jumbo

adj

1. (not-comparable)Especially large or powerful.

   “a jumbo helping”

   “At Bucyrus, Ohio, M. C. Coulter this season has demonstrated that he can grow a nice crop of the jumbo variety of peanuts.”

   “Of the receipts of unshelled peanuts only a few extras are now being bought, the remainder being divided rather equally between jumbo and fancy grades.”

   “Not only did Jumbo-mania make [Phineas Taylor] Barnum a jumbo profit, but the word "jumbo" entered the English language.”

   “As the number of judges on an appellate court increases, the court evolves into what I call a "jumbo court." First, the dynamics of a jumbo court are such that, as the court grows larger, the productivity of individual judges on the court declines.”

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)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 the clusters hanging down through the lattice work;[…]”

   “It is important to realise that slabbing may occur at any stage of the processing of a jumbo [large roll of paper from which smaller rolls are cut]. Typically slabbing becomes necessary when the reel being wound up has reached its required length and the jumbo has only a small contiguous length left on the spindle.”

2. (India, Kenya, countable, uncountable)An elephant.
3. (countable, uncountable)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.”

   “The curtailment of drilling because of a disruption of the loading cycle is far less likely with the jumbo than with post and tripod drilling, because from three to five working places are available to the jumbo, whereas only one or, at the most, two faces can be worked by one crew with the old method.”

4. (British, English, countable, uncountable)A large airplane, such as those used for intercontinental travel.

   “Take a jumbo ’cross the water (Like to see America)”

5. (Pennsylvania, Western, countable, uncountable)Synonym of bologna (“type of meat”).
6. (countable, uncountable)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.”

7. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, historical)Ellipsis of mumbo jumbo (“a deity or other supernatural being worshipped by certain West African peoples; an idol representing such a being”).

   “Returning to the villa, we were greeted by a party which frightened the boys. It was the Moco Jumbo and his suite. The Jumbo was on stilts, with a head, mounted on the actor's head, which was concealed: the music was from two baskets, like strawberry baskets, with little bells within, shook in time. The swordsman danced with an air of menace, the musician was comical, and Jumbo assumed the "antic terrible," and was very active on his stilts.”

   “[A]nother Krooman came hurrying up, holding out a wooden image with a few bits of grass round its neck, and exclaiming, "Wurra! Wurra! Jumbo hang in fetische-house, sure he make much finish die." […] Jumbo was an uncouthly-carved figure of a man, about a foot in height, sitting cross-legged like a tailor, with ears preposterously large, the Kroo mark down the forehead and nose, and a piece of looking-glass fixed in the thorax and abdomen.”

8. (abbreviation, acronym, alt-of)Acronym of Jupiter-mass binary object
9. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of JuMBO

name

1. A nickname for one or that of a large size
2. A nickname for one or that of a small size
3. A traditional animal name for an elephant