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dumdum

dumdum noun: a soft-nosed or hollow point bullet, or a lead bullet incised on the tip with a cross, which expands on impact to cause a greater than normal wound or impact site.

Noun (1)

dumdum (plural dumdums)

  1. A soft-nosed or hollow point bullet, or a lead bullet incised on the tip with a cross, which expands on impact to cause a greater than normal wound or impact site.
    • From all accounts it was one of the fiercest fights of the campaign, conducted with great determination and conspicuous bravery. The fact that the rebel leader was an ex-Major on the Permanent Force Staff probably had not a little to do with the serious nature of the fighting, for the Loyalists...1915, Philip J. Sampson, Capture of De Wet: The South African Rebellion, 1914, E. Arnold, page 188
    • He related to us how the savages make bullets from the heart of a very hard wood cured by a special process. These bullets are only effectual when fired from a short range, and when they lodge in the flesh they explode like dumdum bullets.March 1920, Alice Ballantine Kirjassoff, “FORMOSA THE BEAUTIFUL”, in National Geographic Magazine, page 267

Noun (2)

dumdum (plural dumdums)

  1. (childish, endearing) An ignorant person; an idiot.
    • You nervous about tomorrow?
      No.
      Oh, you're, like, freaking out.
      Kind of.
      Well, hey, just remember they recruited you. So just, you know, keep your pants on and don't curse so much, and you'll be fine.
      I have to keep my pants on at the interview, really?
      Yeah, call me old-fashioned, but...
      It's just...2017, Dennis Saldua, “That's My Sweatshirt” (1:50 from the start), in Michael Patrick Jann, director, Atypical, season 1, episode 5, spoken by Evan, Casey (Graham Rogers, Jack Haven (credited as...

Proper noun capitalized: Dumdum

Dumdum

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of Dum Dum (“Indian city”).

dumdum meaning in Hindi

dumdum in Hindi

an idiot
मूर्ख mūrkh, उल्लू ullū

Forms of dumdum

pluraldumdums
alternative formdum-dum
alternative formdum dum
alternative formdumb dumb
alternative formdumb-dumb
alternative formdumbdumb

Origin of dumdum

From Dum Dum, a city in India where the type of bullet was developed, from Hindi दम दम (dam dam) (Bengali দমদম (domodom)), from Hindi दमदमा (damadmā, “tenaille, a raised mound or battery”).

A reduplication of the adjective dumb.

Phrases with dumdum

Questions about dumdum

What does dumdum mean?
Dumdum means a soft-nosed or hollow point bullet, or a lead bullet incised on the tip with a cross, which expands on impact to cause a greater than normal wound or impact site.
What is dumdum in Hindi?
Dumdum in Hindi is मूर्ख (mūrkh), उल्लू (ullū). See Dumdum meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is dumdum?
Dumdum can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of dumdum?
The plural of dumdum is dumdums.

Words near dumdum in the dictionary

  1. dumbwaiter
  2. dumbwaiters
  3. dumbwalking
  4. dumby
  5. Dumbya
  6. dumdum
  7. Dumdum fever
  8. dumdums
  9. dumetorine
  10. dumetose
  11. Dumești

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dumdum (page history and authors); Dumdum (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-dumdum.wav.

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