dump

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dʌmp/,

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmp

Etymology 1

From Middle English dumpen, dompen, probably from Old Norse dumpa (“to thump”) (whence Danish dumpe (“to fall suddenly”)), of uncertain origin, possibly imitative of falling, similar to thump.

Noun

dump (plural dumps)

1. A place where waste or garbage is left; a ground or place for dumping ashes, refuse, etc.; a disposal site.

   A toxic waste dump.

2. A car or boat for dumping refuse, etc.
3. That which is dumped, especially in a chaotic way; a mess.
4. (computing) An act of dumping, or its result.

   The new XML dump is coming soon.

5. (computing) A formatted listing of the contents of program storage, especially when produced automatically by a failing program.
6. A storage place for supplies, especially military.
7. (slang) An unpleasant, dirty, disreputable, unfashionable, boring, or depressing looking place.

   This place looks like a dump.

   Don't feel bad about moving away from this dump.

8. (slang, often with the verb "take", euphemistic) An act of defecation; a defecating.

   I have to take a dump.

9. (usually in the plural) A sad, gloomy state of the mind; sadness; melancholy; despondency.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     […] doleful dumps the mind oppress […]

   • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: , London: Nath Ponder , →OCLC; reprinted in The Pilgrim’s Progress (The Noel Douglas Replicas), London: Noel Douglas, , 1928, →OCLC:

     […] I was musing in the midst of my dumps […]

   • 1663, [Samuel Butler], “The Second Part of Hudibras”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. , London: John Martyn and Henry Herringman, , published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 228:

     March slowly on in solemn dump […]

10. Absence of mind; reverie.
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      a. 1705, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: , London: A and J Churchill, , published 1706, →OCLC, § 45, page 125:

      They see not what passes before their eyes; hear not the audible discourse of the company; and when by any strong application to them they are roused a little, they are like men brought to themselves from some remote region […] . The shame that such dumps cause to well-bred people, when it carries them away from the company, where they should bear a part of the conversation, is a sufficient argument that it is a fault in the conduct of our understanding, not to have that power over it as to make use of it to those purposes, and on those occasions, wherein we have need of its assistance.

11. (mining) A pile of ore or rock.
12. (obsolete) A melancholy strain or tune in music; any tune.
    • c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

      Tune a deploring dump […]

    • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

      O, play me some merry dump to comfort me.

13. (obsolete) An old kind of dance.
14. (historical, Australia, Canada) A small coin made by punching a hole in a larger coin (called a holey dollar).
    • 2002, Paul Swan, Maths Investigations, page 66:

      Basically, to overcome an acute shortage of money in 1813, Governor Lachlan Macquarie bought silver dollars from Spain and then punched the centres out, thereby producing two coins - the ‘holey dollar’ (worth five shillings) and the ‘dump’ (worth one shilling and threepence). Talk about creating money out of nothing—the original silver dollar only cost five shillings! The holey dollar and the dump have been adopted as the symbol for the Macquarie Bank in Australia.

15. (marketing) A temporary display case that holds many copies of an item being sold.
    • 1958, Milton Alexander, Display ideas for super markets, page 211:

      The back of this display is constructed of a double row of cans which are interlocking. The double row is significant because it provides a source of stock to replenish the dump which will be located in the base of the stand.

    • 1959, Agenda: Co-operative Management Magazine - Volumes 7-8, page 68:

      Mass displays to move goods in bulk are dotted here and there throughout the store, particularly at the ends of the gondolas, and considerable use is made of dump displays.

    • 1985, Product Marketing for Beauty Industry Retailers & Manufacturers:

      Although they may have a lot of clutter in promotional cardboard dump displays, that factor is likely to change.

    • 1996, Anne Rice, Michael Riley, Interview with Anne Rice, page 76:

      I remember that Bill made a little cardboard dump, with boots and a whip, for the bookstore displays, and the people in the chain stores were so outraged by this dump they threw it in the trash.

Coordinate terms

• (act of defecation): leak

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• (obsolete Australian coin): holey dollar

References

Verb

dump (third-person singular simple present dumps, present participle dumping, simple past and past participle dumped)

1. (transitive) To release, especially in large quantities and chaotic manner.
2. (transitive) To discard; to get rid of something one no longer wants.
   • 2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

     The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. […] It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber. Other liquids produced in the refining process, too unstable or smoky for lamplight, were burned or dumped.

