What does "slump" mean?
A heavy or helpless collapse; a slouching or drooping posture; a period of poor activity or performance, especially an extended period.
Slump
/slʌmp/ noun, verb, slang
noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A heavy or helpless collapse; a slouching or drooping posture; a period of poor activity or performance, especially an extended period.
- Grammar: slump is listed as noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: arrear, arrearage, arrears, avalanches.
- Useful contrasts: more danish frisk, advance, attitude.
- Usage evidence: The stock market is in a prolonged slump.
How to use "slump"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "slump" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "slump" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "slump" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "slump" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "slump" is acting as noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "arrear" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "slump", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A heavy or helpless collapse; a slouching or drooping posture; a period of poor activity or performance, especially an extended period.
- 2 a noticeable deterioration in performance or quality wordnet
- 3 A heavy or helpless collapse; a slouching or drooping posture; a period of poor activity or performance, especially an extended period.; A period when a person goes without the expected amount of sex or dating. broadly, slang
"TOM. We haven't had sex with each other in five months. MICHAEL. We're in a slump, I know that.""
- 4 a long-term economic state characterized by unemployment and low prices and low levels of trade and investment wordnet
- 5 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.
Show 6 more definitions
- 6 A form of mass wasting in which a coherent mass of loosely consolidated materials or a rock layer moves a short distance down a slope.
- 7 A crater or depression (an area where the ground slumps) which forms as a result of such wasting. (A large crater is colloquially called a megaslump.) broadly
"The biggest slump in the world - a mega-slump - is in the Russian taiga. Known as the Batagaika crater, it is a kilometre-long gash in the ground, about 70 metres deep, and growing[…]"
- 8 A boggy place. UK, dialectal
"The road was all slumps of holes."
- 9 The noise made by anything falling into a hole, or into a soft, miry place. Scotland
- 10 The gross amount; the mass; the lump. Scotland
- 11 A cobbler-like dessert cooked on a stove.
"a blackberry slump"
Verb
- 1 To collapse heavily or helplessly. intransitive
"Exhausted, he slumped down onto the sofa."
- 2 fall heavily or suddenly; decline markedly wordnet
- 3 To decline or fall off in activity or performance. intransitive
"Real estate prices slumped during the recession."
- 4 fall in value wordnet
- 5 To slouch or droop. intransitive
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 fall or sink heavily wordnet
- 7 To lump; to throw together messily. transitive
"These different groups[…]are exclusively slumped together under that sense."
- 8 assume a drooping posture or carriage wordnet
- 9 To fall or sink suddenly through or in, when walking on a surface, as on thawing snow or ice, a bog, etc.
"The latter walk on a bottomless quag, into which unawares they may slump."
- 10 To cause to collapse; to hit hard; to render unconscious; to kill. slang, transitive
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
"The stock market is in a prolonged slump."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "slump"?
Common synonyms include: arrear, arrearage, arrears, avalanches, bad times, be found wanting.
How do you use "slump" in a sentence?
The stock market is in a prolonged slump.
How do you pronounce "slump"?
Pronounced /slʌmp/.
Etymology
Probably of North Germanic origin: compare Danish slumpe (“to stumble upon by chance”), Norwegian slumpe (“happen by chance”), Norwegian slumpa (“happen by chance”), Swedish slumpa (“randomize; to sell off”), Swedish slump (“chance, randomness, happenstance”). Compare also German schlumpen (“to trail; draggle; be sloppy”), dialectal Dutch slompen (“to walk clumsily”).