Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A sheep.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A sheep.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Australia A sheep.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Australian English pidgin dombock, jumbuck, perhaps from Kamilaroi (Pama-Nyungan language of southeast Australia) dhimba, or Malay domba (from Persian dumba, tail (as that of a fat-tailed sheep, prized for its cooking fat), from Middle Persian dumbak, from Old Iranian duma-).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Unknown, from pidgin, possibly from an Australian Aboriginal language, although it appears also to have moved from pidgin to Aboriginal. Numerous derivations have been proposed.

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Examples

  • And he sang as he stowed that jumbuck in his tucker bag

    Someday my prints will come… - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008

  • And he sang as he stowed that jumbuck in his tucker bag

    Someday my prints will come… - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008

  • Once a jolly jumbuck camped by a billabong under the shade of a swaggie it seems and he sang and he watched while Conzinc mined uranium

    John Howard's glowing futures 2006

  • He saw the slots of jumbuck, and, with a stir of anxiety, the recent pugmarks of a fanged leopard.

    Asimov's Science Fiction 2004

  • As a coin, a half-crown. jackaroo: (Jack + kangaroo; sometimes jackeroo) -- someone, in early days a new immigrant from England, learning to work on a sheep/cattle station (U.S. "ranch".) jim-jams: the horrors, d. t.'s jumbuck: a sheep (best known from Waltzing Matilda: "where's that jolly jumbuck, you've got in your tucker bag".) larrikin: anything from a disrespectful young man to a violent member of a gang ( "push").

    Children of the Bush Henry Lawson 1894

  • Somewhere between the jolly swagman and jumbuck, he breaks off.

    Stuff.co.nz - Stuff 2010

  • A jumbuck is known all over the world but only by it's English name and a tucker bag defies understanding by young folk even though they may know what 'tucker' is.

    magic-city-news.com 2010

  • He was crossing the country with his mathilda (bedroll) on his shoulders and killed a jumbuck (sheep)

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows rivella49 2010

  • He was crossing the country with his mathilda (bedroll) on his shoulders and killed a jumbuck (sheep)

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows rivella49 2010

  • Down came a jumbuck to drink beside the billabong Up jumped the swagman and seized him with glee And he sang as he tucked to the jumbuck in his tucker-bag You'll come a waltzing Matilda with me Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows 2008

Comments

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  • A sheep. The term is a corruption of ‘jump up’ (Macquarie Dictionary, 3rd rev. ed. Sydney: Macquarie, 2001). Cited on the National Library of Australia website, http://www.nla.gov.au/epubs/waltzingmatilda

    Down came a jumbuck to drink at the billabong.

    Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee...

    --A.B. Paterson, "Waltzing Matilda"

    February 7, 2007

  • If the etymology is to be believed, there's far too much jumping going on in that song. I haven't seen the flock this nervous since sionnach bought a new freezer.

    March 10, 2010