clomp

English

WOTD – 10 December 2016

A pair of klompen (singular: klomp) – Dutch clogs – worn in the mud

This entry needs a sound clip exemplifying the definition.

Etymology

From Dutch klomp (“clump, mass, wooden shoe”), from Old Dutch *klumpo, from Proto-Germanic *klumpô (“clump, lump, mass; clasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *glembʰ- (“clamp, mass”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /klɒmp/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /klɑmp/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒmp

Noun

clomp (plural clomps)

1. The sound of feet hitting the ground loudly.
   • 1990, Laura C[aroline] Stevenson, chapter 11, in Happily after All, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 132:

     There was just a pause in the clomps, then Bill's boots went on toward the house.

   • 2010, Mark Peter Hughes, “Savages and Kings”, in A Crack in the Sky, Delacorte Press, →ISBN, page 226:

     "Hello?" he called toward the closed door. "Anybody here?" Somebody must have heard him, because he heard something move on the opposite side of the door. First a distant sound like animals grunting, then a clomp, clomp, clomp like boots approaching.

   • 2012 January, Frank Leslie, chapter 6, in The Last Ride of Jed Strange, Signet, New American Library, →ISBN:

     Amidst the clomps of oncoming horses, he could now hear men's low, conferring voices.

Translations

The sound of feet hitting the ground loudly.

• Bulgarian: тежки стъпки (težki stǎpki)

Verb

clomp (third-person singular simple present clomps, present participle clomping, simple past and past participle clomped)

1. (intransitive) To walk heavily or clumsily, as with clogs.
   • 1847, Acton Bell (pseudonym; Anne Brontë), Agnes Grey: A Novel, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, publisher, 72, Mortimer St., Cavendish Sq., →OCLC:

     […] so having smoothed my hair as well as I could, and repeatedly twitched my obdurate collar, I proceeded to clomp down the two flights of stairs, philosophizing as I went; […]

   • 1974, Liesel Commans Quirino, Why the Great Balls of Fire if I am Going to Go Pffttt Anyway?: 1931 to 1971, [s.l.]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 43:

     The next day I couldn't use my black pair to school and in order not to spoil my white pair I used my bakias or wooden clogs instead. As I clomped into the classroom, for I was late that morning, my school teacher—a German nun—looked up and I saw her face wrinkle with displeasure, […]

   • 2000, Robin Maxwell, chapter 14, in The Queen's Bastard: A Novel, Scribner Paperback Fiction, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 100:

     Ambrose laughed as he lurched backwards and then clomped with his gold-tipped walking stick to the bed.

   • 2003, June Kant, “Castaway”, in Jan Fook, Susan Hawthorne, Renate Klein, editors, Cat Tales: The Meaning of Cats in Women's Lives, North Melbourne, Vic.: Spinifex Press, →ISBN, page 17:

     My exasperation turned to horror with the realisation that a cat cast in plaster would sink which sent me scrambling for the scoop net. Adding insult to injury, the bystanders cheered his [the cat's] undignified retrieval. With a mortified hiss and yowl he clomped with bedraggled hauteur below decks.

   • 2005, Alton L. Provost, Reflections in an Orphan's Eye: A Decade at Oxford 1947–1957, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 278:

     [W]e clomped up the steep rear concrete steps to the main (study hall) level and entered the hallway, where we then quite innocently clomped with our well-worn brogues into the study hall, where we sat to await the appearance of Witch Robinson.

   • 2008, Stefan Zweig, translated by Joel Rotenberg, The Post-Office Girl, New York, N.Y.: New York Review Books, →ISBN:

     Then she'd be startled when a peasant clomped with heavy shoes into this world of seductive images, his pipe clamped between his teeth, his eyes bovine and sleepy, to ask for a few stamps, and reflexively she'd find something to dress him down for.

   • 2011, Lisa Hughey, chapter 6, in Blowback: A Romantic Thriller (A Black Cipher Files Thriller; 2), [s.l.]: [CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform], →ISBN:

     I shoved the door closed and took off running for the steps. The clogs were too big and not the best shoes for sprinting. My feet clomped along the broken sidewalk.

   • 2015 February, Coco Simon, “Cupcake Panda-monium”, in Alexis's Cupcake Cupid, Simon Spotlight, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, →ISBN, page 126:

     But now that we were running so late, I didn't have time to fuss with them. I jammed my feet back into my plain brown clogs and clomped back downstairs […]

2. (transitive) To make some object hit something, thereby producing a clomping sound.
   • 2010, Amanda Cabot, Scattered Petals: A Novel (Texas Dreams; book 2), Grand Rapids, Mich.: Revell, →ISBN, page 47:

     When Sarah pointed at the door, Thea took a few steps toward it, clomping her feet with each stride.

   • 2012, William J. O'Malley, The Place Called Skull, Indianapolis, In.: Dog Ear Publishing, →ISBN, page 7:

     Kurt Fuehlen's brother, Helmut, waited at the basement doorway behind the cathedral, stomping his feet and clomping his mittened hands against his beefy arms.

Alternative forms

• klomp

Translations

To walk heavily or clumsily

• Galician: troupelear (gl)
• German: stampfen (de)

Anagrams

• compl.