subs. (nautical).—Baggage; clothes. Cf., DUDS. [Properly wood or loose fagots laid across the hold of a vessel, or stuffed between packages to keep cargo from damage by water or shifting.]
1849. COOPER, The Sea Lions, ch. v. Not only was the chest more than half empty, but the articles it did contain were of the coarsest materials…. ‘There is little here to pay a man for crossing from the Vineyard,’ observed Roswell Gardiner…. ‘What is to be done with all this DUNNAGE, deacon?’
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, vol. i., p. 262. If they can meet with … the young ladies, they ‘put it on them for DUNNAGE’ (beg a stock of general clothing).
