Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A large baggy umbrella.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A large umbrella: said to be so called from Mrs. Gamp, a character in Charles Dickens's novel “Martin Chuzzlewit.”
  • To eat greedily; gulp down.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A large umbrella; -- said to allude to Mrs. Gamp's umbrella, in Dickens's “Martin Chuzzlewit.”

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun UK, dated An umbrella.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun colloquial terms for an umbrella

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[After the umbrella of Mrs. Sarah Gamp, a character in the novel Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

After Mrs Sarah Gamp, a character who carried a large umbrella in Charles Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word gamp.

Examples

  • A fellow dived on him, grabbing his wrist, the squawking woman was belabouring me with her gamp, Joe was hurling his attacker aside ... but by that time I was going through the dining section like Springheeled Jack, sending a table flying as I plunged through the kitchen door.

    THE NUMBERS 2010

  • The carriages were inside, and as the first wagon followed with its wailing occupants-all but Aphrodite, who was thrashing the tail-board with the remains of her gamp, in a fine berserk fury still-I hurried through the gates.

    Isabelle Estelle Bruno 2010

  • The moment, however, a step on the stair was heard, he snatched up hat and gamp, and in two-twos was outside the door of the flat.

    Two Tales of Old Strasbourg 2003

  • A fellow dived on him, grabbing his wrist, the squawking woman was belabouring me with her gamp, Joe was hurling his attacker aside … but by that time I was going through the dining section like Springheeled Jack, sending a table flying as I plunged through the kitchen door.

    Flashman and the angel of the lord Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1995

  • A fellow dived on him, grabbing his wrist, the squawking woman was belabouring me with her gamp, Joe was hurling his attacker aside ... but by that time I was going through the dining section like Springheeled Jack, sending a table flying as I plunged through the kitchen door.

    Flashman and the angel of the lord Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1995

  • I hopped aboard an empty Frog ammunition cart going back to Sinho, spied Grant's marker by a covered wagon, and strolled up to report, swinging my gamp.

    Flashman And The Dragon Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1985

  • I hopped aboard an empty Frog ammunition cart going back to Sinho, spied Grant's marker by a covered wagon, and strolled up to report, swinging my gamp.

    Flashman and the Dragon Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1985

  • The carriages were inside, and as the first wagon followed with its wailing occupants-all but Aphrodite, who was thrashing the tail-board with the remains of her gamp, in a fine berserk fury still-I hurried through the gates.

    Flashman and The Redskins Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1982

  • The carriages were inside, and as the first wagon followed with its wailing occupants-all but Aphrodite, who was thrashing the tail-board with the remains of her gamp, in a fine berserk fury still-I hurried through the gates.

    Flashman And The Redskins Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1982

  • I egged her on, and we got her into the long coat, and adjusted the broad-brimmed bonnet and veil, and I jammed the shoes on her feet, and gloved her, and stuck the gamp in her hand -- and when she managed to stand, leaning against the table, she looked as much like the outward picture of a lady as made no odds.

    Flash For Freedom Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1971

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Number one swung lourdily her midwife's bag, the other's gamp poked in the beach.

    Joyce, Ulysses, 3

    December 30, 2006

  • "The gamps and bonnets, the white gym-shoes, the bottles and the mildew king, the singing mortuary man, the Rose of Tralee, swam together in the snuggery ..." - Dylan Thomas in "Old Garbo," in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog, p 96 of the New Directions Paperbook edition

    December 9, 2008

  • An umbrella. (From a large umbrella belonging to a character by the name of Gamp in Dickins' novel, Martin Chuzzlewit.)

    http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gamp

    http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gamp

    http://www.brownielocks.com/words.html

    September 18, 2009

  • a large umbrella

    "We used my gamp as it poured on us on the way to our car"

    November 1, 2010

  • A gamp is a cloth that contains a set of color stripes in the warp that are crossed by a set of color stripes in the weft.

    "the colorful gamp that has matching warp and weft will be hemmed for a table runner"

    April 9, 2013

  • A brolly has too light a stamp;

    A parasol will fail the damp.

    For a serious roof

    When you're on the hoof

    A bumbershoot should be your gamp.

    February 7, 2015