clomp

Etymology

From Dutch klomp (“clump, mass, wooden shoe”), from Old Dutch *klumpo, from Proto-Germanic *klumpô (“clump, lump, mass; clasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *glembʰ- (“clamp, mass”).

noun

1. The sound of feet hitting the ground loudly.
   There was just a pause in the clomps, then Bill's boots went on toward the house. 1990, Laura C[aroline] Stevenson, chapter 11, in Happily after All, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company, page 132
   "Hello?" he called toward the closed door. "Anybody here?" Somebody must have heard him, because he heard something move on the opposite side of the door. First a distant sound like animals grunting, then a clomp, clomp, clomp like boots approaching. 2010, Mark Peter Hughes, “Savages and Kings”, in A Crack in the Sky, Delacorte Press, page 226
   Amidst the clomps of oncoming horses, he could now hear men's low, conferring voices. 2012 January, Frank Leslie, chapter 6, in The Last Ride of Jed Strange, Signet, New American Library

verb

1. (intransitive) To walk heavily or clumsily, as with clogs.
   […] so having smoothed my hair as well as I could, and repeatedly twitched my obdurate collar, I proceeded to clomp down the two flights of stairs, philosophizing as I went; […] 1847, Acton Bell (pseudonym; Anne Brontë), Agnes Grey: A Novel, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, publisher, 72, Mortimer St., Cavendish Sq., →OCLC
   The next day I couldn't use my black pair to school and in order not to spoil my white pair I used my bakias or wooden clogs instead. As I clomped into the classroom, for I was late that morning, my school teacher—a German nun—looked up and I saw her face wrinkle with displeasure, […] 1974, Liesel Commans Quirino, Why the Great Balls of Fire if I am Going to Go Pffttt Anyway?: 1931 to 1971, [s.l.]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 43
   Ambrose laughed as he lurched backwards and then clomped with his gold-tipped walking stick to the bed. 2000, Robin Maxwell, chapter 14, in The Queen's Bastard: A Novel, Scribner Paperback Fiction, Simon & Schuster, page 100
   My exasperation turned to horror with the realisation that a cat cast in plaster would sink which sent me scrambling for the scoop net. Adding insult to injury, the bystanders cheered his [the cat's] undignified retrieval. With a mortified hiss and yowl he clomped with bedraggled hauteur below decks. 2003, June Kant, “Castaway”, in Jan Fook, Susan Hawthorne, Renate Klein, editors, Cat Tales: The Meaning of Cats in Women's Lives, North Melbourne, Vic.: Spinifex Press, page 17
   [W]e clomped up the steep rear concrete steps to the main (study hall) level and entered the hallway, where we then quite innocently clomped with our well-worn brogues into the study hall, where we sat to await the appearance of Witch Robinson. 2005, Alton L. Provost, Reflections in an Orphan's Eye: A Decade at Oxford 1947–1957, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris Corporation, page 278
   Then she'd be startled when a peasant clomped with heavy shoes into this world of seductive images, his pipe clamped between his teeth, his eyes bovine and sleepy, to ask for a few stamps, and reflexively she'd find something to dress him down for. 2008, Stefan Zweig, translated by Joel Rotenberg, The Post-Office Girl, New York, N.Y.: New York Review Books
   I shoved the door closed and took off running for the steps. The clogs were too big and not the best shoes for sprinting. My feet clomped along the broken sidewalk. 2011, Lisa Hughey, chapter 6, in Blowback: A Romantic Thriller (A Black Cipher Files Thriller; 2), [s.l.]: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform]
   But now that we were running so late, I didn't have time to fuss with them. I jammed my feet back into my plain brown clogs and clomped back downstairs […] 2015 February, Coco Simon, “Cupcake Panda-monium”, in Alexis's Cupcake Cupid, Simon Spotlight, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, page 126
2. (transitive) To make some object hit something, thereby producing a clomping sound.
   When Sarah pointed at the door, Thea took a few steps toward it, clomping her feet with each stride. 2010, Amanda Cabot, Scattered Petals: A Novel (Texas Dreams; book 2), Grand Rapids, Mich.: Revell, page 47
   Kurt Fuehlen's brother, Helmut, waited at the basement doorway behind the cathedral, stomping his feet and clomping his mittened hands against his beefy arms. 2012, William J. O'Malley, The Place Called Skull, Indianapolis, In.: Dog Ear Publishing, page 7