Gamp

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /É¡amp/
• Rhymes: -æmp

Origin

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

Full definition of gamp

Noun

1. (UK, dated) An umbrella.
• 1900, A. W. Pullin, Talks with old English cricketers (page 169)It was the last day of the match, and owing to rain it was really unfit to play, but the promoters insisted upon our doing so, to satisfy the spectators, who stood round the ground with their umbrellas up. ... One gentleman sat with his gamp up on some rails near the railway.
• 1983, Lawrence Durrell, Sebastian, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 1111:In his hand he waved – an appropriate symbol of disapprobation – his London gamp meticulously rolled.----