lump

Meaning

Noun

1. Something that protrudes, sticks out, or sticks together; a cluster or blob; a mound or mass of no particular shape.
2. A swelling or nodule of tissue under the skin or in an internal part of the body.
3. A group, set, or unit.
4. A small, shaped mass of sugar, typically about a teaspoonful.
5. A dull or lazy person.
6. A fat person.
7. (informal) A beating or verbal abuse.
8. A projection beneath the breech end of a gun barrel.
9. A kind of fish, the lumpsucker.
10. (obsolete, slang) Food given to a tramp to be eaten on the road.
11. (obsolete, slang) The workhouse.

Verb

1. (transitive) To treat as a single unit; to group together in a casual or chaotic manner (as if forming an ill-defined lump of the items).
2. (transitive) To bear (a heavy or awkward burden); to carry (something unwieldy) from one place to another.
3. (transitive) To burden (someone) with an undesired task or responsibility.
4. (slang, transitive) To hit or strike (a person).
5. (intransitive) To form a lump or lumps.

Synonyms

bump

clod

mass

piece

swelling

chunk

protuberance

bit

ball

knot

🪢

clump

knob

clot

bulge

slice

heap

wen

tumor

hump

gob

cluster

loaf

gnarl

part

bunch

tuber

gobbet

snowball

fragment

pimple

block

total

flake

aggregate

node

welt

boil

excrescence

pile

nub

blob

outgrowth

glob

hunk

portion

multitude

mass-together

mound

nipple

bar

Translations

boule

Klumpen

Beule

morceau

bloc

trozo

zolla

motte

klont

🅰️

knobbel

Kloß

grumo

bosse

Schwellung

Knolle

💡

Pronounced as (IPA)

/lʌmp/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: lumpe

Cognate with Dutch: lomp

Cognate with German: Lumpen

In summary

From Middle English lumpe, from a Germanic base akin to Proto-Germanic *limpaną (“to glide, go, hang loosely”). Compare Dutch lomp (“rag”), German Low German Lump (“rag”), German Lumpen (“rag”) and Lump (“ragamuffin”).