dimber-damber

plural dimber-dambers

1. alternativeAlternative form of dimber damber.

   "He'll make hisself the dimber-damber in hell," declared another.

   1947, Thomas Bertram Costain, For my great folly: and, The moneyman. Two famous novels by Thomas B. Costrain, page 240

   3 more examples

   No, Jim, I only piked into Deuceaville with a dimber-damber, who couldn't pad the hoof for a single darkman's without his bloss to keep him from getting pogy.

   1859, George Washington Matsell, “Scene in a London Flash-Panny”, in The Vocabulum: or Rogues Lexicon, New York: George W. Matsell & Co

   Renter lifted up a tin mug of lime juice and vinegar, and poured it over William's head, and shouted for all to hear: "I, dimber-damber and upright-man, with this gage of bowse, do Stall thee, Crank Cuffin, to the Rogue!..."

   1996, Alan Garner, Strandloper, page 84

   Not me, Jerry — there 's one a-coming as will tip you the lay — an old pal, Jerry, a flaming buck o' the high pad, a reg'lar dimber-damber, a — hist ! 'T is him at last, I think, but ha' your popps ready in case, Jerry.

   2010, Jeffery Farnol, F. Vaux Wilson, Our Admirable Betty, →ISBN, page 274

plural Dimber-Dambers

1. alternativeAlternative form of dimber damber.

   The Upright Man who performed the ceremony was the elected King of the Beggars, the Rector Chory or Dimber-Damber.

   1936, Ronald Fuller, The Beggars' Brotherhood, page 92

   2 more examples

   Then standing up in the middle of the fraternity, and directing his face to the Dimber-Damber, or prince of the gang, he swears, in this manner, as is dictated to him by one of the most experienced:

   1860, John Fellows, The mysteries of freemasonry, page 224

   When each gipsy Dimber-Damber Wraps him in a sheet of amber, When the smiling glow-worm skims O'er the ice-berg, singing hymns, When electric organs roar Round sad Staffa's dismal door, and the mermaid seeks her den, Eating oysters — watch me then.

   1868, Mark Lemon, Henry Mayhew, Tom Taylor, Punch - Volumes 54-55, page 61