Bummock
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A brewing of ale. Scotland, obsolete
- 2 A submerged, downward-projecting piece of ice.
"Q. Are there not October gales which often separate the bummocks of ice and allow ships to pass on! - A. Decidedly. I do not know what the direction of the wind was at the time, but if the wind was going from the land, then he would[…]"
Example
More examples"Q. Are there not October gales which often separate the bummocks of ice and allow ships to pass on! - A. Decidedly. I do not know what the direction of the wind was at the time, but if the wind was going from the land, then he would[…]"
Etymology
For the sense relating to alcohol: from or cognate to Scots bummock (“a brewing of drink; the liquor so brewed”), perhaps from Scots bummie, bummo, a vessel for holding liquid, itself perhaps from Old Norse, compare Icelandic bumba (“drum”). For the sense relating to ice, perhaps compare how keel can mean either a similar ice structure or a brewer's vat.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.