Reference > Brewer’s Dictionary > Dump.

 Dum’mies (2 syl.).Dumps. 
CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
 
Dump.
 
A Brazilian copper coin, worth about 2 1/2d.; also a round flat lump of lead used on board ship for playing quoits and chuck-penny. Hence dumpy or dumpty (squat or small). An egg is called a humpty-dumpty in the nursery verses beginning with “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,” etc.
       
“Death saw two players playing cards,
But the game was not worth a dump.”
   1
       
Hood: Death’s Ramble, stanza 14.
 


 Dum’mies (2 syl.).Dumps. 

 
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