DCHP-1 Online

dump ((n.))

• 1a n. Placer Mining the pile of gold-bearing dirt excavated and waiting to be washed in the sluice boxes.

  • 1898  There are other men on Eldorado who are not obtaining as much from their dumps as expected, and these estimate the total yield of the creek much lower.
  • 1913  An estimate of the value of the dump--pile of pay dirt taken out--placed it at one hundred and thirty thousand dollars.
  • 1958  He and Stander began to hire men to help them haul the dirt up by windlass and pile it on the great "dump" which, when the spring thaw came, would be shoveled into sluiceboxes so that the gold could be washed free of the clay and gravel.

• 1b n.

  • 1897  Two ladies, Mrs. Lippi . . . and Mrs. Berry, picked out of a dump $6,000 each in a few days after their arrival.
  • 1915  He engaged others to take charge of the tail race and dump, with which he would not trust his brother on previous occasions

• 2 n. Lumbering a place where logs are piled, as on the bank of a river, by a railway siding, road, etc., ready for moving out to the mill.

  See also: log dump (def. 2)  

  • 1910  The men at "the dump" were piling the logs on huge skidways, thirty feet high.
  • 1942  (1946)  A log dump, or "the dump," is commonly a trestle built out over water. Generally an apron of piles slopes down from it and the logs roll down this when they are dumped from the cars.
  • 1964  From here, logs would be taken to a "dump" at the river's edge where they waited in great log piles for the spring drive.

• 3 n. on a portage, a staging point or resting place, where pieces of cargo are dropped before being packed to the next point.

  See also: pose (def. 2)  

  • 1941  This is the longest of the three big portages and the freight is relayed across in three dumps.

• 4 † n. a place where waste is dumped, as slag from mines, refuse from cities, and other detritus.

  See also: garbage dump  

  • 1923  (1929)  Even in a dump exposed to the air, coal generates heat and gas.
  • 1966  The striking Vancouver Civic Employees Union (Outside Workers) will pull their pickets from the dump for a 24-hour period starting at midnight today.

• 5 n. a waterfall

  • 1945  The line was still going out when the fish went over the dump and made a slicing scoot for that old windfall. . . . It [a large salmon] was now heading for a fall, or "dump", that I could not attempt to navigate and live.