Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A rounded mass or protuberance, such as the fleshy structure on the back of a camel or of some cattle.
- n. A deformity of the back in humans caused by an abnormal convex curvature of the upper spine.
- n. Vulgar Slang The act or an instance of having sexual intercourse.
- n. A low mound of earth; a hummock.
- n. A mountain range.
- n. Chiefly British A fit of depression; an emotional slump.
- v. To bend or round into a hump; arch.
- v. Slang To exert (oneself).
- v. Slang To carry, especially on the back.
- v. Vulgar Slang To engage in sexual intercourse with.
- v. Slang To exert oneself.
- v. Slang To hurry.
- v. Vulgar Slang To engage in sexual intercourse.
- idiom. over the hump Past the worst or most difficult part or stage: At last I'm over the hump on my term paper.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A protuberance; a swelling.
- n. Especially— A hunch or protuberance on the back, caused by an abnormal curvature of the spine, or by natural growth: as, a man with a hump; a camel with two humps; the hump on the back of a whale.
- n. In entomology, a projection on the back of a larva, formed by an upward enlargement of a whole segment, which is then said to be humped. Projections of this kind are very common in the larvæ of the Lepidoptera.
- To bend or hunch so as to form a hump, as the back in some kinds of labor, like that of a miner or ditcher, or as cattle in cold or stormy weather.
- To prepare for a great effort; gather (one's self) together; hurry; exert (one's self): as, hump yourself now.
- To huff; vex.
- In cutlery, to round off, as scissors.
- To use great exertion; put forth effort.
- n. A sailors' name for a worthless member of the crew; a green hand.
- n. A long tramp with a load on the back.
Wiktionary
- n. A mound of earth.
- n. A rounded mass, especially a fleshy mass such as on a camel.
- n. A deformity in humans caused by abnormal curvature of the upper spine.
- n. UK, slang An act of sexual intercourse.
- n. slang, UK A bad mood, especially in the expression to have the hump.
- n. slang A painfully boorish person.
- v. transitive To bend something into a hump.
- v. transitive, slang To carry something, especially with some exertion.
- v. intransitive, slang To carry, especially with some exertion.
- v. transitive, intransitive To dry-hump.
- v. transitive, slang To have sex with.
- v. intransitive, slang To have sex.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A protuberance; especially, the protuberance formed by a crooked back.
- n. (Zoöl.) A fleshy protuberance on the back of an animal, as a camel or whale.
- n. (Railroad) a portion of a switchyard with a slanting track in which freight cars may coast without an engine and be sorted through a series of switches.
- v. To form into a hump; to make hump-shaped; to hunch; -- often with
up . - v. Slang, Australia To put or carry on the (humped) back; to shoulder; hence, to carry, in general.
- v. Slang, U. S. To bend or gather together for strenuous effort, as in running; to do or effect by such effort; to exert; -- usually reflexively or with
it . - v. (Railroad) to sort freight cars by means of a hump.
- v. Vulgar Slang, U. S. to engage in sexual intercourse with.
WordNet 3.0
- v. round one's back by bending forward and drawing the shoulders forward
- n. something that bulges out or is protuberant or projects from its surroundings
- v. have sexual intercourse with
Etymologies
- Probably from Dutch homp ("hump, lump") or Middle Low German hump ("heap, hill, stump"), from Old Saxon *hump (“hill, heap, thick piece”), from Proto-Germanic *humpaz (“hip, height”), from Proto-Indo-European *kumb-, *kumbʰ- (“curved”). Cognate with West Frisian hompe ("lump, chunk"), Icelandic huppur ("flank"), Welsh cwm ("a hollow"), Latin incumbō, Albanian sumbull ("round button, bud"), Ancient Greek κύμβη (kýmbē, "bowl"), Avestan (xumba, "pot"), Sanskrit कुम्ब (kúmba, "thick end of bone")). Replaced, and perhaps influenced by, Old English crump ("crooked, bent"). More at cramp. (Wiktionary)
- Probably of Low German origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
““Ah, madame!” said Butscha, “what you call my hump is the socket of my wings.””
