rump

From Middle English rumpe, from Old Norse rumpr (“rump”), from Middle Low German rump (“the bulk or trunk of a body, trunk of a tree”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *rumpō (“trunk of a tree, log”). The ultimate origin could be related to Proto-Germanic *hrimpaną (“to wrinkle”) (Dutch rimpel and German rümpfen (“to wrinkle”)); outside of Germanic, compare Ancient Greek ῥάμφος (rhámphos, “crooked beak”).^[1]

Cognate with Icelandic rumpur (“rump”), Swedish rumpa (“rump”), Dutch romp (“trunk, body, hull”), German Rumpf (“hull, trunk, torso, trunk”).

In the sense of remnant, first attested in the Rump Parliament of 1648; its original meaning here was a reference to the rotten, unclean hindquarters of an animal, gradually morphing to refer to the "remnant" aspect of the Parliament rather than its perceived unsavory nature.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹʌmp/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmp

rump (plural rumps)

1. The hindquarters of a four-legged mammal, not including its legs
2. A cut of meat from the rump of an animal.
3. The buttocks.
4. A remnant, as in Rump Parliament.
   • 1960 December, “Talking of Trains: Branch report”, in Trains Illustrated, page 708:

     This is the rump of the C.L.C. branch to Southport Lord Street, which lost its passenger services beyond Aintree from January 7, 1952, whereupon the timetable between Gateacre and Aintree was greatly curtailed.

• (hindquarters of an animal): croupe, crupper
• (cut of meat from the hindquarters of an animal): round
• see Thesaurus:buttocks

rump (third-person singular simple present rumps, present participle rumping, simple past and past participle rumped)

1. (transitive) To turn one's back on, to show one's (clothed) backside to, as a sign of disrespect.
   • 1839, The Corsair, page 173:

     And when they succeeded in forcing themselves back upon the King, who loathed them, and had rumped them, they put the Great Seal into Commission, and omitted Lord Brougham's name in the list of the Cabinet.

   • 1850, Erskine Neale, The life of ... Edward, duke of Kent, page 196:

     Soon afterwards, meeting the lecturer, whom he had been previously in the habit of greeting with great courtesy, the Duke looked him fairly down, and then rumped him without mercy.

   • 2006, Hannah Smith, Georgian Monarchy: Politics and Culture, 1714-1760, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 219:

     When Lord Carteret and the Earl of Sunderland went to court in 1734 to pay their respects after the marriage of Carteret's daughter to Sunderland's brother, John Spencer, MP, the king turned his back upon them ('rumped' them […] ).

   • 2010, Tim Clayton, Tars, Hodder, →ISBN:

     Next day he walked to St James's Palace to be presented to his godfather, the famously rude King George II, who 'rumped' him (turned his back on him) without a word. Hervey's successes at sea had not dispelled the displeasure caused by ...

2. (somewhat vulgar, slang) To fuck. (Compare bum (verb).)
   • 2014, Tom Hill, Swords of El Cid: “Rodrigo! May God curse him!”, Andrews UK Limited, →ISBN:

     Rodrigo had also set eyes on a woman at court but I doubt he was rumping her in the hay, like I was with Maria. In Rodrigo's case, it was more a sort of teenager fascination of the unobtainable.

   • 2014, John Barker, Futures: A Novel, PM Press, →ISBN, page 15:

     In fact I have to stop thinking about it. Because that would mean all those times I was rumping her she was only pretending. Not just faking orgasms like they can, but pretending through and through and that's a thought can make me a bit dizzy.

   • 2017, Steve Jones, Lonely Boy: Tales from a Sex Pistol, Da Capo Press, →ISBN:

     Well, sort of rumping her. I had my cock pushed in between her legs, but I'm not sure if there was time to get fully inside her before I fucking shot my load. Still, it definitely counted. Or at least, it did as far as I was concerned.

3. (UK, slang) To cheat.
   • 2007, Peter Gerrard, The Guvnor Tapes - Lenny McLean's Unpublished Stories, As Told By The Man Himself, Kings Road Publishing, →ISBN:

     Seems this Stevie had a score to settle with some guy that had rumped him over a bundle of traveller's cheques and he thought by telling me this guy was the one that shot me I'd find him and kill him stone dead; […]

   • 2013, Horace Silver, Judas Pig, Lulu Press, Inc, →ISBN:

     They'd been rumped out of half a kilo of charlie by a toeraf of a crack-head called Mad Mickey D from Bermondsey. And after he rumped them he was going round telling everybody that the Arifs were total fucking mugs. So they called him out for a drink one night, palled him up and then proceeded to get him paralytic.

4. To ramble; to move (or talk) aimlessly.
   • 1942, Pennsylvania. General Assembly. House of Representatives, Journal:

     […] Mr. Turner. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Allegheny has been rumping around for several minutes and I think I ought to have a chance to rump a little bit.

   • 1971, Black Review:

     SEIGISMUNDO If she hadn't gone rumping around the world. Rubbing up on this and that man for her sport.
     PRIVIE She only rubbed on one man.
     SEIGISMUNDO That was one too many.

   • 1991, Dorothy Wooldridge Person, Personotes:

     I started to drive the cows into the barn, the buck was rumping around with the young stock so I couldn't get the cows in the barn. I tried to chase the buck away and Presto! first thing I knew he gave me an awful bump.

   • 2012, William J. Smith, The Curse of Deadman's Bluff, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 338:

     ... comforted in the notion that, because Deborah and I were around, sleeping right beside her, she was now totally safe from the marauding, renegade walking corpses that were rumping around the country-side, feasting on the living, ...

5. To move (someone or something) around.
   • 1957, The Saturday Evening Post Stories:

     Barney rumped him out to the step, but the kid hung onto the door. Wind roared into the cab. Cold. Slicing up Barney's trouser's legs, pressing his shirt. The rig's heavy treads machinegunned the pavement.

   • 1983, Susan Arnout, Susan Arnout Smith, The Frozen Lady, Arbor House Publishing Company, →ISBN:

     So he held Jody and she drank half and then he rumped her up on his shoulder and patted her, the way his mom did.

• “rump”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

• MURP

From Old Norse rumpr (“rump”), from Middle Low German rump (“the bulk or trunk of a body, trunk of a tree”), from Proto-Germanic *rumpō (“trunk of a tree, log”). The ultimate origin could be related to Proto-Germanic *hrimpaną (“to wrinkle”) (Dutch rimpel and German rümpfen (“to wrinkle”)); outside of Germanic, compare Ancient Greek ῥάμφος (rhámphos, “crooked beak”).

• IPA^(key):

rump (plural rumps)

1. (anatomy) rump
2. a topside beef cut

• rump an stump (“completely, wholly, in its entirety”)
• rumple (“rump, tail, haunches, buttocks, seat”)

rump (third-person singular simple present rumps, present participle rumpin, simple past rumpit, past participle rumpit)

1. to plunder, clean out of money
2. (colloquial, humorous) Sexual intercourse.

• rumpy-pumpy, rumpie-pumpie