bad.
jump bail (v.) (also jump it)

(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.

[US]Matsell Vocabulum 47: Jumped his bail, run away from his bail.
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.
[UK]J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
[US]H. Kephart Our Southern Highlanders (1922) 210: He was let out on bond. Presto! he jumped it.
[US]Van Loan ‘His Own Stuff’ in Score by Innings (2004) 389: There won’t be any bail for you to jump.
[US]N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 271: There’d always be time to jump it [i.e. a criminal charge].
[US]‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 144: I jumped bail and left the States.
[UK]Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 179: ‘Jumped his bail, you mean?’ ‘Precisely, madam. He escaped to Canada in a false beard.’.
[US]S. King Stand (1990) 334: Two political prisoners who had jumped bail.
[US](con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 8: Fourteen convictions. None child-support liens. Five bail jumps.
jump in(to) someone’s shit (v.) [shit n. (3j)]

(US) to scold, to reprimand.

[US](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.
[US]B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 193: Instead of jumping into my shit, Gino simply walked on by as if ignoring me.
Writing on the wall 🌐 And you jumped in my shit about trying to encourage bio fuels too.
jump jail (v.)

to escape from prison; thus jail-jumper n.

[US] ‘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.’.
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’.
jump off the perch (v.)

to commit suicide.

[Aus]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.
jump one’s bill (v.) (also jump one’s board)

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

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

to pay a debt for a third party.

[Aus]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’.
jump salty (v.) (also fly salty) [salty adj.]

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

[US] ‘Hectic Harlem’ in N.Y. Amsterdam News 8 Feb, sect. 2: JUMP SALTY – act highbrow.
[US]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.
[US]D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 124: Now don’t jump salty, ’cause your jive is faulty.
[US]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’.
[US]M. Braly Felony Tank (1962) 102: Don’t jump salty with me.
[US]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.
[US]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’.
jump ship (v.) [SE jump ship, for a sailor to leave the ship (at a port) before the voyage has finished]

(US) to quit, to renege.

in Seff & Seymour Footlight Parade [film script] You jumped ship. What’s your game? [HDAS].
[US]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.
[US](con. 1940s) C. Bram Hold Tight (1990) 236: But you’ve jumped ship for me. Why?
[UK]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.
[UK]Guardian Guide 8–14 Jan. 19: Outraged at the final decision a week ago of [...] Jodie Foster to jump ship on the project.
[US]C. Buzzell My War (2006) 23: A lot of people change their minds, wimp out, jump ship [etc.].
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’.
[Scot]T. Black Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] It’s Leanna . . . she’s jumped ship.
jump smart (v.)

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

[US]V.E. Smith Jones Men 9: The dude jumped smart and Joe cracked him.
jump someone’s hand (v.) [fig. use of SE hand (of cards)]

(US black) to threaten or victimize someone.

[US]Grandmaster Flash & Furious Five ‘Superrappin’ No. 1’ 🎵 It takes a sucker’s man to try to jump my hand.
jump steady (v.) (also jump smooth)

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

[US]‘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.
[US]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’.
[US]I. Freeman Out of the Burning (1961) 209: I am off this crap. Anybody wants to jump smooth with me is welcome.
jump stink (v.)

(US) to attack, to turn hostile.

[US]Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 130: Everything seemed to be going wrong for me and Bud – the whole town jumped stink on us.
[US]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.
[US]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’.
[US]E. Torres Carlito’s Way 45: Jump stink in a minute: they heard you was bad.
[WI]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.
jump ugly (v.)

(US) to behave in an unpleasant manner.

[US]D. Winslow The Force [ebook] The security guys at the door tried to jump ugly.
jump up someone’s ass (v.) (also jump on someone’s ass, jump up someone’s butt) [ass n. (2)/butt n.1 (1a)]

(US) to attack, verbally or physically.

[US]National Lampoon Oct. 84: My old man’s been jumping up my butt ever since I racked up the Pinto [HDAS].
[US]Sepe & Telano Cop Team 141: You little no good hump [...] I’m gonna jump your ass . . .
[US](con. 1969) C.R. Anderson Grunts 80: I ain’t gonna get my ass jumped again today.
[US]E. Little Another Day in Paradise 131: You want some of my fine brown ass go ahead and jump on it.
‘RC Cola of Evil’ Daily Recap 21 Aug. 🌐 Blake tells Edmund to jump up his ass and die.
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.
what’s jumping?

(US campus) a greeting.

[US]Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 7: what’s jumping – what’s going on?
[US]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?

In exclamations

go jump yourself!

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

[US](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.
E. Gundy Disappearance of Gregory Pluckrose 97: ‘Oh, go jump yourself,’ I snapped somewhat peevishly.
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.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

jumping powder (n.)

alcohol, liquor.

[UK]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!
jump-out boy (n.)

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

[US]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.
[US]D. Lehr Fence 94: The ‘Jump-out Boys’ [plainclothes Boston P.D. Officers] and Smut did eventually have a memorable clash.
[US]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.
jump-steady (n.)

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

[US]Lucille Bogan [song title] Jump Steady Daddy.
Dan Burley ‘Back Door Stuff’ 30 Oct. [synd. col.] They gotta [...] buy the chicks some Jump Steady.
[US]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).’.
[US]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.

In phrases

jump in (v.)

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

[US]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.

jump (in) the box (v.) [one ‘jumps’ into the witness box]

(Aus.) to give evidence.

[Aus] ‘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.
[Aus]R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 32: Jump the Box Give evidence in court.
[Aus]Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Jump the box. To go queen’s evidence.
jump off

see separate entries.

jump on (v.)

see separate entry.

jump one’s horse over the bar (v.)

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

[UK]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].
[Aus]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.
[Aus]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.
[[Aus]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].
[Aus]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.
jump (on) someone’s bones (v.)

see under bones n.1

jump out

see separate entries.

jump (over) the broomstick (v.)

see separate entry.

jump the rails (v.) [horseracing imagery]

to lose control, to disappear.

[US]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.
jump through one’s ass (v.) [ass n. (2)]

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

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.
jump through one’s asshole (v.) [arsehole n.]

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

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

see separate entries.

In exclamations

jump back!

(US black/campus) an expression of astonishment.

[[US]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].
[US]James Brown ‘Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag’ 🎵 Jump back, Jack.
[US]J. Wambaugh Choirboys (1976) 90: Hey, jump back, Jack! I made my decision.
[US](con. 1969–70) D. Bodey F.N.G. (1988) 103: Jump back, for chrissakes!
[US]Eble Sl. and Sociability 101: Reactions of sympathetic disbelief include as if, get outta here, gimme a break, jump back, no way, and whatever.
jump up my ass!

see under ass n.