lump
pronunciation
How to pronounce lump in British English:
UK [lʌmp]
How to pronounce lump in American English:
US [lʌmp]
-
- Noun:
- a large piece of something without definite shape
- a compact mass
- abnormal protuberance or localized enlargement
- an awkward stupid person
-
- Verb:
- put together indiscriminately
- group or chunk together in a certain order or place side by side
Word Origin
- lump
- lump: [13] The origins of lump are obscure. It presumably emerged from an imperfectly recorded medieval Germanic substratum of words for ‘coarse or shapeless things’ (also represented perhaps by Low German lump ‘coarse, heavy’ and Dutch lomp ‘rag’), but where this began is not known. The lump of like it or lump it [19] is a different word, of even more mysterious ancestry.
- lump (n.)
- early 14c., lumpe (1224 as surname), probably in Old English, perhaps from a Scandinavian source (compare Danish lumpe, 16c.), of unknown origin. Compare also Middle High German lumpe, early modern Dutch lompe. Phrase lump in (one's) throat "feeling of tightness brought on by emotion" is from 1803. Lumps "hard knocks, a beating" is colloquial, from 1934. Lump sum, one covering a number of items, is from 1867.
- lump (v.2)
- "endure" (now usually in contrast to like), 1791, apparently an extended sense from an older meaning "to look sulky, dislike" (1570s), of unknown origin, perhaps a symbolic sound (compare grump, harumph, etc.). Related: Lumped; lumping. LUMPING. Great. A lumping pennyworth; a great qualtity for the money, a bargain. He has got a lumping pennyworth; frequently said of a man who marries a fat woman. [Grose, "Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," 3rd edition, 1796]
- lump (v.1)
- early 15c., "to curl up in a ball, to gather into a lump" (implied in lumped), from lump (n.). Meaning "to put together in one mass or group" is from 1620s. Related: Lumped; lumping.
Example
- 1. I 've had this lump for a long time .
- 2. One day , I noticed a lump in her skin .
- 3. But when the lump is still there a week later , you consult your doctor .
- 4. Now a study of scores of elephant feet shows that the lump really does turn into bone .
- 5. And looming above it all the grotesque shard , our capital 's latest and most disgusting lump of privatised skyline .