subs. (old: now recognised).—A heavy blow with club, fist, or anything that resounds: also as verb (GROSE). [Century: Not found in Middle English; apparently a variant of dump.] Hence THUMPER. Also ‘This is better than a THUMP on the back with a stone’ (GROSE: said on giving a drink of good liquor on a cold morning); ‘Thatch, thistle, thunder, and thump’ (GROSE: ‘words to the Irish, like the Shibboleth of the Hebrews’).
1596. SPENSER, The Fairie Queene, VI. ii. 10.
| He with his speare (that was to him great blame) | |
| Would THUMPE her forward and inforce to goe. |
1607. DEKKER, Northward Ho, iv. 1. As though my heart-strings had been cracked I wept and sighed, and THUMPED and THUMPED, and raved and randed and railed.
1617. FLETCHER, The Mad Lover, v. O let me ring the fore bell, and here are THUMPERS.
1628. FORD, The Lover’s Melancholy, i. 1.
| When blustering Boreas tosseth up the deep, | |
| And THUMPS a thunder bounce! |
d. 1771. GRAY, Letters, I. 71. With these masqueraders that vast church is filled, who are seen THUMPING their breasts, and kissing the pavement with extreme devotion.
Verb. (obscene).—To possess a woman.
1604. SHAKESPEARE, Winter’s Tale, iv. 4. 195. Delicate burthens of dildos and fadings, ‘jump her and THUMP her.’
