bumper

plural bumpers

1. Someone or something that bumps.
2. A drinking vessel filled to the brim.

   Yet can I gulp a bumper to thy name,— / O smile among the shades, for this is fame!

   1818, John Keats, Written in the cottage where Burns was born

   5 more examples

   [T]hey now shook hands heartily, and drank bumpers of strong beer to healths which we think proper to bury in oblivion.

   1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC

   Pork ſucceeds to Beef, Pies to Puddings: The Cloth is remov'd, Madam, drench'd vvith a Bumper, drops a Courtſey, and departs; […]

   1756 February 3 (first performance), Samuel Foote, The Englishman Return’d from Paris, Being the Sequel to The Englishman in Paris. A Farce […], London: […] Paul Vaillant, […], published 1756, →OCLC, Act I, page 27

   Mr. Horrocks served myself and my pupils with three little glasses of wine, and a bumper was poured out for my lady.

   1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 8, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC

   Sydney Carton drank the punch at a great rate; drank it by bumpers, looking at his friend.

   1859, Charles Dickens, chapter XI, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC

   Pour, oh, pour the pirate sherry; / Fill, O fill the pirate glass; / And, to make us more than merry, / Let the pirate bumper pass.

   1879, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, The Pirates of Penzance […], Philadelphia: J.M. Stoddart & Co., published 1880, →OCLC

3. attributivecolloquialAnything large or successful.
4. automotiveParts at the front and back of a vehicle which are meant to absorb the impact of a collision; fender.
5. Any mechanical device used to absorb an impact, soften a collision, or protect against impact.

   The company sells screw-on rubber bumpers and feet.

6. ball gamesA bouncer.
7. ball gamesA side wall of a pool table.
8. A cylindrical object used (as a substitute for birds) to train dogs to retrieve.
9. broadcastingA short ditty or jingle used to separate a show from the advertisements.
10. datedslangA covered house at a theatre, etc., in honour of some favourite performer.
11. CaribbeanJamaicaslangA woman's posterior, particularly one that is considered full and desirable.
12. entertainmentAn extra musician (not notated in the score) who assists the principal French horn by playing less-exposed passages, so that the principal can save their 'lip' for difficult solos. Also applied to other sections of the orchestra.
13. pinballAn object on a playfield that applies force to the pinball when hit, often giving a minor increase in score.
14. AustraliaslangA cigarette butt.
15. hobbiesIn National Hunt racing, a flat race for horses that have not yet competed either in flat racing or over obstacles.
16. video gamesA shoulder button on a gamepad.
17. bowlingSynonym of gutter guard (“rail to prevent a ball from rolling into the gutter”).

    Synonyms: gutter guard

1. colloquialnot comparableWonderfully large; (as if) filled to the bumpers at the top of a silo, or successful in this regard.

   What a bumper year for apples!

   3 more examples

   a bumper collection of silly jokes

   We harvested a bumper crop of arugula and parsnips this year.

   "I see I must bribe you to harbour me—come, pledge me in a bumper health to the last young lady that slept at Wolf's Crag, and liked her quarters.—My bones are not so tender as hers, and I am resolved to occupy her apartment tonight, that I may judge how hard the couch is that love can soften."

   1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series. […], volume II (The Bride of Lammermoor), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC

present singular third person bumpers · participle present bumpering · participle past bumpered · past bumpered

1. intransitiveobsoleteTo drink from the vessels called bumpers.