1848. Punch, vol. XIV., p. 37. ‘Ye Frenche Goe Uppe to London.’ That ye French threats were all bouncing, That ye muster was a hum, And they’d never dare to come.
1885. T. E. Brown, The Doctor, p. 49. A hum and a huff, And none o’ the real stuff.
1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 76. Married life may be ticketed honey, but I know it’s more of a hum. [[377]]
3. (old).—See quot.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hums, persons at church; there is a great number of hums in the autem, there is a great congregation in the church.
Verb (old).—1. To cheat; to bamboozle; to quiz (q.v.).
1762. Goldsmith, Life of Nash, in Wks., p. 552 (Globe). Here Nash, if I may be permitted the use of a polite and fashionable phrase, was humm’d.
1764–1817. J. G. Holman, Abroad and at Home, i., 3. Ser. It is queer enough that his father, Sir Simon Flourish, should be hummed so as to think he is going the tour of Europe, when, all the while, he never got a step farther than St. George’s Fields.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.