lump

From Middle English lumpe. Compare Dutch lomp (“rag”), German Lumpen (“rag”) and Lump (“ragamuffin”)

• IPA^(key): /lʌmp/

• Audio (US)

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• 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 group, set, or unit.

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

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

   Do you want one lump or two with your coffee?

4. A dull or lazy person.

   Don't just sit there like a lump.

5. (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.

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

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

• nubble

• lump in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• lump in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

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

1. To treat as a single unit; to group together in a casual or chaotic manner.

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

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

     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.

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

• Plum, plum

From German Lump.

lump m

1. scoundrel, rascal

• See also darebák

• ničemný

• lump in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• lump in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

From German Lump.

• IPA^(key): /lump/

lump m pers

1. (colloquial, derogatory) ne'er-do-well
2. (Poznań dialectal) clothing
3. (colloquial) a shortened form of lumpeks