[ME. trampe-n = Ger., LG. trampen (whence Da. trampe, Swed., Norw. trampa) to stamp:—OTeut. *tramp-, 2nd grade of *tremp, *tramp, *trump to stamp, tread (whence Goth. ana-trimpan to tread or press upon, also MHG. trumpfen to run, Norw. dial. trumpa to knock or push); a nasalized form of OTeut. *trep, *trap: see TRAP sb.2]
1. intr. To tread or walk with a firm, heavy, resonant step; to stamp.
1388. Wyclif, Prov. vi. 13. He bekeneth with iȝen, he trampith [1382 tramplith, Vulg. terit pede] with the foot, he spekith with the fyngur.
a. 1485. Promp. Parv., 499/1 (MS. S.). Trampyn [v.r. trampelyn], tero.
1570. Levins, Manip., 18/40. To Trampe, strepitare.
1865. Kingsley, Herew., x. They had passed down the street, tramping and gingling and caracoling.
1877. Talmage, Serm., 23. Hearest thou not the trembling of the ground, as the thunders of the judgment-day are tramping on?
2. intr. To tread heavily or with force (on or upon something); to stamp (upon): TRAMPLE v. 3. To tramp on any one’s toes (fig.), to infringe or encroach on his rights or privileges; to ‘come down upon’ with injurious effect; to take undue advantage of.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., I. (S.T.S.), 123. Bewar that ȝe neuir trampe thairon [on a grave] with ȝour fute.
1641. Ferguson’s Sc. Prov. (1785), 30. Tramp on a snail and she’ll shoot out her horns.
1776. C. Keith, Farmer’s Ha’, xxxviii. The black cow has nae trampet yet Upo’ your taes.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 768. [The hides] are then tramped upon by a workman walking repeatedly from one end of the vat to the other.
1862. Shirley, Nugæ Crit., xi. 477. It secures in practice my right, so long as I do not tramp on my neighbour’s toes, to speak and think and act as I choose.
3. trans. To press or compress by treading; to tread or trample upon.
Tramp down, to crush down by heavy or vigorous treading; to suppress, to crush. Tramp under one’s foot or feet, to tread or walk heavily upon; fig. to treat with contempt.
1533. Gau, Richt Vay (S.T.S.), 40/4. He suld tramp dwne the heid of the serpent. Ibid., 104/17. As the suine trampis the precious peirl onder thair feit.
1565. T. Stapleton, Fortr. Faith, 86 b. The camamele, the more ye tread it and trampe it, the sweter it smelleth.
1581. N. Burne, Disput., in Cath. Tractates (S.T.S.), 167. Murther of spiritual magistratis … be tramping the memoriallis of al religione in guttaris.
1585. Jas. I., Ess. Poesie (Arb.), 15. They see the painfull Vigneron pull the grapes: First tramping them, and after pressing now The grenest clusters gathered into heapes.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 266. A woman is appointed to tramp the straw, [and] spread it regularly over the mow that is forming.
1848. Lytton, Harold, I. iii. No horse tramps the seeds we have sown for Harold the Earl to reap.
b. To tread (sheets, blankets, etc.) in a tub of soapy water, as part of the process of washing. Sc.
1798. Monthly Mag., Dec., 438/1. To tramp clothes.
1807. Carr, Caledonian Sk. (1809), 226. In my way from Hopetoun-house to Linlithgow I saw the process of tramping, that is, of washing.
1842. Aiton, Domest. Econ. (1857), 112. Soak them [blankets, etc.], add to the water in which the linens were washed some soap, and also some of the preparation to produce a strong lather; rub or tramp them, then rinse and dry.
1871. C. Gibbon, Lack of Gold, viii. On washing days, it was tucked up above the knees to ‘tramp the claes.’
c. refl. Of a horse: To injure itself by setting one foot on another: cf. TRAMP sb.1 1.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 847. The shoes usually worn by stallions are very clumsy, and … are apt to cause him tramp himself.
d. To tramp flounders, to catch flounders by stamping on the wet sand with the bare feet until they rise. dial.
1894. Crockett, Raiders (ed. 3), 33. I must … proceed to the flats and tramp flounders for our breakfast.
4. intr. To walk; esp. to walk steadily or heavily; to trudge; to travel on foot; to go on a walking expedition (colloq.). Also tramp it.
1643. in Verney Mem. (1904), I. 302. Now the owld man must trampe on foote.
