Chapter Ruffe to Running Footman of R by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

trading with the West Indies. It is said that in the eighteenth century they bartered books for rum, but set aside chiefly such books as would not sell in England.

Ruminate (3 syl.). To think, to meditate upon some subject; properly, “to chew the cud” (Latin, rumino).

“To chew the cud of sweet and bitter fancy.”-
Milton.

“On a flowery bank he chews the cud.”- Dryden.

Rumolt Gunther's chief cook.

“Sore toiled the chief cook, Rumolt; ah! how his rders ran
Among his understrappers! how many a pot and pan,
How many a mighty cauldron rattled and rang again!
They dressed a world of dishes for the expected train.”
Lettsom's Nibelungen-Lied, stanza 800.

Rump-fed that is, fed on scraps, such as liver, kidneys, chitlings, and other kitchen perquisites.

“Aroint thee, witch! the rump-fed ronyon cries.” Shakespeare: Macbeth, i. 3.

    A ronyon or ronian is a kitchen wench fed on scraps (French, rognon, a kidney).

Rump Parliament Oliver Cromwell (1648) sent two regiments to the House of Commons to coerce the members to condemn Charles I. Forty-one were seized and imprisoned in a lower room of the House, 160 were ordered to go home, and the sixty favourable to Cromwell were allowed to remain. These sixty were merely the fag-end or rump of the whole House. (See Pride's Purge .)
   The name was revived again in the protectorate of Richard Cromwell. Subsequently the former was called The Bloody Rump, and the latter The Rump of a Rump.

“The few,
Because they're wasted to the stumps,
Are represented best by rumps.”
Butler: Hudibras, pt. iii. 2.

Rumpelstilzchen [Rumple-stilts-skin]. A passionate little deformed dwarf. A miller's daughter was enjoined by a king to spin straw into gold, and the dwarf did it for her, on condition that she would give him her first child. The maiden married the king, and grieved so bitterly when her first child was born that the dwarf promised to relent if within three days she could find out his name. Two days were spent in vain guesses, but the third day one of the queen's servants heard a strange voice singing-

“Little dreams my dainty dame
Rumpelstilzchen is my name.”

The queen, being told thereof, saved her child, and the dwarf killed himself with rage. (German Popular Stories.)

Rumping Dozen A corruption of Rump and Dozen, meaning a rump of beef and a dozen of claret; or a rump steak and dozen oysters.

Run A long run, a short run. We say of a drama, “It had a long run,” meaning it attracted the people to the house, and was represented over and over again for many nights. The allusion is to a runner who continues his race for a long way. The drama ran on night after night without change.
   In the long run. In the final result. This allusion is to race-running: one may get the start for a time, but in the long run, or entire race, the result may be different. The hare got the start, but in the long run the patient perseverance of the tortoise won the race.
   To go with a run. A seaman's phrase. A rope goes with a run when it is let go entirely, instead of being slackened gradually.

Run Amuck (See Amuck .)

“It was like a Malay running amuck, only with a more deadly weapon.”- The Times.

“Frontless and satire-proof he scours the streets,
And runs an Indian-muck at all he meets.”
Dryden: The Hind and the Panther.