From Jumbo (1860–1885), the name given to a large African elephant from East Africa that was purchased in 1882 by American showman P. T. Barnum (1810–1891) for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Compare Swahili jambo (“matter, thing”) and jumbe (“chief, headman”).
Meanings
(not-comparable) Especially large or powerful.
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. 1993 July, Gerald Bard Tjoflat, “More Judges, Less Justice: The Case against Expansion of the Federal Judiciary”, in ABA Journal: The Lawyer’s Magazine, volume 79, Chicago, Ill.: American Bar Association, →ISSN, →OCLC:
At Bucyrus, Ohio, M. C. Coulter this season has demonstrated that he can grow a nice crop of the jumbo variety of peanuts. 1919 May, Peanut Promoter, volume 2, number 6, Chicago, Ill.: Lightner Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 102, column 2:
a jumbo helping
As the name suggests, jumbo frames are frames with a larger size compared to the standard MTU [maximum transmission unit]. Sending data in jumbo frames means there are fewer frames sent through the network, resulting in fewer IRQs [interrupt requests] at the receiving end. This obviously generates big improvements in terms of bandwidth and CPU [central processing unit] cycles. 2015, Zafar Gilani, Abdul Salam, Salman Ul Haq, “Diagnosis and Performance Monitoring”, in Deploying and Managing a Cloud Infrastructure: Real World Skills for the CompTIA Cloud+™ Certification and Beyond, Indianapolis, Ind.: Sybex, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, pages 134–135:
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. 1941 September, Harold J[ohnson] Clay, “Secondary Distribution”, in Marketing Peanuts and Peanut Products (Miscellaneous Publication; no. 416), Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture, →OCLC, page 58:
Not only did Jumbo-mania make [Phineas Taylor] Barnum a jumbo profit, but the word "jumbo" entered the English language. 1989 May, Nino Lo Bello, “Jumbo the Great Saves a Friend”, in William B. McMorris, editor, Boys’ Life, Irving, Tx.: Boy Scouts of America, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 11, columns 2–3:
ka უზარმაზარი (especially large or powerful) · fi jättimäinen (especially large or powerful) · ka გიგანტური (especially large or powerful) · es yumbo (especially large or powerful) · es jumbo (especially large or powerful) · tr kocaman (especially large or powerful) · el μέγα άτομο ζώο (especially large or powerful) · ar جامبو (especially large or powerful) · fi mammuttimainen (especially large or powerful) · ru огро́мный (especially large or powerful) · ru гига́нтский (especially large or powerful)
From Jumbo (1860–1885), the name given to a large African elephant from East Africa that was purchased in 1882 by American showman P. T. Barnum (1810–1891) for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Compare Swahili jambo (“matter, thing”) and jumbe (“chief, headman”).
Meanings
(countable, uncountable) An especially large or powerful person, animal, or thing.
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. 2002, Appita Journal: Journal of the Technical Association of the Australian and New Zealand Pulp and Paper Industry, volume 55, Parkville, Vic.: Technical Association of the Australian and New Zealand Pulp and Paper Industry, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 65, column 3:
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;[…] [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 Annual Report of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture […], for the Year 1894. […], volume 49, Columbus, Oh.: J. L. Trauger, state printer, published 1895, →OCLC, page 71:
(India, Kenya, countable, uncountable) An elephant.
(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. 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:
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. 1946, Mine and Quarry Engineering, London: Electrical Press, →OCLC, page 67:
(British, English, countable, uncountable) 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:
(Pennsylvania, Western, countable, uncountable) Synonym of bologna (“type of meat”).
(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. 1979, Paper Trade Journal (volume 163, issues 13-24, page 74)
de Bohrgerätewagen (platform-mounted machine for drilling rock) · fi jumbo (platform-mounted machine for drilling rock) · es yumbo (especially large or powerful person, animal or thing) · fi porausjumbo (platform-mounted machine for drilling rock) · de Bohrwagen (platform-mounted machine for drilling rock) · uk бурова каретка (platform-mounted machine for drilling rock) · ka გიგანტი (especially large or powerful person, animal or thing) · es jumbo (especially large or powerful person, animal or thing) · fi jätti (especially large or powerful person, animal or thing) · ka ბუმბერაზი (especially large or powerful person, animal or thing)
(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. 1806, William Young, “A Tour through the Several Islands of Barbadoes, St. Vincent, Antigua, Tobago, and Grenada, in the Years 1791 & 1792”, in Bryan Edwards, The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies. […] In Four Volumes, volume IV, Philadelphia, Pa.: Printed and sold by James Humphreys, […], →OCLC, page 257:
[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. 1845 April, “Delta” [pseudonym], “Krooman versus Boobie. A Scene at Fernando Po.”, in P. L. Simmonds, editor, Simmond’s Colonial Magazine and Foreign Miscellany, volume IV, number 16, London: Simmonds & Ward, […], →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 487–488: