hummer

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• Rhymes: -ʌmə(ɹ)

hum +‎ -er

hummer (plural hummers)

1. One who hums.
   • 2011, Peter Blauner, Man of the Hour: A Mystery:

     Judy hummed to herself. “My mother was a hummer,” LeVecque said, without looking at her.

   • 2013, Chris Lynch, Whitechurch:

     Will you be a singer or sad scared little hummer?

2. (informal) A Humvee.
3. A type of vehicle resembling a jeep but bulkier.
   • 2008, Mikal Malone, Pitbulls In A Skirt, page 6:

     Some playa's had went all out, showing up in chauffeured Navigator and Hummer limousines.

   The newlyweds took a hummer limo back to their casino resort.

4. (informal) A hummingbird.
   • 1911, Jennie Brooks, Under Oxford Trees, page 165:

     July roth saw the first spotted egg hardly larger than a “hummer's,” lying in the nest.

   • 2007, Wonderful West Virginia, volume 71, page 5:

     The Sargents' status as hummingbird gurus is unrivaled and well deserved. They began banding hummers back in 1988, when, Bob says, there were only 28 other banders in the country.

   • 2010, Arnette Heidcamp, A Hummingbird in My House: The Story of Squeak, page 2:

     Between high mortality during the first year, natural disaster, pollution, habitat destruction, and the general decline in hummers that has been reported over the last couple of years (responses given to questions fielded by Bird Watchers indicate that there is a real hummer decline), I feel that I did the right thing by taking this bird in.

5. (informal) A humdinger; something or someone exceptional or outstanding of their type.
   • 1903, Francis Hopkinson Smith, The Under Dog, page 184:

     "Ain't it a hummer of a day?" Jim exclaimed, suddenly, looking toward the valley swimming in a silver mist below us. "By Jiminy! it makes a man feel like living, don't it?"

   • 1905, Christman, Beautiful Maoriland, page 22:

     Dad's a real hummer at poker.

   • 1909, British Bee Journal - Volume 37, page 230:

     Another report: “The queen that I had from you last year has proved a real hummer.

   • 1913, The Journal of the Switchmen's Union of North America, page 550:

     As a salesman, before long, he became a real hummer, And the Monnig's concluded to make him a drummer.

   • 1994, Christopher Milne, “A Very Naughty Boy”, in Naughty Stories for Good Boys and Girls - Volume 1, page 8:

     Neil said sorry to Mrs. Cooper, smiled and let go one of the worst silent-but-deadlies you could ever imagine. An absolute hummer.

   • 2003, Lou Fulgaro, The R46 and Little Louie, page 280:

     After takeoff, coming back around the runway, I decided to give them a real hummer. From out of a long downhill run, with the Ranger cranked up to the red line, we flattened out, some twenty feet above the runway.

   • 2006, Vicki Courtney, Between: A Girls Guide to Life, page 147:

     You don't want to miss out on this grand prize—it's a real hummer of a deal.

   • 2009, Karl Adams, Wake of the Wind Dancer:

     It was another electrical storm, it was a real hummer.

   • 2013, Don Winslow, California Fire And Life, page 44:

     A fire needs a lot of oxygen and a lot of fuel to get big and grow strong, and in a lot of house fires, there just isn't the oxygen or the fuel load to sustain a real hummer of a fire.

   • 2015, Niven Busch, Continent's Edge, page 343:

     He could lay down almost as good a weld as Ev, who had been a real hummer in his day.

6. A machine that runs particularly well and smoothly.
   • 1997, Susan Rogers Cooper, Home Again, Home Again:

     “How'd you do with the rig?” Tater asked. Bubba did the sniff and wipe number again. “Piece a cake. That baby's a real hummer, Tater.”

   • 2010, Dominic Contreras, Operation Infidel, page 110:

     You'll have to drive this here automobile; she is a real hummer.

   • 2013, Lee Ecker, The Return of the Manhattan, page 234:

     "It's not difficult to fly, and it's a real hummer. I don't know what size engines you'll want to install, but this bird will climb like a homesick angel to over 50,000 feet at 234 Lee Ecker.

