[f. LUMP v. + -ER1.]
1. a. A laborer employed in loading and unloading cargoes, esp. timber. b. Sc. (See quot.)
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Lumpers, persons who contract to unload ships.
1796. Colquhoun, Police Metrop. (ed. 3), 54. The prevailing practice of discharging and delivering the cargoes of ships by a class of aquatic labourers, known by the name of Lumpers and Scuffle-hunters.
1825. Jamieson, Lumper, one who furnishes ballast for ships, Greenock; apparently from its being put on board in the lump.
1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xviii. They go on board as lumpers to clear the ships.
1892. Daily News, 5 Dec., 5/5. He was a rigger and lumper.
2. slang. a. A kind of river-thief (cf. 1). b. (See quot. 1851.) c. A militia-man. d. A small contractor, sweater.
a. 1781. G. Parker, View Soc., II. 78. They then commence Lumpers, which is skulking about ships, lighters, &c. … stealing old iron … or whatever comes to hand.
b. 1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour (1864), I. 413. He understood by a ‘Duffer,’ a man who sold goods under false pretences, making out that they were smuggled…; whereas a ‘Lumper’ would sell linens [etc.] … which … were made to appear now when they were old, or solid when they were flimsy.
c. 1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., xxxviii. He was going to bring the lumpers upon us, only he was afeared, last winter.
d. 1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour (1864), II. 374. The first man who agrees to the job takes it in the lump, and he again lets it to others in the piece…. The men to whom it is sublet only find labour, while the ‘lumper,’ or first contractor, agrees for both labour and materials.
1892. Labour Commission Gloss., Lumpers, contractors, middlemen, sweaters.
1902. Westm. Gaz., 29 March, 9/1. In working in America for what are called ‘front lumpers.’
3. One who lumps things together. (Often with reference to classification, after Darwin’s nonce-use.)
1857. Darwin, in Life & Lett. (1887), II. 105. It is good to have hair-splitters and lumpers.
1894. Cornh. Mag., March, 295. Moderni biologists are divided into the two camps of the splitters and the lumpers. The first are in favour of making a species out of every petty … variety; the second are all for lumping unimportant minor forms into a single species.
4. Ireland. A coarse variety of potato.
1840. Tait’s Mag., VII. 278. [In Ireland] though their condition haply should not be much bettered, under any change, it is impossible that it can be worse, while lumpers will grow.
1841. Lever, C. O’Malley, xxviii. You son of a lumper potato. Ibid. (1843), J. Hinton, xxvii. A miserable mud hovel, surrounded by, maybe half an acre of lumpers.
