chump
English
editPronunciation
editEtymology 1
editOrigin uncertain; probably a blend of chunk and lump or stump, or perhaps a nasalised variant of chub (“someone chubby, something thick”). Compare Icelandic kubbur (“block of wood, chip (computing)”), Old Norse kumbr for kubbr (“block of wood”), English chop.
Noun
editchump (plural chumps)
- (colloquial, derogatory) An incompetent person, a blockhead; a loser.
- That chump wouldn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.
- 2015, chief justice John G. Roberts, dissenting in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission et al., June 29 2015
- What chumps! Didn’t they realize that all they had to do was interpret the constitutional term “the Legislature” to mean “the people”?
- (colloquial, derogatory) A gullible person; a sucker; someone easily taken advantage of; someone lacking common sense.
- It shouldn't be hard to put one over on that chump.
- 2012 August 5, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “I Love Lisa” (season 4, episode 15; originally aired 02/11/1993)”, in AV Club[1]:
- Ralph Wiggum is generally employed as a bottomless fount of glorious non sequiturs, but in “I Love Lisa” he stands in for every oblivious chump who ever deluded himself into thinking that with persistence, determination, and a pure heart he can win the girl of his dreams.
- The thick end, especially of a piece of wood or of a joint of meat.
- 1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Chapter X:
- Shaped as if they had been unskilfully cut off the chump-end of something.
- (UK, slang, obsolete) A person's head or face.
Synonyms
edit- (an unintelligent person): blockhead, idiot, dope, dolt, dunce, dummy
- (a gullible person): gull, sucker, dupe, sap, dummy, patsy, pigeon
- See also Thesaurus:dupe
Derived terms
editTranslations
editunintelligent person
|
gullible person
References
edit- (head or face): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary
Verb
editchump (third-person singular simple present chumps, present participle chumping, simple past and past participle chumped)
- (slang, transitive) To treat (someone) as a chump; to defraud or swindle (someone).
Etymology 2
editVariant of chomp, itself a variant of champ (“to bite”). More at champ.
Verb
editchump (third-person singular simple present chumps, present participle chumping, simple past and past participle chumped)
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