“Behind this is the thickest part of the body, which tapers off till there is another rise which we call the hump, in the shape of a pyramid -- then commences the”
“Other than my agent and editor -- both of whom have been very enthusiastic and supportive of my writing from day one -- the single most wonderful author who really welcomed me and made me feel not so alone, answered all my questions, and helped me over the new author hump, is Mariah Stewart.”
“Bald spots formwhen the grass on an underwater hump is exposed during the winter drawdown.”
“We have to get through the midterm hump and the illness," she said.”
“The anonymous blogger of "Sex At Oxbridge" describes herself as a "fairly attractive and highly intelligent Oxbridge student currently shagging my way through the half-term hump".”
“The single "attractive" female, who says she is a "highly intelligent Oxbridge student currently shagging my way through the half-term hump", is using oxbridgesex. blogspot.com to detail her flings.”
“Cotton's recurring theme in the United States is that for several years in a row, cotton prices have usually looked good in the long-term, but never could quite get over the short-term hump of large supplies.”
“Among Israeli Arabs the hump is shorter and sharper, both in relation to”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hump’.
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UK - slang
chin wag, arse about, bollock, starkers, sweet Fanny Adams, skive, shufti, codswallop, rhyming slang, bollocks, nookie, skew-whiff and 208 more...
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On with their heads!
Words that make other words with the addition of one letter at the beginning. The resulting words are tagged "behead".
men, his, yes, any, iota, limb, aged, laid, land, lead, read, word and 327 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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to acquire
moustache, thoughtcrime, lift, overall, razor, strength, oily, gin, oily gin, brotherhood, dull, toward and 108 more...
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Words grabbed from real life conversa...
If I've seen it, heard it, or marvelled at it, I'll stick it here.
cruft, ermine, redundant, shakespearean, camino, marvelous, stupendous, chagrin, shaven, sleek, smug, stillness and 325 more...
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colleen's words ii
sibilant, sundry, spindle, distaff, device, mortar, pestle, scythe, flail, thresh, frown, elementary and 495 more...
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huck finnian
ain't, stretchers, without, sivilize, hogshead, victuals, bulrushers, tolerable, goggles, middling, reckoned, who-whooing and 287 more...
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Let's talk about sex
A collection of words about doing the nasty.
prurient, odalisque, soubrette, gravid, lochia, xenogamy, syngamy, zygote, pintle, hexaploid, seminal, hetaera and 232 more...
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sexual feelings
words describing the sexual parts of life
snog, shag, copulate, intercourse, paraphilia, carnal, fetish, fornicate, abstinence, foreplay, coitus, chastity and 119 more...
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fbharjo's Words
jumelle, kef, kenspeckle, lautitious, essentic, pilpulistic, impavid, cicurant, clou, chrysostomic, miasma, teleology and 1625 more...
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whaling terms
Terms defined in the glossary of Clifford W. Ashley's "Yankee Whaler".
advance, adze, after house, after oar, agent, air up, alow, ambergris, apeak, article, away, bailer and 299 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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Words That Sound Dirty but Really Aren't
annals, assassinate, bisect, bubbly, caucus, caulk, colloquialism, concoct, condominium, congeal, congenital, convex and 131 more...
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jacksmynde's Words
flippant, areola, uvula, bespectacled, hussy, penchant, predilection, sojourn, frivolous, stipend, enamoured, smitten and 30 more...
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Carnivals and Circuses
Language of the midway and the big top.
annie oakley, blade glommer, light bulb grease, key to the midway, left-handed monke..., calliope, possum belly, painted pony, simp heister, lot lice, hoofstock, hump and 30 more...
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USMC
Semper Fi!
motard, leathernecks, poolee, hashmark, semper fidelis, scuttlebutt, skivvies, civvies, cover, ladderwell, jarhead, devil dog and 19 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hump.

sionnach Circus slang for a camel. May 6, 2010
errguitar US Marine slang for extended march with full kit, equivalent to UK Royal Marines 'yomp" Jun 12, 2008
brtom ...and then how the horses did lean over and hump themselves! HF 22 Dec 6, 2006