bumbershoot

plural bumbershoots · alternative bumberchute · alternative bumberschutz

1. humorousslangAn umbrella.First known use late 19th c.

   It smells like rain. Perhaps we should take along a bumbershoot.

   5 more examples

   Oh! Hang the bumbershoot! [Flings umbrella away, clasps Mrs. Dobbs wildly.]

   1887, Olivia Lovell Wilson, “Left. A Railroad Episode.”, in Parlor Varieties: Part Three: Plays, Pantomimes, and Charades, Boston, Mass.: Lee and Shepard; New York, N.Y.: Charles T. Dillingham, →OCLC, act I, page 113

   Little drops of water / It is safe to bet / If you have no bumbershoot, / Make you doosid wet.

   1891 March 21, “From the New Mother Goose”, in Brooklyn Life: A Journal of Society, Literature, Drama & the Clubs, volume III, number 55, Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.: Brooklyn Life Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 2, column 1

   "It—it belongs in our family," said Button-Bright, beginning to eat and speaking between bites. "This umbrella has been in our family years, an' years, an' years. But it was tucked away up in our attic an' no one ever used it 'cause it wasn't pretty." / "Don't blame 'em much," remarked Cap'n Bill, gazing at it curiously; "it's a pretty old-lookin' bumbershoot."

   1912, L[yman] Frank Baum, “The Magic Umbrella”, in Sky Island […], 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: The Copp, Clark Co., →OCLC, page 25

   Two women pickets, Krkossa and Menefee, walked the picket line in front of the Respondent's studio for 1½ hours on 1 day carrying large old-fashioned men's umbrella (perhaps better described by the word "bumbershoots") thereby, according to the Respondent's theory, committing serious strike misconduct by interfering with pedestrian traffic in front of the Respondent's studio, by preventing others on the street or sidewalk from reading advertising material painted on the approximately 50-foot expanse of windows of the Respondent's building facing upon the street, and by reason of the hazard allegedly created of physical damage to passing pedestrians from the ribs of said bumbershoots.

   1958 December 1, “Wichita Television Corporation Incorporated, d/b/a KARD-TV and International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees & Moving Picture Machine Operators of the U.S. & Canada, Motion Picture Projectionists, Local No. 414, AFL-CIO [Cases Nos. 17-CA-1109 and 17-CA-1153]”, in Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board, volume 122, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office [for the National Labor Relations Board], published 1959, →OCLC, page 251

   Nick Fury. Hey, Percy! Get that blasted umbrella outta my ribs!! / Percy Pinkerton. I beg your par … Oh! You mean my bumbershoot!

   1964 September, Stan Lee, “On to Okinawa!”, in Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, number 10, New York, N.Y.: Marvel Comics Group, →OCLC, page 8

   Synonyms: brolly, gamp