[f. TRAMP v.1]
1. An act of tramping; a heavy or forcible tread, a stamp; hence, an injury to the foot of a horse caused by its setting one foot on another: cf. TREAD sb.
1808–18. Jamieson, Tramp..., the act of striking the foot suddenly downwards.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 397. [To horses] Tramps are dangerous, besides causing blemishes on the foot,… they may cause quittor.
1859. Autobiog. Beggar Boy, 46. Having my right foot severely wounded on the instep, by the tramp of a horse.
1878. Browning, Poets Croisic, lxi. As the reed Is crushed beneath its tramp.
2. The measured and continuous tread of a body of persons or animals; hence, the sound of heavy footfalls.
1817. Moore, Lalla R., Fire-W., iv. Heard’st thou not the tramp of men Sounding from yonder fearful glen?
1856. Aytoun, Bothwell, II. iii. Does yet the court-yard ring with tramp Of horses and of men.
1889. Quiller-Couch, Splendid Spur (1895), 121. The monotonous tramp-tramp through the slush and mire of the roads.
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, xlvi. The tramp of the changing sentries … might be to her the echoing footfall of death.
fig. 1870. Lowell, Among my Bks., Ser. I. (1873), 186. To feel in her ears the dull tramp of the blood.
3. A bout of tramping or journeying on foot; a long, tiring, or toilsome walk or march; a trudge; a walking excursion (colloq.).
1786. Burns, Brigs of Ayr, 188. If haply Knowledge, on a random tramp, Had shor’d them wi’ a glimmer of his lamp.
1822. T. Bewick, Mem., 138. This [journey] may be regarded as merely one of my ‘tramps.’
1845. J. Coulter, Adv. Pacific, x. 120. I continued my tramp round the easternmost part of the island.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, xvii. 285. I doubted whether I should be in a condition for a tramp of thirty miles.
1873. Tristram, Moab, ix. 170. Files of hundreds of camels slowly following each other in the weary tramp to Mecca.
1898. S. Hutchinson, in Arch. Surg., IX. No. 34. 104. Much exhausted by a long tramp in hot weather.
b. On (the) tramp, on one’s way from place to place on foot, esp. in search of employment, or wandering as a vagrant.
1760. Life & Adv. of Cat, 147. An English vagrant, on the common tramp (as they express it).
1813. T. Martin, Circle Mech. Arts, 608. When any of them are out of employ, they set out in search of a master, with a sort of Certificate from their last place. This is called going on the tramp.
1866. Dora Greenwell, Ess. (1867), 109. Some of the eight are in the army, some in the collieries, some on the tramp.
1888. ‘J. S. Winter,’ Bootle’s Childr., iii. Just on tramp she seems to have been.
4. A person on the tramp; TRAMPER 2; one who travels from place to place on foot, in search of employment, or as a vagrant; also, one who follows an itinerant business, as a hawker, etc.
1664. in Verney Mem. (1904), II. 204. Thay goo so Lick trampis, so durty, tis a sham to see them.
1790. Grose, Provinc. Gloss. (ed. 2), Tramp, a tramp; a beggar. Sussex.
1808. Agric. Mag., III. 43. A certain class of wandering labourers known by the name of tramps.
1828. Craven Gloss., Tramp, a pedlar; called also a tramper, an itinerant tinker, or one who travels with any kind of wares.
1842. Rep. Sanitary Condition Labouring Classes, 357. The houses are stages for the various orders of tramps.
1860. Ramsay, Remin., Ser. I. (ed. 7), 157. A wretched woman, who used to traverse the country as a beggar or tramp.
1882–3. Schaff’s Encycl. Relig. Knowl., II. 910/1. Monks, who … roamed about in the country, and really were neither more nor less than tramps of the most indolent and impertinent description.
5. In full, ocean tramp: A cargo vessel, esp. a steamship, which does not trade regularly between fixed ports, but takes cargoes wherever obtainable and for any port.
c. 1880. [Remembered in colloquial use].
