jumbos

Noun

jumbo (countable and uncountable, plural jumbos)

1. An especially large or powerful person, animal, or thing.
   • I purchased a vine, and was rather impressed with the appearance of the grape; so I took the time to go down to see the vine, the Jumbo [a cultivar of muscadine, Vitis rotundifolia], and I saw a very large vine, trained on an arbor, perhaps covering a space of fifteen to twenty feet square, with...[1894 December 12, “Proceedings of the Twenty-eighth Annual Meeting of the Ohio State Horticultural Society, Held at McCoy Post Hall, Columbus, Ohio, Wednesday, December 12th, 1894”, in Forty-ninth...
2. (India, Kenya) An elephant.
3. A platform-mounted machine for drilling rock.
   • In all three tunnels the full face was drilled at once. […] [T]he mucking machine was immediately converted into a drilling jumbo upon completion of the mucking operation. Both jumbos carried all the posts and bars necessary for the mounting in any desired position of four automatic DA-30 drifters.1942 January, H. E. Robinson, “Tucumcari Tunnel Construction”, in The Reclamation Era, volume 32, number 1, Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Reclamation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 11, column 3

   Synonyms:

   drilling jumbo

4. (British, English) A large airplane, such as those used for intercontinental travel.
   • Take a jumbo ’cross the water (Like to see America)1979, Breakfast in America, w:Supertramp
5. (Pennsylvania, Western) Synonym of bologna (“type of meat”).

   Synonyms:

   bologna

6. A wide roll of machine-trimmed paper, ready to be cut into smaller widths.
   • In the unwind area, one system loads and unloads the unwind stand almost simultaneously. The jumbo is stored ahead of the unwind on level rails.1979, Paper Trade Journal (volume 163, issues 13-24, page 74)

See all 10 meanings of jumbo