/ · 1894 Brewer’s · D · Dump
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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.
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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