Dictionary entry

Gumption

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Gump″tion (?), n. [OE. gom, gome, attention; akin to AS. geómian, gyman, to regard, observe, gyme care, OS. gomean to heed, Goth. gaumjan to see, notice.]

1. Capacity; shrewdness; common sense.

One does not have gumption till one has been properly cheated. Lord Lytton.

2. (Paint.) (a) The art of preparing colors. Sir W. Scott.

(b) Megilp. Fairholt.