| 释义 |
▪ I. lumber, n.1|ˈlʌmbə(r)|
Also 6 lumbor, 7 lumbar.
[Prob. f. lumber v.1, which occurs much earlier. But as a lumber-house or pawnbroker's shop was in fact a storehouse for such odds and ends of property as are denominated ‘lumber’, the word was prob. at one time more or less associated with lumber n.2]
1. a. Disused articles of furniture and the like, which take up room inconveniently, or are removed to be out of the way; useless odds and ends.
1552Huloet, Baggage, lumbor, or trumperye, scruta. 1587Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees) II. 300 The tobs, kyrnes, stands, dishes, formes, chaires, stoles, and other lumbar. 1596Unton Invent. (1841) 2 In the Warthrope..ij paire of olde virginalls, and other lumber there. 1622Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d' Alf. i. 3 A deale of lumber and luggage. 1716Lady M. W. Montagu ? Let. to Pope 10 Oct. in Lett. (1887) I. 130 A catalogue of the rest of the lumber. 1817L. Hunt Let. to C. C. Clarke in Gentl. Mag. May (1876) 601 All the chaos of packed trunks, lumber,..&c. 1884Globe 6 Oct. 2/1 Three pictures..stowed away for nearly fifty years as lumber.
b. fig. Useless or cumbrous material.
1649Milton Eikon. xvii. Wks. 1851 III. 466 When Ministers came to have Lands, Houses, Farmes, Coaches, Horses, and the like Lumber. 1709Pope Ess. Crit. 613 The bookful blockhead..With loads of learned lumber in his head. 1768Goldsm. Good-n. Man ii. i, I'm to be a mere article of family lumber. 1858Darwin in Life & Lett. II. 127, I should be mere living lumber.
2. Superfluous fat, esp. in horses.
1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) i. Introd., With all my fleshy lumber about me. 1885Sat. Rev. 6 June 749/2 Plenty of muscle and no lumber. 1891H. S. Constable Horses, Sport & War 15 Good thorough-bred horses have also lost what goes by the name of ‘lumber’—such as lumps of flesh and fat..on the top of the neck. Ibid. 18 Sir Tatton seldom praised a horse without adding ‘there is no lumber about him’.
3. N. Amer. Timber sawn into rough planks or otherwise roughly prepared for the market.
1662Suffolk (Mass.) Deeds 26 Aug., Freighted in Boston,..with Beames, for houses, boards..and other Lumber. 1755Gentl. Mag. XXV. 16 The principle articles of their [Rhode Islanders] trade are horses, lumber, and cheese. 1862Trollope N. Amer. I. 107 Timber in Canada is called lumber. 1900Contemp. Rev. July 60 The millwright operated the mill giving the supply of bread and lumber. 1928Chambers's Jrnl. Feb. 119/1 Behind the lumber grand-stand, which..resembled every natural wooden grand-stand in the world, stretched a grass meadow. Ibid. 120/1 We found Miss J. and Miss N. in a home where the lumber had mellowed—featuring an entrancing tint. 1941Sun (Baltimore) 15 Oct. 5/5 They take nuts and bolts out of packing cases, pick up broken and abandoned field telephone wire along the roadsides, whittle scrap lumber with penknives and produce workable Morse sending keys. 1945J. J. Mathews Talking to Moon 66, I had lumber left over from the building of the chicken and pheasant houses. 1965Globe & Mail (Toronto) 5 Jan. B5 A company that will manufacture prefabricated homes in the United Kingdom with Canadian lumber.
4. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 1) lumber-cellar, lumber-garret, lumber-house (cf. lumber-house), lumber-office, lumber-place, lumber-raft; lumber-headed adj.; (sense 3) lumber-boat, lumber-business, lumber-field, lumber-king, lumber-merchant, lumber-products, lumber-raft, lumber-steamer, lumber-wharf; lumber-laden, lumber-preparing adjs.; lumber-act, ? an act of parliament regulating the lumber-trade; lumber baron U.S., a leading or wealthy timber merchant; lumber-camp, a camp in which lumbermen dwell; lumber-carrier, (a) a vessel employed in the lumber-trade; (b) a vehicle for carrying lumber; lumber-cart, ? = jockey-cart (jockey n. 9); lumber-jack, lumberjack, a lumberman; lumber jacket orig. N. Amer., a warm jacket of the type worn by lumbermen; lumber-line, a railway constructed primarily for carrying lumber; lumber-mill, a sawmill for cutting up lumber; lumber-money, a tax levied upon lumber; lumber-port, (a) a port-hole in the bow or stern of a ship for loading or unloading timber; (b) a seaport from which lumber is shipped; lumber-raft, a raft made of logs, boards, or the like; lumber-scaler, one who measures up timber; lumber-shover, a labourer in a lumber-yard (slang); lumber town U.S., a town chiefly engaged in the timber trade; lumber-trade, the trade in rough timber; † lumber-troop, a convivial society of London citizens (dissolved in 1859), with a quasi-military organization, its president being styled the ‘colonel’; also allusively; hence lumber-trooper; lumber-wood, a wood where lumber is cut; lumber-wagon N. Amer., a springless wagon of a type used for hauling lumber or for general transport (see also quot. 1962); lumber-yard N. Amer., a timber-yard. Also lumberman, lumber-room.
1721New Hampsh. Prov. Papers (1869) III. 834 A message to the house..for repealing the *lumber Act.
1888N.Y. Life 18 Feb. 27/2 One of the..*lumber ‘Barons’ of Michigan. 1948Time 29 Nov. 24/1 In many ways he seemed a throwback to the lumber barons, the cattle kings and the mining magnates who had ruled the West before him.
1902Westm. Gaz. 28 Aug. 2/1 Flat, ugly, *lumber-boats.
1792J. Belknap Hist. New-Hampshire III. 211 Husbandry..is much preferable to the *lumber business. 1896Vermont Agric. Rep. XV. 79 Gov. Woodbury has spent years as superintendent of the Burlington branch of J. R. Booth's gigantic lumber business.
1882Howells Mod. Instance II. 139 Down there in the *lumber camp.
1700New Hampsh. Prov. Papers (1869) III. 104 Coasting vessels and *lumber carriers. 1928Collier's 29 Dec. 5/4 On the left were rows of twenty-foot lumber piles, trams laid between them, and electric lumber carriers rolling on the trams.
1830Cunningham Brit. Paint. II. 228 He was stopt at Whetstone turnpike by a *lumber or jockey cart.
1832Chambers's Edin. Jrnl. 24 Mar. 59/2 Stone bottles..collected from all the *lumber-cellars in the country. 1910Daily Chron. 18 Jan. 3/4 A cramped and pokey lumber-cellar.
1881Chicago Times 4 June, Pineries, *lumber-fields [etc.].
1838J. W. Croker in C. Papers (1884) 1 Nov., I should look with more expectation to the *lumber garrets than to the muniment room.
1818T. G. Fessenden Ladies' Monitor 38, I would not wish your pedant *lumber-headed. 1891Atkinson Last of Giant Killers 100 The usually lumber-headed old giants.
1720in A. McF. Davis Tracts Currency Mass. Bay (1902) 385 Hemp, Flax, Turpentine..to be stored up in the *Lumber-house. 1728Pope Dunc. iii. 193 A Lumber-house of books in ev'ry head. 1899H. B. Cushman Hist. Indians 162 A lumberhouse and granary, each 18 × 20 ft.
1831in E. C. Guillet Valley of Trent (1957) vi. 236 My misfortunes have been brought upon me chiefly by an incorrigible..race of mortals called *lumberjacks, whom, however, I would name the Cossacks of Upper Canada. 1896New York Weekly Witness 30 Dec. 13/1 To lose the lumber-jack vote meant to lose the election. 1902S. E. White Blazed Trail 41 Typical native-born American lumber-jacks powerful in frame. 1972Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 2 Feb. 16/5 She later became a lumberjack and spent three months in the woods.
1939These are our Lives (Federal Writers Project, N. Carolina) 107 He was dressed in riding breeches and leather *lumber-jacket. 1943R.A.F. Jrnl. Aug. 16 They wore lumber jackets. 1952S. Kauffmann Philanderer (1953) vii. 107 He went into the middle of the group and squatted next to Jake (he still remembered the smell of the woollen lumber-jacket). 1956T. H. Raddall Wings of Night 70, I pulled on my old lumber jacket and went out to do the firewood chore. 1968J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet 37 In its modern meaning, the lumber-jacket is very similar to an anorak. It is a short, straight jacket, reaching to the hips, with a centre-front fastening (usually zipped) and buckled at the sides to make it fit snugly. 1975P. Somerville-Large Couch of Earth ix. 148 A black and red lumber-jacket, the sort American hunters wear.
