Bumper Prize

Hi Masters at Wordreference,

I heard this term from Downton Abbey, Season 5.
"...I have been awarded a bumper prize. Beauty, brains, a heart, a conscience, all in one. I give you my Cora. The best companion in the world."

The appearance of the phrase is preceded by a simile which compares a marriage to a lottery, and Grantham says he's drawn a winning ticket.

I can guess what a bumper prize is. It's the top prize there is in a lottery, I suppose? But strange enough, I can't find any entry in my dictionaries.

What do you think?
Thank you very much.

Pan.

Well, the word bumper is defined for you by Lexico (Oxford Dictionaries) as: Exceptionally large, fine, or successful.

So yes, a 'bumper prize' is an exceptionally large one - in the context of a lottery, I would say a much larger than usual one. 👁 Smile :)

DonnyB said:

Well, the word bumper is defined for you by Lexico (Oxford Dictionaries) as: Exceptionally large, fine, or successful.

So yes, a 'bumper prize' is an exceptionally large one - in the context of a lottery, I would say a much larger than usual one. 👁 Smile :)

Hi DonnyB,

Great. Thank you. I should've dug deeper into the dictionaries.

Pan.