   • 2016, Susan Wolf Johnson, King Daniel: Gasparilla King of the Pirates:

     When he spotted Natalie descending the staircase, he begged her to try the elevator. "She's a running beauty," he said. “A real hummer now.”

7. (slang) A very energetic or lively person; a powerful lively thing.
   • 1897, Archibald Clavering Gunter, Bob Covington: A Novel, page 215:

     I had a thousand liars, perjurers and villains call on me, and six genuine survivors of Lafitte's band; besides quite a delegation of widows and daughters and offspring of the late lamented pirate. No less than ten of his widows turned up; Jean must have been a hummer!

   • 1904, Bernard Francis Moore, Judazuma, the Man of Mystery, page 11:

     He drinks, swears, smokes, plays cards, and when it comes to ragtime, my boy, he can beat any man on the stage. Oh, you bet he is a hummer, all right!

8. (slang, dated) A place, event etc. that is bustling or full of activity. [early 20th century]
   • 1902, Religious Telescope, volume 68, Church of the United Brethren in Christ (New constitution), page 17:

     [Heading: The Conferences] St. Joe was a hummer. It was largely attended, enthusiastic, and splendidly entertained by the pastor, Rev. J. Simons, and his people.

   • 1913 May 14, “The Alumni”, in The Princeton Alumni Weekly, volume 13, number 32, '07, page 614:

     “The best Reunion class of all will be back in Jersey on June 6 to 10, for a real off-year reunion, which will be a hummer. […]”

   • 1987, Weyman I. Lundquist, The Promised Land: And Other Courthouse Adventures, page 76:

     The courtroom was a real hummer of activity.

9. Something that generates a lot of attention, talk, and excitement.
   • 1913, Michigan Manufacturer & Financial Record - Volume 11, page 11:

     Lansing Rubber Company Will Be Real Hummer

   • 1914, “What The Clubs are Doing and Why”, in Associated Advertising, volume 5, page 53:

     Let us make this department a real hummer. Not a blessed club should be unrepresented. Even the most modest among us likes publicity.

   • 2000, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Armed Services, Nominations Before the Senate Armed Services Committee, page 464:

     The opening paragraph is a real hummer: “ Every day thousands of military aviators go into the sky believing in an unspoken promise: that the military is doing all it can to keep them safe.

   • 2011, Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in America, page cxcviii:

     Here's a real hummer for you: “Farewell to Scanlan's.” Give it some thought—forced visits with Hinckle & Zion, along with word-photos of earlier, happier visits in the old days.

   • 2017, Deirdre O’Dare, Red Tails in the Sunset:

     If you'll buy me a beer, I think I can give you some leads to a real hummer of a story.

10. (baseball) A fastball.
    • 2015, Andrew Goldblatt, The Giants and the Dodgers, page 115:

      Branca, concentrating so intently that he didn't hear the braying crowd, threw a hummer down the middle.

11. (slang) Fellatio, especially when the person performing the act vibrates their mouth by humming.
    • 2003, Michael Griffith, Bibliophilia: A Novella and Stories, page 217:

      My mama says they make Danish jelly out of cow balls, man. Eating that's like giving a heifer a hummer.

    • 2004, N.H. Avenue, For Pete's Sake:

      After all that bickering over Eddie Kissena, Charity goes into the ladies room and finds Denise Slater on her knees, giving him a hummer.

12. Someone who upsets or irritates others; a trouble-maker or controversial figure.
    • 1903, Charles August Fisher, The Minstrel with the Selfsame Song: And Other Poems, page 116:

      Of all the onnery new galoots That come to Scrambletown that summer, The meanest cuss—you bet your boots— Was H.A. Jones. He was a hummer! This Jones he was the biggest liar In all that country, all aroun' ; And by the high celestial choir, The liars there was hard to down,—In Scrambletown.

    • 1916 April 29, Tom Teaser, “Muldoon's Boarding House”, in Happy Days, page 9:

      I nade not say that we do not want the wan whom a gang av political hummers and gutther-politicians have nominated.

    • 2010, Gordon N. Scranton ·, Boot Tracks, There and Back, page 203:

      Anyway, this federal guy was a real hummer, because you know, he was from the government; and he was going to "show us" how this thing worked.