1889W. H. Withrow Our Own Country: Canada 372 One of the great *lumber-kings of the country. 1941Yankee Dec. 19/3 They were..Anderton's lumber kings; so nobody minded their smelling strongly of horses, even in the Methodist basement.
1879Lumberman's Gaz. 19 Nov., The ‘*lumber lines’ are now getting their new cars ready.
1789Boston Directory 181 Dillaway, Samuel, *lumber-merchant. 1825J. Neal Bro. Jonathan I. 23 The preacher..had been..a lumber-merchant.
1830Deb. Congress U.S. 11 Mar. 606/2 You will not find..such constant, unceasing labor as in our *lumber mills. 190119th Cent. Oct. 550 Lumber mills, saw mills, grist mills.
1715New Hampsh. Prov. Papers (1868) II. 682 An account of the *lumber mony and excise mony.
1687T. Brown Saints in Uproar Wks. 1730 I. 82 Carry that..halbard to my *lumber-office.
1744W. Cole in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) I. 296 Laid up in a *Lumber Place.
1838Yale Lit. Mag. III. 76 The pirates had knocked out the *lumber port, with the intention of sinking her [sc. a ship]. 1883Wheelman I. 333 Calais [in Maine], the great lumber port of this part of the country.
1837W. Jenkins Ohio Gazetteer 62 The Hockhocking river..furnishes..a downward navigation for flat boats and *lumber rafts. 1898Engineering Mag. XVI. 96 Lumber-rafts can easily be built. 1961B. Fergusson Watery Maze v. 111 Irrawaddy lumber-rafts.
1896New York Weekly Witness 30 Dec. 13/1 A famous *lumber-scaler.
1880Harper's Mag. Aug. 354/1 A cheerful little *lumber town lying high among the hills. 1904S. E. White Blazed Trail Stories i. 3 The sawdust streets..of the lumber town were filled with people. 1972R. Neely Sexton Women (1974) ii. 12 She had been..brought up in a lumber town..near the Oregon border.
1689in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. (1834) 3rd Ser. I. 98 They are supplied..with the *lumber trade. 1732Col. Dunbar Let. 25 Aug. in Calendar State Papers (Colonial Ser.) (1939) 201 The undertaker for the masting has and does carry on a greater lumber trade than any man in N. Engld. 1884S. E. Dawson Handbk. Canada 129 Quebec [city] is..the centre of the lumber-trade. 1963Canada Month Nov. 22/1 The lumber trade furnished employment for thousands of lumber jacks, river drivers, and sailors.
1745E. Ward's Compl. Acc. Clubs title-p., A Compleat and Humorous Account of all the Remarkable Clubs and Societies in the Cities of London and Westminster, From the R—l-S—y down to the *Lumber-Troop, &c. 1805M. A. Shee Rhymes on Art (1806) 76 Dolts,..Pass muster in the lumber troop of Taste.
c1742in Hone Every-day Bk. II. 525 All other institutions, whether..Hiccubites, *Lumber-Troopers, or Free-Masons.
1831S. Stoddard Diary 30 Nov. in Mich. Hist. Mag. (1927) XI. 472 Breakfast swallowed we stepped into our next rig, which was a *lumber wagon drawn by two very good horses. 1887C. D. Warner Their Pilgrimage (1888) xiii. 288 At this season one meets them [sc. the hop-pickers] on all the roads driving from farm to farm in lumber wagons. 1902E. Banks Autobiogr. Newspaper Girl 1 Gathered about the little village station in hard⁓seated lumber-wagons. 1961Edmonton (Alberta) Jrnl. 24 July 11/7 They forded the North Saskatchewan River in a lumber wagon. 1962Amer. Speech XXXVII. 270 Lumber wagon, an old, broken-down automobile, particularly one that rides rough.
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Lumber-wharf, a timber-yard.
1891N.Y. Sun in Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. Nov., A man that works in the *lumber-woods.
1786Maryland Jrnl. 4 Apr. (Th.), *Lumber-yard, at the head of Baltimore Bason. 1851C. Cist Sk. Cincinnati in 1851 207 Connected with the machinery is a lumber yard. 1961W. E. Greening Ottawa 108 The district close to the lumberyards was full of waterfront dives. 1973C. Williams Man on Leash (1974) iv. 52 Lew was..running a lumberyard and building supply here.
