Word.ws English Dictionary

clomp

/klɒmp/US/klɑmp/

clomp noun: the sound of feet hitting the ground loudly.

clomp: the sound of feet hitting the ground loudly
Image: Onderwijsgek, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

clomp (plural clomps)

  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, →ISBN, 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, →ISBN, page 226

Verb

clomp (third-person singular simple present clomps, present participle clomping, simple past and past participle clomped)

  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 knight] clomped along on his carthorse, complaining that knightly deeds were very hard to come by these days, and that knights errant had to put up with wayside clouts and clodpate pummelling in place of jousts or arms and splintering lances for love of fair ladies.1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 54
  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, →ISBN, 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, →ISBN, page 7

Examples of clomp in a sentence

  • 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, →ISBN:
  • 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, →ISBN, page 100:
  • 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...

Forms of clomp

Noun
pluralclomps
Verb
third-person singular presentclomps
present participleclomping
past participleclomped
pastclomped
alternative formklomp

Origin of clomp

Probably onomatopoeic or a variant of clump (“walk heavily and clumsily”), itself also onomatopoeic or perhaps from the notion of walking in clumps, from Dutch klomp (“clump, mass, wooden shoe”).

Words formed from clomp

Words that rhyme with clomp

Questions about clomp

What does clomp mean?
Clomp means the sound of feet hitting the ground loudly.
How do you use clomp in a sentence?
Amidst the clomps of oncoming horses, he could now hear men's low, conferring voices.
What part of speech is clomp?
Clomp can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce clomp?
Clomp is pronounced /klɒmp/ (UK).
What is the plural of clomp?
The plural of clomp is clomps.

Words near clomp in the dictionary

  1. clomiphene
  2. clomiphenes
  3. clomipramine
  4. clomocycline
  5. clomoxir
  6. clomp
  7. clomped
  8. clomper
  9. clompers
  10. clomping
  11. clompingly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: clomp (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-clomp.wav.

Cite this entry: “clomp.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/clomp. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.