clump

Etymology

From Middle English clompe, from Old English clymppe, a variant of clympre (“a lump or mass of metal”), from Proto-Germanic *klumpô (“mass, lump, clump; clasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *glembʰ- (“lump, clamp”). Alternatively, possibly from Middle Dutch clompe or Middle Low German klumpe (compare German Klumpen). Cognates include Danish klump (probably from Low German as well). Compare Norwegian Bokmål klump.

noun

1. A cluster or lump; an unshaped piece or mass.
2. A thick group or bunch, especially of bushes or hair.
   clump of trees 1954, Lucian Hobart Ryland (translator), Adelaide of Brunswick (originally by Marquis de Sade)
3. A dull thud.
   She [Miss Climpson] asks questions which a young man could not put without a blush. She is the angel that rushes in where fools get a clump on the head. 1927, Dorothy L. Sayers, Unnatural Death
   Thus, the myths of cinema and syndicated cartoon have served to unite the diverse races far more than the clump of the cricket-ball and the clipped rebukes and laudations of their masters. 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 37
4. The compressed clay of coal strata.
   clump-burned bricks 1837, The Magazine of Domestic Economy
5. A small group of trees or plants.
6. (historical) A thick addition to the sole of a shoe.

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To form clusters or lumps.
2. (transitive, intransitive) To gather in dense groups.
3. (intransitive) To walk with heavy footfalls.
4. (transitive, UK, regional) To strike; to beat.
   There is his poor little cap hanging up on the door; and there on the table is the knife he chipped a piece out of through not minding the mark on the knife machine, and I clumped his head for him, poor lamb! 1912, Mrs. Coulson Kernahan, The Go-Between, page 79