    • 2016, Bob Leuci, The Snitch:

      This guy McCabe gave him a laugh, what a piece of work. A real hummer, but with the undeniable charisma Nick always associated with the Irish.

    • 2017, James Patterson, Kiss the Girls:

      Burns was a real hummer inside the Bureau, a bigtime cage rattler.

13. (slang, obsolete, usually as "on the hummer") The condition of having no money.
    • 1907, Kin Hubbard, Abe Martin's Almanack:

      During the course of their restless, feverish careers they solicit insurance, collect for instalment houses, work advertising schemes, and finally land square on the hummer.

    • 1913, Collier's - Volume 52, page 37:

      "It's the crooks and the fourflushers who have put the boxing game on the hummer," the champion was saying.

    • 1916, “Is America on the Hummer? What Other Country Has Her Number?”, in The Mixer and Server, volume 25, page 56:

      the failure of the powers that be for not doing some definite thing, and the pigheadedness of doing something else, all of which may have confused some of us and permitted the idea to gain foothold that America is about as close to being on the hummer as it can get without slipping over kerplunk.

14. (slang, obsolete) An admirer.
    • 1868 October 3, James Silk Buckingham, John Sterling, Frederick Denison Maurice, “Our Library Table”, in The Athenaeum, page 431:

      The description therefore which the Duke of Ormond's correspondent gives of himself accords in no way with the early experience of the fluent extempore preacher whose eloquence roused Evelyn's enthusiasm, and was so generally admired that when he had preached the hour-glass out, his "hummers" used to encourage him to give them another hour of exhortation.

15. A tantrum or fuss.
    • 2011, Martha Mockus, Sounding Out: Pauline Oliveros and Lesbian Musicality, page 70:

      In 1970 she threw a real hummer in her widely acclaimed article for the New York Times entitled “And Don't Call Them 'Lady' Composers” which attacked the music establishment for its sexist practices and its willful dismissal of women's participation and achievement (Oliversos 1970).

16. (slang, obsolete) A lie or tall tale.
    • 1897, John La Rue Forkner, Byron H. Dyson, Historical Sketches and Reminiscences of Madison County, page 615:

      It is not supposed that there is now, or that there ever was a man in Madison county who would willfully lie to hurt a fellow-man, or even to enhanced his own interests, but for your spinning yarns and big story telling, she has had some "hummers."

    • 1900 May, M. Quad, “How Major Wharton Let Go”, in The National Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly, volume 12, number 2, page 85:

      "We'll 'salt' 'Paradise' and work her off for a hummer." "But that will be swindling," protested Clark.

    • 2015, Lyndsay Faye, The Fatal Flame:

      'Because I thought you'd told me a real hummer about Mr Playfair, and I was beastly to you, and then you only meant to be kind, but I called you a liar when I'm the liar, and then I saw them.

17. (slang, obsolete) A liar.
    • 1763, “The Wit of the Age”, in The London Magazine, Or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer, page 291:

      The fine lady thinks she has wit, when she scandalizes her absent neighbours; and the hummer, when he hath told a lye with a grave face;

18. (slang) Something that smells very bad.
    • 2008, Steven Webb, Ops Medic: A National Serviceman's Border War, page 140:

      […] stench. It was a real hummer, that's for sure. The doc went back inside and returned moments later […]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Perhaps from humbug, which has the same sense?”)

hummer (plural hummers)

1. (slang) An arrest on false pretexts.
   • 1967, Ross Macdonald, Archer in Hollywood, page 53:

     The conspiracy rap was a hummer.

   • 2008, Joseph Wambaugh, The New Centurions:

     She mentioned the cute little Eyetalian cop that booked her on a hummer.

From Old Norse humarr.

hummer c (singular definite hummeren, plural indefinite hummere)

1. lobster

hummer n (singular definite hummeret, plural indefinite hummere)

1. den, hole

From Old Norse humarr.

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hummer m (definite singular hummeren, indefinite plural hummere, definite plural hummerne)

1. a lobster (crustacean)

• hummar (Nynorsk)

• “hummer” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse humarr.

hummer c

1. lobster

• krabba
• kräfta

• hummer in Svenska Akademiens ordböcker
• hummer in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)