3. (transitive) To sell below cost or very cheaply; to engage in dumping.
4. (transitive, computing) To copy (data) from a system to another place or system, usually in order to archive it.

   to dump the ROM from a rare Nintendo game cartridge

5. (transitive, computing) To output the contents of storage or a data structure, often in order to diagnose a bug.
6. (transitive, informal) To end a romantic relationship with.

   Sarah dumped Nelson after finding out he was cheating on her.

7. (transitive, obsolete, Scotland) To knock heavily; to stump.
8. (transitive) To put or throw down with more or less of violence; hence, to unload from a cart by tilting it

   We dumped the coal onto the fireplace.

9. (transitive, US) To precipitate (especially snow) heavily.
10. (transitive, Australia) Of a surf wave, to crash a swimmer, surfer, etc., heavily downwards.
    • 1980, Ian Chappell, Chappelli has the last laugh, page 39:

      Blowing like a grampus from every orifice, I leaned on a passing wave which dumped me[.]

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:junk

Derived terms

Descendants

• → French: domper

Translations

Etymology 2

See dumpling.

Noun

dump (plural dumps)

1. (UK, archaic) A thick, ill-shapen piece.
2. (UK, archaic) A lead counter used in the game of chuck-farthing.
   • 1825, William Hone, The Every Day Book:

     The capons were leaden representations of cocks and hens pitched at by leaden dumps.

Etymology 3

Cognate with Scots dump (“hole in the ground”), Norwegian dump (“a depression or hole in the ground”), German Low German dumpen (“to submerge”), Dutch dompen (“to dip, sink, submerge”).

Noun

dump (plural dumps)

1. (Northern England) A deep hole in a river bed; a pool.

Related terms

• dimple
• dip

Chinese

Etymology

Romanisation of 揼 (dam²), influenced by spelling of English dump. Not related to English dump semantically.

Pronunciation

Verb

dump

1. (Cantonese) to discard; to dump
   • 2017 December 24, “【Chill人生活】聖誕燈飾、倒數、禮物 邊樣最無謂？”, in Apple Daily‎, archived from the original on 2021-06-21:

     Cherry指自己收過吹氣Mary，「淘寶訂嗰啲，明明個頭吹脹咗個頭都係咁跌落嚟，我落到樓下見到垃圾桶即刻dump咗佢。」 [Hong Kong Cantonese, trad.]
     Cherry指自己收过吹气Mary，「淘宝订嗰啲，明明个头吹胀咗个头都系咁跌落嚟，我落到楼下见到垃圾桶即刻dump咗佢。」 [Hong Kong Cantonese, simp.]

     Cherry zi² zi⁶ gei² sau¹ gwo³ ceoi¹ hei³ Mary, “tou⁴ bou² deng⁶ go² di¹, ming⁴ ming⁴ go³ tau⁴ ceoi¹ zoeng³ zo² go³ tau⁴ dou¹ hai⁶ gam² dit³ lok⁶ lai⁴, ngo⁵ lok⁶ dou³ lau⁴ haa⁶ gin³ dou^3-2 laap⁶ saap³ tung² zik¹ kaak¹ dam² zo² keoi⁵.”

     Cherry said she has received an inflatable sex doll before. “The ones you get on Taobao, the head keeps falling off even it has been inflated. I threw it away once I got downstairs and saw a rubbish bin”

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

dump

1. inflection of dumpen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From German dumpf.

Adjective

dump (neuter singular dumpt, definite singular and plural dumpe)

1. dull (pain also), hollow, muffled (of a sound)

Etymology 2

Possibly related to dyp

Noun

dump f or m (definite singular dumpa or dumpen, indefinite plural dumper, definite plural dumpene)

1. a dip, hollow, depression, bump (hole in the road)

Derived terms

• fartsdump

Etymology 3

From the verb dumpe.

Noun

dump n (definite singular dumpet, indefinite plural dump, definite plural dumpa or dumpene)

1. a thud (dull sound)

References

• “dump” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “dump_1” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “dump_3” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “dump_4” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

From German dumpf.

Adjective

dump (neuter singular dumpt, definite singular and plural dumpe)

1. dull (pain also), hollow, muffled (of a sound)

Etymology 2

Possibly related to djup

Noun

dump m (definite singular dumpen, indefinite plural dumpar, definite plural dumpane)
dump f (definite singular dumpa, indefinite plural dumper, definite plural dumpene)

1. a dip, hollow, depression, bump (hole in the road)

Derived terms

• fartsdump

Etymology 3

From the verb dumpe.

Noun

dump n (definite singular dumpet, indefinite plural dump, definite plural dumpa)

1. a thud (dull sound)

References

• “dump” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.