Dumdum
name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A soft-nosed bullet that expands on impact to cause a gaping wound.
"He related to us how the savages make bullets from the heart of a very hard wood cured by a special process. These bullets are only effectual when fired from a short range, and when they lodge in the flesh they explode like dumdum bullets."
- 2 An ignorant person; an idiot. childish, endearing
- 3 a soft-nosed small-arms bullet that expands when it hits a target and causes a gaping wound wordnet
- 1 Alternative form of Dum Dum (“Indian city”). alt-of, alternative
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"He related to us how the savages make bullets from the heart of a very hard wood cured by a special process. These bullets are only effectual when fired from a short range, and when they lodge in the flesh they explode like dumdum bullets."
Etymology
From Dum Dum, a city in India where the type of bullet was developed, from Hindi दम दम (dam dam) (Bengali দমদম (domodom)), from Hindi दमदमा (damadmā, “tenaille, a raised mound or battery”).
A reduplication of the adjective dumb, spelled in a "dumb" way (eye dialect).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.