Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Dumpish; sad; sulky.
  • Short and thick; squat.
  • noun A specimen of a breed of the domestic hen in which the bones of the legs are remarkably short. Also called creeper.
  • noun Same as dumpy-level.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Short and thick; of low stature and disproportionately stout.
  • adjective Prov. Eng. Sullen or discontented. See 2nd dump{1}.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective short and thick; stout or stocky
  • noun South Africa A small bottle of beer.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective short and plump
  • adjective short and thick; as e.g. having short legs and heavy musculature
  • adjective resembling a garbage dump

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word dumpy.

Examples

  • This kind of thing was imitated all over Southern California on half-million dollar homes in dumpy neighborhoods with nobody being caught because the losses from fraud were too spread out for anybody to bother burning any shoe leather to check them out.

    VDARE.com: Blog Articles » Print » The California Disconnection 2008

  • This kind of thing was imitated all over Southern California on half-million dollar homes in dumpy neighborhoods with nobody being caught because the losses from fraud were too spread out for anybody to bother burning any shoe leather to check them out.

    Anti-Goldman-Sachsism, the Führer Principle, and Other Delusions of Crowds 2008

  • This kind of thing was imitated all over Southern California on half-million dollar homes in dumpy neighborhoods with nobody being caught because the losses from fraud were too spread out for anybody to bother burning any shoe leather to check them out.

    The California Disconnection 2008

  • Also they are really gouged for rent by other less recent immigrants and they are forced to live in dumpy overcrowded apts: the landlords tell them it is against the law to have so many people in a 2 bedroom apt, BUT if they pay more, it is OK.

    Oaxaca and My Children 2004

  • At daybreak yesterday we were steaming up a branch of the great Me-kong river in Cochin China, a muddy stream, densely fringed by the nipah palm, whose dark green fronds, ten and twelve feet long, look as if they grew out of the ground, so dumpy is its stem.

    The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither Isabella Lucy 1883

  • Arthur was about sixteen years old, we have said, when he began to reign; in person (for I see that the artist who is to illustrate this book, and who makes sad work of the likeness, will never be able to take my friend off) he had what his friends would call a dumpy, but his mamma styled a neat little figure.

    The History of Pendennis 2006

  • My Thomas is an angel! not a tall grenadier-like looking fellow, such as I always vowed I would marry: — on the contrary, he is what the world would call dumpy, and I hesitate not to confess, that his eyes have a cast in them.

    The Fatal Boots 2006

  • Arthur was about sixteen years old, we have said, when he began to reign; in person (for I see that the artist who is to illustrate this book, and who makes sad work of the likeness, will never be able to take my friend off) he had what his friends would call a dumpy, but his mamma styled a neat little figure.

    The History of Pendennis William Makepeace Thackeray 1837

  • My Thomas is an angel! not a tall grenadier-like looking fellow, such as I always vowed I would marry: -- on the contrary, he is what the world would call dumpy, and I hesitate not to confess, that his eyes have a cast in them.

    The Fatal Boots William Makepeace Thackeray 1837

  • for a blog that is so sympathetic to sexual orientation, you ought to give MA the same consideration and not call her dumpy looking.

    Condi or Hillary? Which woman nailed Secretary-of-State-wear? Ann Althouse 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Tall people, short people,

    Thin people, fat,

    Lady so dainty

    Wearing a hat,

    Straight people, dumpy people,

    Man dressed in brown;

    Baby in a buggy -

    These make a town.

    - Lois Lenski, 'People'.

    November 16, 2008

  • WeirdNet #1 is new to me (and the O.E.D.), although the American Heritage Dictionary lists it at #2.

    April 12, 2009