bumper
English edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
bumper (plural bumpers)
- Someone or something that bumps.
- (obsolete) A drinking vessel filled to the brim.
- 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:
- [T]hey now shook hands heartily, and drank bumpers of strong beer to healths which we think proper to bury in oblivion.
- 1756 February 3 (first performance), Samuel Foote, The Englishman Return’d from Paris, Being the Sequel to The Englishman in Paris. A Farce […], London: […] Paul Vaillant, […], published 1756, →OCLC, Act I, page 27:
- Pork ſucceeds to Beef, Pies to Puddings: The Cloth is remov'd, Madam, drench'd vvith a Bumper, drops a Courtſey, and departs; […]
- 1818, John Keats, Written in the cottage where Burns was born:
- Yet can I gulp a bumper to thy name,— / O smile among the shades, for this is fame!
- 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 8, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
- Mr. Horrocks served myself and my pupils with three little glasses of wine, and a bumper was poured out for my lady.
- 1859, Charles Dickens, chapter XI, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC:
- Sydney Carton drank the punch at a great rate; drank it by bumpers, looking at his friend.
- 1879, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, The Pirates of Penzance […], Philadelphia: J.M. Stoddart & Co., published 1880, →OCLC:
- Pour, oh, pour the pirate sherry; / Fill, O fill the pirate glass; / And, to make us more than merry, / Let the pirate bumper pass.
- (colloquial, now chiefly attributive) Anything large or successful.
- (automotive) Parts at the front and back of a vehicle which are meant to absorb the impact of a collision; fender.
- Any mechanical device used to absorb an impact, soften a collision, or protect against impact.
- The company sells screw-on rubber bumpers and feet.
- (cricket) A bouncer.
- (billiards) A side wall of a pool table.
- A cylindrical object used (as a substitute for birds) to train dogs to retrieve.
- (broadcasting) A short ditty or jingle used to separate a show from the advertisements.
- (slang, dated) A covered house at a theatre, etc., in honour of some favourite performer.
- (slang, Caribbean, Jamaica) A woman's posterior, particularly one that is considered full and desirable.
- (music) An extra musician (not notated in the score) who assists the principal French horn by playing less-exposed passages, so that the principal can save their 'lip' for difficult solos. Also applied to other sections of the orchestra.
- (pinball) An object on a playfield that applies force to the pinball when hit, often giving a minor increase in score.
- (Australia, slang) A cigarette butt.
- (horse racing) In National Hunt racing, a flat race for horses that have not yet competed either in flat racing or over obstacles.
- (video games) A shoulder button on a gamepad.
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
Descendants of bumper in other languages
Translations edit
drinking vessel filled to the brim
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impact absorber on a vehicle
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mechanical device to absorb impact
cricket: bouncer
short ditty or jingle used to separate a show from the advertisements
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in pinball
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Adjective edit
bumper (not comparable)
- (colloquial) Wonderfully large; (as if) filled to the bumpers at the top of a silo.
- We harvested a bumper crop of arugula and parsnips this year.
- a bumper collection of silly jokes
Translations edit
colloquial: large
Verb edit
bumper (third-person singular simple present bumpers, present participle bumpering, simple past and past participle bumpered)
- (obsolete, intransitive) To drink from the vessels called bumpers.
Danish edit
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
bumper
Dutch edit
Etymology edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
bumper m (plural bumpers, diminutive bumpertje n)
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
Indonesian edit
Etymology edit
From Dutch bumper, from English bumper.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
bumpêr (first-person possessive bumperku, second-person possessive bumpermu, third-person possessive bumpernya)
Alternative forms edit
Further reading edit
- “bumper” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.
Spanish edit
Noun edit
bumper m (plural bumpers)
- bumper of a car