subs.—1. Rum grog: also RUMBULLION and RUMBOWLING: cf. RUM-BOOZE (GROSE).
1651. MS. Description of Barbadoes [Academy, 5 Sept., 1885, 155]. The chief fudling they make in the island is RUMBULLION, alias Kill-Divil, and this is made of sugar canes distilled.
1751. SMOLLETT, Peregrine Pickle, ii. He and my good master … come hither every evening, and drink a couple of cans of RUMBO a-piece. Ibid. (1762), Sir Launcelot Greaves, I. i. Three of the travellers … agreed to pass the time … over a bowl of RUMBO.
1821. SCOTT, The Pirate, xxxix. Regaling themselves with a can of RUMBO.
1885. Daily News, 12 Aug., 5, 2. When sailors speak of their grog as RUM BOWLING the expression is really a survival of the old word [i.e., RUMBULLION, supposed to be the original name of “Rum,” and of which the tatler is a corruption].
2. (old).—A prison: also RUMBO-KEN.
3. (dockyard).—Stolen rope (CLARK RUSSELL).
Adj. (old).—Good; plenty.
1870. C. H. HAZLEWOOD and A. WILLIAMS, Leave It to Me, i. Fifty pounds! Oh, what a coal and tater shop I will have…. Is that RUMBO? (holds out his hand).
1876. C. HINDLEY, ed. The Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 192. Mo exclaimed to his man, ‘Chuck RUMBO’ (eat plenty), ‘my lad.’
1895. Pall Mall Gazette, 21 Dec., 8, 1. But if the carts are all RUMBO, and the ’orses was all RUMBO, and there was no tickets and no jumpers.