▪ II. ˈlumber, n.2
[variant of Lombard n.1]
1.
†a. A pawnbroking establishment; = Lombard n.1 3. Obs.
1617Minsheu Voc. Hisp. Lat., Mónte de piedád, a lumber or bancke to lend money for a yeare, for those that need, without interest. 1749Lady Murray Lives G. Baillie & Lady Grisell B. (1822) 53 They put up the little plate they had..in the Lumber, which is pawning it.
b. Phrases. to put to lumber: to put in pawn or pledge. to be in lumber (slang): to be imprisoned; also, to be in trouble.
1671Skinner Etymol. Ling. Angl. s.v., To put one's Clothes to Lumbar, pignori dare. 1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict. s.v., A man..sent to gaol is said to be lumbered, to be in lumber, or to be in Lombard-Street. 1963J. Prescot Case for Hearing viii. 125 My poor old dad was in and out of lumber all his life. 1965A. Prior Interrogators xi. 202 We're out on a limb hoping for a confession, and if we don't get it we're in dead lumber. 1967‘M. Carroll’ Begotten Murder iv. 104 It rather looks to me as if someone is trying to get Susan in lumber. 1972L. Henderson Cage until Tame vi. 43 I've got to keep at it. Break my bloody leg or something stupid like that and I'm in lumber.
†2. Money due with respect to articles pawned. Obs.
a1680Butler On Critics 94 And, by an action falsely laid of Trover, The lumber for their proper goods recover.
3. slang. A house or room; spec. one where stolen property is hidden; a house used by criminals.
1753J. Poulter Discoveries (ed. 2) 33 They pike up the Prancers, that is, go up Stairs, and fisk the Lumbers, that is, search the Rooms. a1790H. T. Potter New Dict. Cant & Flash (1795) 40 Lumber, a house convenient for the reception of swindlers, sharpers, and cheats. 1800G. Parker Life's Painter xiv. 117 Have you any body in the lumber behind the bar? Ibid. xv. 140 Lumber, a room. 1846Swell's Night Guide 34 The polka is greatly in favour with the femmes of this lumber. Ibid. 74 His long room, or ‘slanging lumber’, is the scene of many a choice spree and downey movement. 1923S. T. Felstead Underworld of London iii. 108 The proprietor of the ‘lumber’, where stolen property is stored pending a suitable buyer, also wants his whack. 1938F. D. Sharpe Sharpe of Flying Squad xiv. 151 Her husband was taken into custody at a ‘lumber’ (hide-out for stolen property) in Walthamstow. 1950R. Fabian Fabian of Yard xxxiv. 206 Lumber, address used by a prostitute for her profession only.
▪ III. ˈlumber, n.3
[f. next.]
A rumbling noise.
1750Smith in Phil. Trans. XLVI. 729 One other Person..heard the Noise [of an earthquake], but judged it to be an odd Lumber above Stairs.
▪ IV. lumber, n.4 slang (chiefly Sc.).|ˈlʌmbə(r)|
[f. *lumber v.4]
a. Amorous or sexual play.
b. A person regarded as a prospective sexual partner; a casual pick-up, a date.
1966P. Willmott Adolescent Boys E. London iii. 49 They would often try to move on from kissing to sexual play; as they put it, they..‘had a bit of lumber’. 1973‘J. Patrick’ Glasgow Gang Observed v. 56, I was roundly abused..for walking a girl home. ‘Yir lumber's a cow,’ they informed me. 1985M. Munro Patter 43 We were at the jiggin last night; couldny get a lumber, but. 1987Sunday Times 30 Aug. 21/5 She and her four companions—all from Scotland—end the evening in a disco where they wait for a lumber.
▪ V. lumber, v.1|ˈlʌmbə(r)|
[Possibly two or more words may have coalesced. ME. lomere may have been a frequentative formation on lome lame a. With sense 2 cf. Sw. dial. lomra to roar (Rietz). The word, however, may be partly of direct imitative formation in Eng.]
1. intr. To move in a clumsy or blundering manner; in later use only, to move heavily on account of unwieldiness of bulk and mass. Now always with defining adv. or advb. phr.
