subs. (colloquial).—Cleverness; understanding; NOUS (q.v.). Also RUM GUMPTION.

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  1785.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. GUMPTION, or RUM GUMPTION. Docilily, comprehension, capacity. Ibid. (1787), A Provincial Glossary, etc., s.v. ‘Gawm.’ Gawm, to understand; I dinna gawm ye, I don’t understand you. Hence, possibly, gawmtion, or GUMPTION, understanding.

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  1834.  Atlantic Club-book, I., 33. D’ye think I’m a fellow of no more GUMPTION than that?

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  1843.  The Comic Almanack, p. 49, ‘Christmas Beef à la Mode de Tariff.’

              Poor beasts, ’tis very clear,
        To any one possess’d of GUMPTION,
      That if they’d not come over here,
They’d have been carried off by home consumption.

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  1853.  BULWER-LYTTON, My Novel, bk. IV., ch. xii. GUMPTION—it means cleverness.

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  1883.  Daily Telegraph, 25 June, p. 3, c. 2. But poor people—leastways, those that have got any GUMPTION—know belter than that.

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  1890.  Notes and Queries, 7 S., x., 303. As familiar as the use of the Greek word nous for what … is known … as GUMPTION.

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