1886. Shipping Gaz., 9 July. We think few will deny that the ‘ocean tramp,’ is the product of competition.
1891. M. Roberts, in Murray’s Mag., June, 795. The pure ‘tramp’ is not seen to its best advantage in seas whose ports are in connection with England by wire or submarine cable.
1891. [see OCEAN 3 c].
1893. Naut. Mag., March, 212. Let us picture to ourselves for a moment the ordinary ‘tramp,’ owned by a ‘single ship company’ in these ‘hard’ times.
1900. F. T. Bullen, Men of Merchant Service, iii. 21. The lowest type of tramp … is … built so as to pass Lloyd’s surveyor, but without one single item in her equipment that can be dispensed with.
b. attrib., as tramp steamer, vessel, trade.
1887. Shipping Gaz., 14 Jan. The day of building tramp steamers by means of money raised from single ship companies has passed away—for ever, we hope.
1891. Pall Mall G., 21 May, 2/1. In many of our tramp boats there is need of great reform in the food supplied to our sailors.
1897. Daily News, 26 Jan., 3/6. His complaint was against tramp vessels, which were often undermanned.
1902. Westm. Gaz., 5 June, 4/2. Mr. R—,… who is largely interested in the ‘tramp’ trade,… also young Mr. R—,… who is also a large tramp owner. Ibid. (1903), 2 July, 11/3. The volunie of tramp shipping is six-sevenths of the whole … Tramp business cannot exist unless accompanied by cheap and good shipbuilding.
6. a. A plate of iron worn under the hollow of the boot to protect it in digging; also the part of the spade, etc., which is pressed upon by the foot. b. Curling. A piece of spiked iron fastened to the sole of the shoe to give a firm foot-hold on the ice.
1825. Jamieson, Tramp, a plate of iron worn by ditchers below the centre of the foot, for working on their spades.
1830. H. Duncan, in Poets Dumfries., IX. (1910), 266. Gae get you besom, tramps, an’ stane, An’ join the friendly strife, man.
1844. [see tramp-pick in 7].
1891. Kerr, Maggie o’ the Moss, 61 (E.D.D.). Wi’ tramps on their feet, and besoms in han’.
1894. Northumbld. Gloss., Tramp, the part of a spade on which the foot is placed to thrust;… an iron plate worn by drainers as a guard to the boot in digging.
7. attrib. (see also 5 b) and Comb., as (in sense 4) tramp-printer, -scarer, -ward; tramp-like adj.; tramp-cell, a workhouse cell in which vagrants are lodged; tramp-clog = sense 6 a; tramp-cock, tramp-coll [COLL sb.5], a heap of hay compressed by treading; tramp-house, a lodging-house for tramps; tramp-master, a workhouse official charged with the control of the vagrants admitted; tramp-pick (Sc.), a narrow, pointed pick, with a tread, for breaking up stiff ground; tramp-rick, † -ruck, a rick or stack of hay compressed by treading.
1905. Daily Chron., 22 Sept., 5/6. He was taken back to the workhouse, and placed in a *tramp cell.
1894. Northumbld. Gloss., *Tramp-clog or tramp,… a piece of iron plate … used as a guard where the spade is trodden in digging.
1775. Ann. Reg., II. 129/2. In these cocks, I allow the hay to remain until … I judge that it will keep in pretty large *tramp-cocks.
1825. Jamieson, *Tramp-coll..., a number of colls or cocks of hay put into one and tramped hard, in order that the hay may be farther dried. Aberd.
1832. Hull Packet, 31 Jan., 3/3. The two boys had supported themselves from the time they had absconded from their parents by begging and pilfering, sleeping in *tramp houses, and lounging and idling about the town.
1850. [C. Rogers], Bairnsla Ann., 42 (E.D.D.). A tramp-hause.
1899. Sir G. Douglas, James Hogg, 146. In common tramp-houses, a death is … a godsend.
1850. Morn. Chron., 22 April, 5/3. It is interrupted by the strains of the well-known march, as the Bactrians assemble for departure, the measured *tramp-like movement being exceedingly well delivered by both band and chorus.