1720. Humourist, 51. Your Hunters of News, who tramp it half a Score Streets, to know who has got a Wife or a Place.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xxi. My darling boy, whom I would tramp barefooted through the world for.
1820. Clare, Rural Life (ed. 3), 91. I’ve oft meant tramping o’er to see ye.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xlvii. These people, who go tramping about the country.
1862. W. J. Stewart, in Macm. Mag., May, 32. The miner must be prepared to tramp it to that part of the Quesnelle or Cariboo gold-fields.
b. To go about or travel as a tramp. colloq.
1891. in Cent. Dict.
1898. J. Hutchinson, in Arch. Surg., IX. No. 34. 102. A man … who had tramped from Leeds in July weather, was seized by a fit on his arrival in London.
1909. Bodleian, March, 7/1. I’d rather have tramped it than have gone in for any top-hatted occupation.
5. trans. To walk through or over with heavy or weary tread; to traverse on foot, spec. as a tramp.
a. 1774. Fergusson, Ode to Bee, 45. Whether they tramp life’s thorny way, Or thro’ the sunny vineyard stray.
a. 1809. Holcroft, Mem. (1816), I. 23. I and my mother were … tramping the villages to hawk our pedlary.
a. 1885. in J. Irving, West Scotl. in Hist., 217. They … tramped the Trongate in pattens and caléche.
1894. Hall Caine, Manxman, 10. He tramped the island in pursuit of his calling.
1895. P. Hemingway, Out of Egypt, I. v. 55. He determined … to tramp the streets pretending to look for something to do.
b. To drive into or out of some condition by walking vigorously or steadily. colloq.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxvii. (1856), 220. Leaving the deck, where I have been tramping the cold out of my joints, I come below.
1892. Field, 14 May, 732/2. You will tramp your boots and feet into order.
6. intr. To make a voyage on a tramp steamer; also trans. to run (a tramp steamer). colloq.
1899. Cutcliffe Hyne, Further Adv. Capt. Kettle, viii. He heartily wished himself away back on the steamer, tramping for cargo. Ibid., x. You are making a good thing for us out of tramping the ‘Parakeet.’
7. The verb-stem used advb.: cf. bang, etc.
1796. Scott, William & Helen, xlvii. Tramp! tramp! along the land they rode; Splash! splash! along the sea.
Hence Tramped ppl. a.; tramped pike, a large rick of hay compressed by tramping: cf. tramp-cock, -rick, TRAMP sb.1 7; Tramping vbl. sb. and ppl. a.; tramping-card, a certificate issued to a member of a trade organization, entitling him to maintenance while tramping in search of employment; tramping-drum, in leather-dressing, a revolving chamber in which hides are saturated with oil or dubbing to make them pliable (Cent. Dict., 1891); tramping-machine: see quot. 1904; tramping-pestle, one of the hammers in this machine.
1660. in Archæologia, XI. 100. Armorers Tooles. Small Bickernes, Tramping Stakes, Round stakes, Welting stakes.
1791. Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, vi. They were alarmed … by the tramping of horses near the abbey.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xii. I am not so far to seek for a dwelling, that the same roof should cover me and a tramping princess like that.
1838. Star of Freedom, 3 March, 4/6. A Sleepy Tramp.—Two persons named Shaw and Westermap, were brought before the magistrates, on Monday last, charged with taking a tin case, containing the tramping card and certificate of a member of the Old Fellows’ Society, while sleeping on the bench of a publican named Cox.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, III. 970. The large ricks thus formed are named tramped pikes.
1863. W. C. Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, v. 112. I left … on a tramping tour into the Zulu country.
1878. E. Schiller, Eng. Germ. Fr. Technol. Dict., Tramping-pestle.
1893. J. McCarthy, Red Diamonds, I. 110. The tramping feet of the policemen.
1897. Webb, Industr. Democracy, I. II. i. 153. And ‘out-of-work pay.’ from the old-fashioned ‘tramping card’ to the modern ‘donation’ given when a member loses his employment by the temporary breakdown of machinery.
1904. Sci. Amer., Supp., 27 Feb., 23534/3. Tubbing is gradually giving way … to the ‘tramping machine.’… This machine is adapted from the French apparatus for fulling wool stock. It consists of two wooden hammers, which are moved alternately back and forth or up and down in a suitable receptacle, agitating the skins slowly and constantly,… and developing by friction the necessary heat, thus rendering the pelts soft and pliable.