13..E.E. Allit. P. B. 1094 Summe lepre, summe lome, and lomerande blynde. 1530Palsgr. 586/1, I hoble, or halte, or lomber, as a horse dothe, je cloche. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 229 Let 'em not..lumber o'er the Meads: or cross the Wood. 1728Pope Dunc. iii. 294 Thy giddy dullness still shall lumber on. 1771Foote Maid of B. iii. Wks. 1799 II. 229 Hush! I hear him lumbering in! 1830Scott Demonol. iii. 100 The massive idol leapt lumbering from the carriage. 1852Hawthorne Blithedale Rom. I. viii. 138 We..were pretty well agreed as to the inexpediency of lumbering along with the old system any further. 1899Crockett Kit Kennedy xxii. 153 ‘Ouch..!’ barked Royal lumbering outwards like a great pot-walloping elephant through the shallows. 1902Blackw. Mag. Mar. 400/1 They lumbered to attention as I entered.
2. To rumble, make a rumbling noise. ? Obs. exc. U.S.
a1529Skelton Agst. Comely Coystrowne 29 He lumbryth on a lewde lewte, Roty bully joyse, Rumbyll downe, tumbyll downe, hey go, now, now. 1530Palsgr. 615/2, I lumber, I make a noyse above one's head... You lumbred so over my heed I coulde nat slepe. [1584C. Robinson Handf. Ples. Delites (Arb.) 47 A proper new Dity..To the tune of Lumber me.] c1611Chapman Iliad xvii. 643 A boisterous gust of wind Lumbering amongst it. [1621–1782: see lumbering vbl. n.1] 1855J. E. Cooke Ellie 207 Keeping the footman lumberin at the knockers on both sides o' the street. 1890Dialect Notes I. 65 ‘Listen how he lumbers’, said of a deep-mouthed dog's barking when he has treed a 'coon or 'possum. 1904T. Watson Bethany (1920) 165 And he himself did not always know what he had on his mind until he pushed back his specs, and began to ‘lumber’ [= hold forth].
†3. trans. ? To utter with a rumbling noise. Obs.
a1529Skelton Col. Clout 95 They lumber forth the lawe,..Expoundyng out theyr clauses.
▪ VI. lumber, v.2|ˈlʌmbə(r)|
[f. lumber n.1]
1. a. trans. Orig., to cover, fill up, or obstruct with lumber; to burden uselessly, encumber. Now usu., to leave (someone) with something unwanted or unpleasant; to get (someone) into trouble or difficulties; freq. pass. Said both of personal agents, and of the things which form the encumbrance. Sometimes with over, up.
1642O. Sedgwicke Eng. Preserv. 5 An indigested Thicket, lumbred all over with weedes. 1741Richardson Pamela II. 81, I hope it [sc. a chapel] will never be lumber'd again. 1798Miller in Nicolas Nelson's Disp. (1846) VII. p. clviii, We..sent our prisoners and their baggage which lumbered our guns, on board the Goliath. 1824W. Irving T. Trav. I. 328 Empty bottles lumbered the bottom of every closet. 1825Lockhart Let. in Smiles Mem. J. Murray (1891) II. xxvii. 229, I..should be sorry to have them [sc. packages] lumbering your warehouses. 1840R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xxix. 98 The decks were lumbered up with everything. 1845Ford Handbk. Spain i. 49 There is no worse mistake than lumbering oneself with things that are never wanted. 1861Tulloch Eng. Purit. ii. 247 The mere details of controversy..lumber his style. 1866Howells Venet. Life 148, I could not, in any honesty, lumber my pages with descriptions. 1867Trollope Chron. Barset I. xxxvii. 319 One side and two angles of the court are always lumbered with crates, hampers, [etc.]. 1901Edin. Rev. Oct. 261 The ships of war were lumbered up with the soldiers. 1924E. Wallace Room 13 i. 9 ‘If they lumbered you with the crime, it was because you was a mug,’ said Lal complacently. ‘That's what mugs are for—to be lumbered.’ 1951A. Baron Rosie Hogarth iii. iv. 180, I suppose you're afraid... Of getting lumbered, eh? 1958T. Hall in P. Gammond Decca Bk. Jazz xix. 233 Poor old Don Rendell..got really lumbered. He left his clarinet with Gee's with the proviso that it would be forfeited if the trousers and windcheaters weren't returned by the following Monday. Needless to say, they weren't. 1961Simpson & Galton Four Hancock Scripts 35/2 Every time I travel on a train I get lumbered with a carriageful of the most miserable-looking bunch of face-aches you've ever seen in your life. 1964G. Davis Friday before Bank Holiday i. 11, I want to realise on the cottage..but I'm lumbered unless I can find another home for Fiddler. 1968J. Lock Lady Policeman xii. 113, I tell him I'm lumbered for court in the morning.
b. intr. To lie as lumber.
