clump
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English clompe, from Old English clymppe, a variant of clympre (“a lump or mass of metal”), from Proto-Germanic *klumpô (“mass, lump, clump; clasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *glembʰ- (“lump, clamp”). Alternatively, possibly from Middle Dutch clompe or Middle Low German klumpe[1] (compare German Klumpen). Cognates include Danish klump (probably from Low German as well[2]). Compare Norwegian Bokmål klump.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
clump (plural clumps)
- A cluster or lump; an unshaped piece or mass.
- A thick group or bunch, especially of bushes or hair.
- 1954, Lucian Hobart Ryland (translator), Adelaide of Brunswick (originally by Marquis de Sade)
- clump of trees
- 1954, Lucian Hobart Ryland (translator), Adelaide of Brunswick (originally by Marquis de Sade)
- A dull thud.
- 1927, Dorothy L. Sayers, Unnatural Death:
- She [Miss Climpson] asks questions which a young man could not put without a blush. She is the angel that rushes in where fools get a clump on the head.
- 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 37:
- Thus, the myths of cinema and syndicated cartoon have served to unite the diverse races far more than the clump of the cricket-ball and the clipped rebukes and laudations of their masters.
- The compressed clay of coal strata.
- 1837, The Magazine of Domestic Economy:
- clump-burned bricks
- A small group of trees or plants.
- (historical) A thick addition to the sole of a shoe.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
cluster
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thick group
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dull thud
a small group of trees or plants
Verb edit
clump (third-person singular simple present clumps, present participle clumping, simple past and past participle clumped)
- (transitive, intransitive) To form clusters or lumps.
- (transitive, intransitive) To gather in dense groups.
- (intransitive) To walk with heavy footfalls.
- (transitive, UK, regional) To strike; to beat.
- 1912, Mrs. Coulson Kernahan, The Go-Between, page 79:
- There is his poor little cap hanging up on the door; and there on the table is the knife he chipped a piece out of through not minding the mark on the knife machine, and I clumped his head for him, poor lamb!
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
form a cluster
|
gather in dense groups
|
walk with heavy footfalls
References edit
- ^ clump in Merriam-Webster's dictionary
- ^ “klump” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog