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Antonyms for jumbos


Grammar : Noun
Spell : juhm-boh
Phonetic Transcription : ˈdʒʌm boʊ



Definition of jumbos

Origin :
  • "very large, unusually large for its type," 1882, a reference to Jumbo, name of the London Zoo's huge elephant (acquired from France, said to have been captured as a baby in Abyssinia in 1861), sold February 1882 to U.S. circus showman P.T. Barnum amid great excitement in America and great outcry in England, both fanned by Barnum. The name is perhaps from slang jumbo "clumsy, unwieldy fellow" (1823), which itself is possibly from a word for "elephant" in a West African language (cf. Kongo nzamba).
  • "I tell you conscientiously that no idea of the immensity of the animal can be formed. It is a fact that he is simply beyond comparison. The largest elephants I ever saw are mere dwarfs by the side of Jumbo." [P.T. Barnum, interview, "Philadelphia Press," April 22, 1882]
  • As a product size, by 1886 (cigars). Jumbo jet attested by 1964.
  • As in Goliath : noun giant
  • As in titan : noun giant
  • As in giant : noun extremely large person
Example sentences :
  • By this time three more "Jumbos" had been added to the plant.
  • Extract from : « Edison, His Life and Inventions » by Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin

Synonyms for jumbos

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019