lump

From Middle English lumpe, from a Germanic base akin to Proto-Germanic *limpaną (“to glide, go, hang loosely”). Compare Dutch lomp (“rag”), German Low German Lump (“rag”), German Lumpen (“rag”) and Lump (“ragamuffin”).

• IPA^(key): /lʌmp/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmp

lump (plural lumps)

1. Something that protrudes, sticks out, or sticks together; a cluster or blob; a mound or mass of no particular shape.

   Stir the gravy until there are no more lumps.

   a lump of coal; a lump of clay; a lump of cheese

2. A swelling or nodule of tissue under the skin or in an internal part of the body.

   Lumps in the breasts are an indicator of breast cancer.

3. A group, set, or unit.

   The money arrived all at once as one big lump sum payment.

4. A small, shaped mass of sugar, typically about a teaspoonful.

   Do you want one lump or two with your coffee?

5. A dull or lazy person.

   Don't just sit there like a lump.

   • 1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 7:

     "Thou great Norman lump!" he muttered. "If I conjure till Doomsday, I cannot make thee gold."

6. A fat person.
7. (informal, as plural) A beating or verbal abuse.

   He's taken his lumps over the years.

   • 1994, Robert J. McMahon, The cold war on the periphery: the United States, India, and Pakistan, page 323:

     Komer admitted that the United States would probably suffer "short term lumps" as a result of Johnson's brusque decision.

   • 2024 July 11, Theodore Schleifer, Jacob Bernstein, Reid J. Epstein, “How Biden Lost George Clooney and Hollywood”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Mr. Katzenberg is now taking his commensurate lumps, particularly because contributors feel he helped disabuse donors’ concerns about Mr. Biden’s physical state.

8. A projection beneath the breech end of a gun barrel.
9. A kind of fish, the lumpsucker.
   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:

     You roast him [the fish] […] just like a lump.

10. (obsolete, slang) Food given to a tramp to be eaten on the road.
    • 1923, Arthur Preston Hankins, chapter 12, in Cole of Spyglass Mountain‎^[2], New York: Grosset & Dunlap:

      “A lump,” explained The Whimperer […] “is wot a kin’ lady slips youse w’en youse batter de back door. If she invites youse in and lets youse t’row yer feet unner de table, it’s a set-down. If she slips youse a lunch in a poiper bag, it’s a lump. See? […] ”

11. (obsolete, slang) The workhouse.

• nubble

lump (third-person singular simple present lumps, present participle lumping, simple past and past participle lumped)

1. (transitive) To treat as a single unit; to group together in a casual or chaotic manner (as if forming an ill-defined lump of the items).

   People tend to lump turtles and tortoises together, when in fact they are different creatures.

   • 1996 September, V. Maulsby, “The Importance of Outside Commnication to the Transgendered Inmate”, in Gay Community News, page 31:

     Most gays don't want to know about us, so lumping us in their support efforts is counter-productive at best.

   • 2015 February 24, Daniel Taylor, “Luis Suárez strikes twice as Barcelona teach Manchester City a lesson”, in The Guardian (London)‎^[3]:

     Pellegrini’s decision to operate with both Edin Dzeko and Agüero in attack certainly looks misjudged bearing in mind that the first way to stop Barcelona is usually to try to crowd midfield and restrict space. Yet it would be wrong to lump all the blame on the manager’s tactics.

2. (transitive) To bear (a heavy or awkward burden); to carry (something unwieldy) from one place to another.
   • 1876, Belgravia, volume 30, page 131:

     Well, a male body was brought to a certain surgeon by a man he had often employed, and the pair lumped it down on the dissecting table, and then the vendor received his money and went.

   • 1999, Alf Goldberg, World's End for Sir Oswald: Portraits of Working-class Life in Pre-war London, Book Guild, →ISBN:

     I never ceased to be amazed at his prowess at being able to lump two-hundredweight sacks of coal, which seemed as big as he was, up perhaps four flights of narrow stairs

3. (transitive) To burden (someone) with an undesired task or responsibility.
   • 2019 January 9, Drachinifel, 15:17 from the start, in The Channel Dash / Operation Cerberus - How to win through refuge in audacity‎^[4], archived from the original on 24 July 2022:

     The Luftwaffe, at this point, was still refusing to play ball completely, however. But someone decided to lump Adolf Galland with command of the air operation, and he decided to work with Luftflotte 3, mobilizing their training units to make up the numbers, since large numbers of that particular formation's fighters had been diverted to the campaign in Russia, which was why the fighter numbers were so much lower than they had been the previous year.

4. (transitive, slang) To hit or strike (a person).
   • 1962, Floyd Patterson, Victory Over Myself, page 63:

     If that's the only way you can fight, then you'd better be prepared to get lumped.

5. (intransitive) To form a lump or lumps.
   • 2004, Creative Gifts: Quick & Easy Projects, page 44:

     Thin the paint with mineral spirits for a medium consistency so that it will not drip or lump.

• take one’s lumps
• lump it
• like it or lump it

• “lump”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “lump”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

• Plum, plum

Borrowed from German Lump (“cad”).^[1]

• IPA^(key): [ˈlump]

lump m anim

1. scoundrel, rascal

   Synonym: darebák

• “lump”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “lump”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

From English lumpfish.

• IPA^(key): /lœ̃p/

• Audio:

  (file)

lump m (plural lumps)

1. lumpfish

   œufs de lump ― lumpfish eggs

• “lump”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• “lump”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From German Lump.^[1][2]

• IPA^(key): [ˈlump]
• Hyphenation: lump
• Rhymes: -ump

lump (comparative lumpabb, superlative leglumpabb)

1. rakish, dissolute, debauched (regularly engaging in late night drunken social gatherings)

   Synonyms: korhely, mulatós, kicsapongó, italos, részeges

• lumpol

lump (plural lumpok)

1. (colloquial, derogatory, chiefly of a man) rascal, carouser, roisterer, raver, drunkard (a person who regularly attends late night drunken social gatherings)

• lump in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

• IPA^(key): /ˈlump/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ump
• Syllabification: lump

Borrowed from German Lump.

lump m pers

1. (colloquial, derogatory) good-for-nothing, ne'er-do-well

   Synonyms: lumpiarz, menel, nurek

Borrowed from German Lumpen.

lump m inan

1. (colloquial, derogatory) piece of clothing

   Synonyms: łach, łachman, szmata

Clipping of lumpeks.

lump m inan

1. (colloquial, often derogatory) thrift shop (store that sells second-hand clothing)

   Synonyms: ciuchland, ciucholand, ciuszek, dziadownia, lumpeks, second hand, szmaciak, szmateks

• lump in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• lump in Polish dictionaries at PWN