[perh. from BUMP sb.1 or v.1: with notion of a ‘bumping,’ i.e., large, ‘thumping’ glass.]
1. A cup or glass of wine, etc., filled to the brim, esp. when drunk as a toast.
1676. D’Urfey, Mad. Fickle, V. i. (1677), 52. Full Bumpers crown our Blisses.
1774. Goldsm., Retal., 127. He cherish’d his friend, and he relish’d a bumper.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xiii. 151. A dinner of marled beef … and a bumper of champagne all round.
b. Comb., as bumper-dram, -toast.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., iv. Drinking their meridian (a bumper-dram of brandy).
1839. Lockhart, Ballantyne-Humbug, 98–9. Few will doubt that he did join the party then, and pledge with hearty zeal many a bumper-toast.
2. slang. Anything unusually large or abundant. (Cf. whopper, whacker, thumper, etc.) Also attrib.
1859. Lang, Wand. India, 9. Tellwell and Long … have just lost a bumper—twenty-seven gold mohurs.
1865. G. F. Berkeley, My Life of Recoll., I. 182. The country was immensely deep and the brook a bumper.
1885. Times (Weekly ed.), 2 Oct., 5/3. The floods will have the effect of giving a ‘bumper’ rubbee crop.
3. Theatr. slang. A crowded ‘house’ at a theater.
1839. Dickens, Nich. Nick., xxiv. This charming actress will be greeted with a bumper.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 2 Aug., 3/2. I have heard a crowded house on a benefit night called ‘a bumper.’
4. In Whist and other games: see quots.
1876. A. Campbell-Walker, Correct Card (1880), Gloss. 11. Bumper. Winning two games—i. e. eight points—before your adversaries have scored.
1880. Besant & Rice, Seamy Side, xxxii. 282. After seeing a double bumper fooled away, his partner rose in silent dignity, and left the house.
5. [f. sense I of the verb.] The buffer of a railway carriage (U.S.).
1839. Jrnl. Franklin Institute, XXIV. 156. The bumpers or elastic cushions are to be attached … to the front and rear draw-bar.
1864. Sanatory Commission U.S. Army, 110, note. The Bumper is surrounded by a stiff spring, which prevents the communication of the jar.