1850D. Macmillan in Life (1882) ii. 11 A queer mass of rubbish to lie lumbering in any one's brain.
2. To heap or place together as lumber, without order or method; to deposit as lumber.
1678T. Rymer Trag. Last Age 41 In Rollo we meet with so much stuff lumberd together. 1733Mallet Verbal Crit. 16 With all their refuse lumber'd in his head. 1805M. A. Shee Rhymes on Art 369 How that [sc. picture], long..lumber'd in some filthy broker's stall, Lay, lost to fame.
3. a. intr. To perform the labour or carry on the business of cutting forest timber and preparing it for the market. occas. trans. (N. Amer.)
1809Kendall Trav. III. lxviii. 73 The verb to lumber has also the..sense, to procure or even to manufacture lumber. 1870Maine Rep. LVI. 566 The plaintiff lumbered on his township called Holeb. 1891R. A. Alger in Voice (N.Y.) 15 Oct., I..commenced lumbering in a small way. Ibid., We then lumbered a million and a quarter feet a year. 1893Scribner's Mag. June 711/1 They bought and lumbered timber on their own account.
b. trans. To go over (ground) cutting the timber on it.
[1831Trans. Lit. & Hist. Soc. Quebec II. 269 His intention..was to clear land and lumber some.] 1851J. F. W. Johnston Notes N. Amer. I. 52 We clean up two or three acres every year of the lumbered land (land from which the timber has been cut). 1871R. L. Dashwood Chiploquorgan v. 60 This part of the country has never been ‘lumbered’, being too difficult of access. 1900U.S. Dept. Agric. Yearbk. 365 The cut-over lands..which..have been lumbered heavily, not only for timber but also for fuel. 1971Lebende Sprachen XVI. 9/2 This valley was lumbered in 1955. We lumbered more than a million acres last year.
▪ VII. ˈlumber, v.3 slang.
[f. lumber n.2]
trans. To deposit (property) in pawn; hence (orig. in pass.), to put away privily, to imprison, arrest.
1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict. s.v., To lumber any property, is to deposit it at a pawnbroker's..; to retire to any..private place, for a short time is called lumbering yourself. A man..sent to gaol is said to be lumbered. 1840Fraser's Mag. XXII. 578 Revelling in the reminiscences of the number of times they have been lumbered. 1882Sydney Slang Dict. 6/1 Lumber, to take or carry away to the lock-up. 1931Police Jrnl. Oct. 501 Did the detective (busy) arrest (lumber) Jack? 1953K. Tennant Joyful Condemned ii. 17 Don't you worry about the police. If there's a warrant out for you..they'll lumber you sooner or later. 1961B. Crump Hang on a Minute 136 We were sneaking into the church to bunk down last night when the johns lumbered us. 1970M. Kenyon 100,000 Welcomes iv. 30 We're pros—twice in twelve years I've been lumbered... Only twice in twelve years screwing.
▪ VIII. lumber, v.4 slang (chiefly Sc.).|ˈlʌmbə(r)|
[Of uncertain origin.]
a. intr. and trans. To engage in amorous or sexual play (with); sometimes, to copulate (with).
b. trans. To court, to chat up; to pick up.
1938G. Kersh Night & City iv. 53 All right,..I'm a ponce; they marry money. Zoë lumbers for a fiver; them women lumber for a million. 1960Punch 9 Mar. 345/1 Many of us are chatting or lumbering (courting!). 1960News Chron. 5 Mar. 5/1 When we talked about ‘lumbering’ they thought we meant making love... It means chatting, going steady. 1966J. Gaskell All Neat in Black Stockings (1968) 96 The girl with fish-net stockings Tom brought back with him from Jersey and was still lumbering. 1981A. Gray Lanark (1982) xvii. 173 ‘Last Friday I saw her being lumbered by a hardman up a close near the Denistoun Palais.’ ‘Lumbered?’ ‘Groped. Felt.’ 1985M. Munro Patter 43 Ma pal got lumbered by your big brother. 1991J. Kelman Burn (1992) 220 Derek slept with this woman a coupla years ago... He lumbered her from a pub up in London. |