Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A rounded mass or protuberance, such as the fleshy structure on the back of a camel or of some cattle.
  • noun A deformity of the back in humans caused by an abnormal convex curvature of the upper spine.
  • noun Vulgar Slang The act or an instance of having sexual intercourse.
  • noun A low mound of earth; a hummock.
  • noun A mountain range.
  • noun Chiefly British A fit of depression; an emotional slump.
  • intransitive verb To bend or round into a hump; arch.
  • intransitive verb To exert (oneself).
  • intransitive verb To carry, especially on the back.
  • intransitive verb Vulgar Slang To engage in sexual intercourse with.
  • intransitive verb Slang To exert oneself.
  • intransitive verb Slang To hurry.
  • intransitive verb Vulgar Slang To engage in sexual intercourse.
  • idiom (over the hump) Past the worst or most difficult part or stage.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A protuberance; a swelling.
  • noun 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.
  • noun 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.
  • noun A sailors' name for a worthless member of the crew; a green hand.
  • noun A long tramp with a load on the back.

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

  • noun A protuberance; especially, the protuberance formed by a crooked back.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A fleshy protuberance on the back of an animal, as a camel or whale.
  • noun (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.
  • transitive verb To form into a hump; to make hump-shaped; to hunch; -- often with up.
  • transitive verb Slang, Australia To put or carry on the (humped) back; to shoulder; hence, to carry, in general.
  • transitive verb 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.
  • transitive verb (Railroad) to sort freight cars by means of a hump.
  • transitive verb Vulgar Slang, U. S. to engage in sexual intercourse with.

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

  • noun A mound of earth.
  • noun A rounded mass, especially a fleshy mass such as on a camel.
  • noun A deformity in humans caused by abnormal curvature of the upper spine.
  • noun UK, slang An act of sexual intercourse.
  • noun slang, UK A bad mood, especially in the expression to have the hump.
  • noun slang A painfully boorish person.
  • verb transitive To bend something into a hump.
  • verb transitive, slang To carry something, especially with some exertion.
  • verb intransitive, slang To carry, especially with some exertion.
  • verb transitive, intransitive To dry-hump.
  • verb transitive, slang To have sex with.
  • verb intransitive, slang To have sex.

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

  • verb round one's back by bending forward and drawing the shoulders forward
  • noun something that bulges out or is protuberant or projects from its surroundings
  • verb have sexual intercourse with

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably of Low German origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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.

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Examples

  • “Ah, madame!” said Butscha, “what you call my hump is the socket of my wings.”

    Modeste Mignon 2007

  • But in Chicago, he was an assistant with a Bulls team that couldn't get over the title hump when he was chosen to replace Doug Collins.

    unknown title 2009

  • 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

    Old Jack William Henry Giles Kingston 1847

  • 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.

    Catching it from behind, lobbing it forward 2008

  • Bald spots formwhen the grass on an underwater hump is exposed during the winter drawdown.

    Catch Spring Largemouth Bass Away from Weeds 2006

  • 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".

    Medindia Health News 2010

  • 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".

    Medindia Health News 2010

  • 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".

    Medindia Health News 2010

  • "We have to get through the midterm hump and the illness," she said.

    Queen's Journal: Latest stories Anand Srivastava 2010

  • "We have to get through the midterm hump and the illness," she said.

    Queen's Journal: Latest stories Anand Srivastava 2010

Comments

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  • ...and then how the horses did lean over and hump themselves! HF 22

    December 7, 2006

  • US Marine slang for extended march with full kit, equivalent to UK Royal Marines 'yomp"

    June 13, 2008

  • Circus slang for a camel.

    May 6, 2010

  • Hump, a portmanteau of hunch and lump.

    December 4, 2020