Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A blow, as with a blunt object.
- noun A muffled sound, as that produced by beating with a blunt object; a thud.
- intransitive verb To beat so as to produce a thump or thumps.
- intransitive verb To move or cause to strike with a thump or thumps.
- intransitive verb Informal To defeat soundly; drub.
- intransitive verb To hit or fall in such a way as to produce a thump or thumps.
- intransitive verb To move or collide with a thump or thumps.
- intransitive verb To beat or throb audibly.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun plural Beating of the chest in horses due to spasmodic contractions of the diaphragm. It is similar to hiccough in man.
- noun 3. In machinery, the dull sound caused by lost motion at some joint where the stress is alternately in one direction and another, and the hole is slightly larger than the pin from wear or mal-adjustment.
- To beat heavily, or with something thick and heavy.
- To produce by a heavy blow or beating.
- To beat; give a thump or blow.
- noun A heavy blow, or the sound made by such a blow; a blow with a club, the fist, or anything that gives a thick, heavy sound; a bang: as, to give one a thump.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The sound made by the sudden fall or blow of a heavy body, as of a hammer, or the like.
- noun A blow or knock, as with something blunt or heavy; a heavy fall.
- transitive verb To strike or beat with something thick or heavy, or so as to cause a dull sound.
- intransitive verb To give a thump or thumps; to strike or fall with a heavy blow; to pound.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun a
blow that produces amuffled sound - noun the sound of such a blow; a
thud - verb transitive to
hit (someone or something) as if to make athump - verb intransitive to
thud orpound - verb intransitive to
throb with a muffledrhythmic sound
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb hit hard with the hand, fist, or some heavy instrument
- noun a heavy dull sound (as made by impact of heavy objects)
- noun a heavy blow with the hand
- verb move rhythmically
- verb make a dull sound
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word thump.
Examples
-
Elli makes it three steps down the stairs before tripping on herself and proceeds to * thump thump thump* stair by stair, on her face, all the way down to the landing.
tight grip, determined not to let time slip savemyseoul 2008
-
_Thump -- thump -- thump_ -- Dane beat it out frantically, belaboring the drum head as he wanted to sink his fists home on the body of the
Voodoo Planet Andre Norton 1958
-
'_Thump -- thump -- thump_,' which is a rabbit telegram for 'Get out of my swamp, or fight.'
Lobo, Rag and Vixen Being The Personal Histories Of Lobo, Redruff, Raggylug & Vixen Ernest Thompson Seton 1903
-
The new-comer made a big V with his ears, sat upright for a few seconds, then, dropping on his fore-feet, sent along the ground a louder, stronger, '_Thump -- thump -- thump_.'
Lobo, Rag and Vixen Being The Personal Histories Of Lobo, Redruff, Raggylug & Vixen Ernest Thompson Seton 1903
-
_Thump, thump, thump_! went Roy's heart as these thoughts rushed through his brain.
The Young Castellan A Tale of the English Civil War George Manville Fenn 1870
-
Sunday evening, GF and I heard the * SNAP thump thump thump* of a rat getting caught in one of the traps left by the exterminator some months ago.
MetaChat mudpuppie 2008
-
'danger;' and a very fast _thump thump thump_ means 'run for dear life.'
Lobo, Rag and Vixen Being The Personal Histories Of Lobo, Redruff, Raggylug & Vixen Ernest Thompson Seton 1903
-
a shameful thing to clear those pears from the tree in that way, and then I grew furious, for one whispered something to the other, and the tree being stripped was shaken, and then _thump, thump, thump_, one after another the beautiful fruit fell.
Brownsmith's Boy A Romance in a Garden George Manville Fenn 1870
-
And it’s true – that silence after the thump is the longest period of time in a parent’s life.
-
And it's true - that silence after the thump is the longest period of time in a parent's life.
Heart, Dropped. 2007
natalie_portmanteaux commented on the word thump
Thump, a portmanteau of thud and bump.
December 25, 2020