dumpling

Meaning

1. (UK) A ball of dough that is cooked and may have a filling and/or additional ingredients in the dough.
2. (US) A ball of dough that is cooked and may have a filling and/or additional ingredients in the dough.
3. (endearing) A term of endearment.
4. (mildly, vulgar) A piece of excrement.

Synonyms

dumplings

meatball

duff

ear

👂

lump

meal

patty

pie

🥧

quiche

sinker

turnover

plump person

cook

🧑‍🍳

mantou

doughboy

Translations

Knödel

🥟

Kloß

albóndiga

quenelle

🥟

boulette

knoedel

🥟

chou

ravioli

Klops

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈdʌmp.lɪŋ/

Etymology

A folk word, first attested in c. 1600s, apparently from a Norfolk (East Anglian) dialect, of uncertain origin:
* perhaps from some Low German word (compare dümpeln (“bobbing up and down”)),
* or from the rare dialectal adjective dump (“lump, of the consistency of dough”) (first attested in the late 1800s), + -ling (diminutive suffix), although dumpling is recorded much earlier. However, compare dumpy (“short and stout”).