The AI-powered English dictionary
plural bumpers
Someone or something that bumps. examples
(obsolete) A drinking vessel filled to the brim. quotations
[T]hey now shook hands heartily, and drank bumpers of strong beer to healths which we think proper to bury in oblivion.
1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […]
Pork ſucceeds to Beef, Pies to Puddings: The Cloth is remov'd, Madam, drench'd vvith a Bumper, drops a Courtſey, and departs; […]
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, Act I, page 27
Yet can I gulp a bumper to thy name,— / O smile among the shades, for this is fame!
1818, John Keats, Written in the cottage where Burns was born
Mr. Horrocks served myself and my pupils with three little glasses of wine, and a bumper was poured out for my lady.
1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 8, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848
Sydney Carton drank the punch at a great rate; drank it by bumpers, looking at his friend.
1859, Charles Dickens, chapter XI, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […]
Pour, oh, pour the pirate sherry; / Fill, O fill the pirate glass; / And, to make us more than merry, / Let the pirate bumper pass.
1879, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, The Pirates of Penzance […], Philadelphia: J.M. Stoddart & Co., published 1880
(colloquial, now chiefly attributive) Anything large or successful. examples
(automotive) Parts at the front and back of a vehicle which are meant to absorb the impact of a collision; fender. examples
Any mechanical device used to absorb an impact, soften a collision, or protect against impact. examples
(cricket) A bouncer. examples
(billiards) A side wall of a pool table. examples
A cylindrical object used (as a substitute for birds) to train dogs to retrieve. examples
(broadcasting) A short ditty or jingle used to separate a show from the advertisements. examples
(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. examples
(pinball) An object on a playfield that applies force to the pinball when hit, often giving a minor increase in score. examples
(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. examples
not comparable
(colloquial) Large; (as if) filled to the bumpers at the top of a silo. examples
third-person singular simple present bumpers, present participle bumpering, simple past and past participle bumpered
(obsolete, intransitive) To drink from the vessels called bumpers.