Definitions

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

  • noun A strap slung across the forehead or the chest to support a load carried on the back.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A strap by which a pack is carried across a portage or through the woods.

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

  • noun Local, U. S. A strap placed across a man's forehead to assist him in carrying a pack on his back.

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

  • noun A strap used to carry objects tied to its ends by placing the broadened or cushioned middle of the strap over the head just behind the forehead.

Etymologies

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

[tump (alteration of mattump, of Southern New England Algonquian origin) + line.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Tump is a shortening of mattump, metump, from a Penobscot word.

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Examples

  • I had shot a caribou and we were on our way back to the boat, him carrying a tumpline pack that probably weighed 150 pounds.

    Uncategorized Blog Posts 2010

  • I had shot a caribou and we were on our way back to the boat, him carrying a tumpline pack that probably weighed 150 pounds.

    Uncategorized Blog Posts 2010

  • A thick tumpline ran down from her forehead to the bulky pack resting on her hips.

    Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011

  • I had shot a caribou and we were on our way back to the boat, him carrying a tumpline pack that probably weighed 150 pounds.

    Uncategorized Blog Posts 2010

  • A thick tumpline ran down from her forehead to the bulky pack resting on her hips.

    Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011

  • DeJong is a big, burly, bearded Canadian, the kind of guy who wears wool plaid when it's 90 degrees and still uses a tumpline.

    T. 2006

  • You can rig them on canoes – especially useful if you are paddling an old wood and canvas canoe which may not have perfectly placed thwarts the builder assuming tumpline use anyway – wannigans, pack baskets, barrels, you name it.

    “Got a Match?” 2007

  • It is the little old men, dressed in rubber-tire sandals, wearing white cotton pants and guayabera, stooped over and plodding down the road with an enormous load on his back, secured by a tumpline across his forehead.

    San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas 2004

  • It is the little old men, dressed in rubber-tire sandals, wearing white cotton pants and guayabera, stooped over and plodding down the road with an enormous load on his back, secured by a tumpline across his forehead.

    San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas 2004

  • While mending my tumpline I hear the geese calling.

    Wild Goose 1997

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