hump

Etymology

Probably borrowed 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- (“curved”). Cognates Cognate with West Frisian hompe (“lump, chunk”), Icelandic huppur (“flank”), Welsh cwm (“a hollow”), Latin incumbō (“to lie down”), Albanian sumbull (“round button, bud”), Ancient Greek κύμβη (kúmbē, “bowl”), Avestan 𐬑𐬎𐬨𐬠𐬀 (xumba, “pot”), Sanskrit कुम्ब (kúmba, “thick end of bone”)). Replaced, and perhaps influenced by, Old English crump (“crooked, bent”). More at cramp.

noun

1. A mound of earth.
2. A speed bump or speed hump.
3. A deformity in humans caused by abnormal curvature of the upper spine.
4. (animals) A rounded fleshy mass, such as on a camel or zebu.
5. (slang) An act of sexual intercourse.
6. (Britain, slang, with definite article) A bad mood.
   She's got the hump with me.
   Go away! You're giving me the right hump.
7. (slang) A painfully boorish person.
   That guy is such a hump!
8. A wave that forms in front of an operating hovercraft and impedes progress at low speeds.

verb

1. (transitive) To bend something into a hump.
   The cattle were very uncomfortable, standing humped up in the bushes. 1885, Theodore Roosevelt, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman
2. (transitive, intransitive) To carry (something), especially with some exertion.
   For travellers have to carry bags, / And swagmen have to hump their swags / Like bottle-ohs or ragmen. 1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, page 14
3. To rhythmically thrust the pelvis in a manner conducive to sexual intercourse.
   1. (transitive, intransitive) To dry-hump.
      Stop humping the table, you sicko.
   2. (slang, transitive, intransitive) To have sex (with).
4. (US, slang, dated) To exert oneself; to make an effort.
   Lessons are keeping me humping now, and will probably do so all summer. 1917, Hart Crane, letter, in Complete Poems & Selected Letters, Library of America 2006
5. (slang, dated) To vex or annoy.
6. (rail transport) To shunt wagons / freight cars over the hump in a hump yard.
   In the first phase of the new yard's operation, from March 6 last, it was wisely decided to restrict the yard's use to allow for any "teething" ailments with complex electronic gadgets, so when I visited Margam early in May it was working well below its capacity, humping about 1,000 wagons a day; …. 1960 July, G. Freeman Allen, “Margam yard - the most modern in Europe”, in Trains Illustrated, pages 405, 407