[f. Bumble, name of the beadle in Dickens’s Oliver Twist + -DOM.] Fussy official pomposity and stupidity, especially as displayed by the officers of petty corporations, vestries, etc.; beadledom in its glory.
1847. Daily News, 12 May, 2/5. The first year’s working of the measure will rout the bugbears of Bumbledom.
1856. Sat. Rev., II. 12/1. Our astonished eyes witnessed … the collective Bumbledom of Westminster.
1865. Spectator, 22 April, 427. There spoke the true spirit of parish Bumbledom.
1880. Daily Tel., 8 Oct., 4/8. The uncomplimentary epithet applied to municipal bureaucracy, ‘Bumbledom.’
