slump

Probably of North Germanic origin: compare Danish slumpe (“to stumble upon by chance”), Norwegian slumpe (“happen by chance”), Swedish slumpa (“to sell off”). Compare also German schlumpen (“to trail; draggle; be sloppy”).

• Rhymes: -ʌmp

slump (third-person singular simple present slumps, present participle slumping, simple past and past participle slumped)

1. (intransitive) To collapse heavily or helplessly.

   Exhausted, he slumped down onto the sofa.

   • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326:

     “Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better. […]”

2. (intransitive) To decline or fall off in activity or performance.

   Real estate prices slumped during the recession.

   • 2011 October 29, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 3-5 Arsenal”, in BBC Sport:

     The Gunners captain demonstrated his importance to the team by taking his tally to an outstanding 28 goals in 27 Premier League games as Chelsea slumped again after their shock defeat at QPR last week.

3. (intransitive) To slouch or droop.
4. (transitive) To lump; to throw together messily.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Sir William Hamilton

     These different groups […] are exclusively slumped together under that sense.

5. To fall or sink suddenly through or in, when walking on a surface, as on thawing snow or ice, a bog, etc.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Isaac Barrow

     The latter walk on a bottomless quag, into which unawares they may slump.

slump (plural slumps)

1. A heavy or helpless collapse; a slouching or drooping posture; a period of poor activity or performance, especially an extended period.
   1. (slang, by extension) A period when a person goes without the expected amount of sex or dating.
      • 2004, Jonathan Tolins, The Last Sunday in June

        TOM. We haven't had sex with each other in five months.

        MICHAEL. We're in a slump, I know that."

2. A measure of the fluidity of freshly mixed concrete, based on how much the concrete formed in a standard slump cone sags when the cone is removed.
3. (Scotland, Britain, dialectal) A boggy place.
4. (Scotland) The noise made by anything falling into a hole, or into a soft, miry place.
5. (Scotland) The gross amount; the mass; the lump.

• slumplike

• Plums, lumps, plums

From the verb slumpa.

• IPA^(key): /slʊmp/

slump m (definite singular slumpen, indefinite plural slumpar, definite plural slumpane)

1. random event, chance, happenstance

   Eg valde han ut på slump.

   I picked it randomly.

2. a good amount, quite a bit

   Eg vann ein god slump pengar i går.

   I won quite a bit of money yesterday.

slump

1. imperative of slumpa

• “slump” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

slump m (plural slumps)

1. slump (decline)

• audio

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slump c

1. chance, happenstance

• slumpartikel

• slumpvariabel
• slumpa