1904. Daily Chron., 29 Oct., 8/3. A tramp-like personage stands sentinel complacently over a terrific bulldog.
1887. Leamington Spa Courier, 30 April, 5/6. Persons willing to undertake the duties of *Tramp Master at the Workhouse.
1895. Daily News, 5 Oct., 6/6. He maintained that … the trampmaster in Salford, had some knowledge of human nature.
1813. G. Robertson, Agric. Surv. Kincardine, vi. 238. The *tramp-pick … is a kind of lever, of iron, about four feet long, and an inch square in thickness, tapering away at the lower end, and having a small degree of curvature there…. It is fitted with a foot step … on which the workman presses with his foot.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, I. 372. An iron tramp-pick to loosen the subsoil immediately under the mould, and raise the boulder stones…. The tramp … is movable, and may be placed on either side to suit the foot of the workman, where it remains firm at about 16 inches from the point, which gradually tapers.
1895. Westm. Gaz., 17 Jan., 8/1. What the … foreman thought he at once ‘spotted’ as a *tramp-printer entered the office and asked to be allowed to try his hand at the case.
1799. J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 220. In making *tramp-ricks, they ought to be secured, by one rope over the top, in the direction of that point from which the most violent winds are expected to blow…, or by two transverse ropes, which is the surest way.
1812. Sir J. Sinclair, Syst. Husb. Scot., I. 396. After it [hay] has been a short time in small cocks, it ought to be put up in what are called tramp ricks.
1588. Exchequer Rolls Scot., XXI. 412. For making of 36 dawarkis of hay … and for wynning and putting of the samyn in *tramp ruckis.
1905. Blackw. Mag., Dec. 817/2. The poor animal fulfils his function as a *tramp-scarer.
1843. Times, 27 Feb., 6/2. We have usually from 40 to 50 vagrant poor every night in our *tramp-ward.
1906. Westm. Gaz., 14 May, 12/2. [One] who, disguised as a tramp, has spent days and nights in tramp-wards, lodging-houses, and shelters.
Hence Trampage, the habit or condition of a tramp, vagrancy (U.S.); Trampdom, the ‘realm’ or sphere of tramps; Trampess, a female tramp; Trampish a., like or like that of a tramp; Trampishly adv., in a trampish manner; Trampism, the practice of going on tramp.
1894. Chicago Advance, 3 May. A menace, a nuisance all along the line of their *trampage.
1897. Plantation Missionary (Oberlin, Ohio), Dec. The poor [may be] rescued from pauperism, trampage and crime.
1868. Preston Chron., 30 May, 6/3. Travelling straight to a town, according to the geography of *trampdom, often means going as crookedly to it as possible.
1895. Century Mag., Oct., 945/1. The love of liquor brings more men and women into trampdom.
1875. Reading Times, 24 July, 4/5. An Easton *trampess recently appeared with gold rings on her fingers and handsome earrings.
1897. Raine, Welsh Singer, 95 (E.D.D.). She was a trampess who died in John Powys’ barn.
1861. Sala, in Temple Bar Mag., III. 299. A *trampish woman with a tambourine.
1890. New York Sun, Feb. The depot policeman was shoving a trampish-looking man out of the place.
1893. Kansas Chief, 14 Dec., 2/2. This circular was no doubt issued for a demagogical purpose, to attach to himself [the Governor] all the elements *trampishly inclined.
1889. Harper’s Mag., Nov., 831/2. The battered folding-doors trampishly lean against the walls.
1875. Vermont Watchman, 7 July, 2/3. They are tramps of the worst kind,—tramps armed and organized; and if anything can be found worse than *‘trampism’ organized and armed, it is yet unknown to the world at large.
1893. Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, 5 Sept. The plans will check idiotic processions and trampism, and men who will not work will get out of the city.
1894. in Review of Rev., May, 608/2. I make no defense of trampism nor vagabondage.
