Clump
noun, verb ·Very common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 A cluster or lump; an unshaped piece or mass.
- 2 a heavy dull sound (as made by impact of heavy objects) wordnet
- 3 A thick group or bunch, especially of bushes or hair.
"clump of trees"
- 4 a grouping of a number of similar things wordnet
- 5 A dull thud.
"She [Miss Climpson] asks questions which a young man could not put without a blush. She is the angel that rushes in where fools get a clump on the head."
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- 6 a compact mass wordnet
- 7 The compressed clay of coal strata.
"clump-burned bricks"
- 8 A small group of trees or plants.
- 9 A thick addition to the sole of a shoe. historical
- 1 To form clusters or lumps. ambitransitive
- 2 gather or cause to gather into a cluster wordnet
- 3 To gather in dense groups. ambitransitive
- 4 walk clumsily wordnet
- 5 To walk with heavy footfalls. intransitive
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- 6 come together as in a cluster or flock wordnet
- 7 To strike; to beat. UK, regional, transitive
"There is his poor little cap hanging up on the door; and there on the table is the knife he chipped a piece out of through not minding the mark on the knife machine, and I clumped his head for him, poor lamb!"
- 8 make or move along with a sound as of a horse's hooves striking the ground wordnet
Example
More examples"At the top, there was a clump of trees."
Etymology
From Middle English clompe, from Old English clymppe, a variant of clympre (“a lump or mass of metal”), from Proto-Germanic *klumpô (“mass, lump, clump; clasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *glembʰ- (“lump, clamp”). Alternatively, possibly from Middle Dutch clompe or Middle Low German klumpe (compare German Klumpen). Doublet of klomp. Cognates include Danish klump (probably from Low German as well). Compare Norwegian Bokmål klump.