Sc. Also tumfie. [Cf. SUMPH, in same sense.] a. A stupid person, a blockhead. b. Coal-mining. (See quot. 1886.)
1795. A. Wilson, The Spouter, in Poems & Lit. Prose (1876), II. 331. The puir unfort’nate tumphy.
1823. Galt, Entail, III. iv. 41. Neither you nor that unreverent and misleart tumphy your wife.
1886. J. Barrowman, Sc. Mining Terms, 69. Tumphy, coaly fire-clay.
1890. J. Service, Thir Notandums, i. 3. I hear that tumfie o’ a lassock nickerin’ an’ lauchin’ in the kitchen.
