/plʌmp/
OriginFrom Middle English plump, plompe, a borrowing from Middle Dutch plomp or Middle Low German plump. Cognate with Saterland Frisian plump (“plump”).
- Having a full and rounded shape; chubby, somewhat overweight.
“a plump baby; plump cheeks”
“The god of wine did his plump clusters bring.”
“My ideal is to be idle and to love a plump girl.”
- Sudden and without reservation; blunt; direct; downright.
“After the plump statement that the author was at Erceldoune and spake with Thomas.”
“I've said so haven't I? Plump and plain.”
- Of a wine: giving the sensation of filling the mouth.
“A plump wine, with an abundance of plum and berry characteristics and soft, round tannins. Easy to drink; ready on release.”
- intransitiveTo grow plump; to swell out.
“Her cheeks have plumped.”
- transitiveTo make plump; to fill (out) or support; often with up.
“to plump oysters or scallops by placing them in fresh or brackish water”
“to plump up the hollowness of their history with improbable miracles”
“Although Miss Pross, through her long association with a French family, might have known as much of their language as of her own, if she had had a mind, she had no mind in that direction […] So her ma”
- intransitiveTo give a plumper (kind of vote).
- transitiveTo give (a vote), as a plumper.
- intransitiveTo favor or decide in favor of.
“A recent poll by the New York Times found that although most Brazilians plump for arch-rival Argentina as the team they most want to lose, the second-biggest group want Brazil itself to stumble.”
- transitiveTo cast or let drop (something) all at once, suddenly and heavily.
“to plump a stone into water”
- intransitiveTo drop or fall suddenly or heavily, all at once.
“September 24, 1712, The Spectator No. 492, letter from a prude
Dulcissa plumps into a chair.”
- Directly; suddenly; perpendicularly.
“I suppose then, that going plump on a flying whale with your sail set in a foggy squall is the height of a whaleman’s discretion?”
- The sound of a sudden heavy fall.
“As she beheld her, poor Mrs. Mack's heart fluttered up to her mouth, and then dropped with a dreadful plump, into the pit of her stomach.”
- obsoleteA knot or cluster; a group; a crowd.
“a plump of trees, fowls, or spears”
“To visit islands and the plumps of men.”
- A group of geese flying close together.
Formsplumper(comparative) · more plump(comparative) · plumpest(superlative) · most plump(superlative) · plumps(present, singular, third-person) · plumping(participle, present) · plumped(participle, past) · plumped(past) · plumps(plural) · Plumps(plural)