scumber

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English

Etymology

Perhaps Old French escumbrier (“to disencumber”).

Pronunciation

Noun

scumber (plural scumbers)

  1. dung
    • 1848, Steinmetz, Andrew, 1816-1877, History of the Jesuits‎, →OCLC:
      […] having no regard of me, and never looking upon me but as the scumber of the world.
    • 1900, Johnstone, Julian E, Songs of Sun and Shadow‎, →OCLC:
      A human vulture, God sent thee The world's great scavenger to be. To cleanse it of its scumber;
    1. of a fox
      • 1660, Howell, James., Lexicon Tetraglotton ‎:
        […] the Scumber of the Fox, the Spraints of the Otter […]
      • 1958, Djuna Barnes, The Antiphon‎:
        Let’s see, if by your scumber, you are fox!

Verb

scumber (third-person singular simple present scumbers, present participle scumbering, simple past and past participle scumbered)

  1. to void excrement
    • 1655, Mennes, John, Sir, 1599-1671, Musarum Deliciae ; and, Wit Restor'd‎:
      But he that gaines the glory here Muſt ſcumber furtheſt, ſhite moſt clear.
    • 1656, Choyce Drollery‎:
      Beware of fire when you ſcumber, Though to ſh-- [shit] fire were a wonder,
    • 1784, Rabelais, Francois., translated by M. Le Du Chat et al., The works of Francis Rabelais. Translated from the French ‎:
      […] and old Nick turn me into Bumfodder, if this did not make me ſo hide-bound and coſtive; that for four or five Days I hardly ſcumber'd one poor Butt of Sir-reverance and that too was full as dry and hard, I protest
    • 2009, Cooke, Sophie, Under the Mountain‎, →OCLC:
      He’s not to come in the house, though, Natasha. Other than to scumber, I suppose. / What? / To disencumber. His bowels.
    • 2012, Collins, B. R, The Broken Road‎, →OCLC:
      Someone shouts something and he turns and shouts back, ‘Just going for a scumber, all right? Back in a moment.
    1. of a dog or fox
      • c. 1410, The Master of Game‎:
        Some tyme pei han a siknesse bat pei mowe not pisse and byn ilost therbi, and also whan pei mowe not scombire
        Sometimes the hounds have a great sickness that they may not piss, and be lost thereby and also when they may not scumber.
      • 1630, Massinger, Philip, The Picture a Tragae Comaedie ‎:
        a brace of gray-houndes When they are ledd out of their kennels to ſcumber
      • 1832, Scott, Walter, Woodstock; or, The Cavalier‎, →OCLC:
        But that their beds were heav'd on high ; They thought some dog under did lie, And meant i' th' chamber (fie, fie, fie,) To scumber.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “scumber”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

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