Word.ws English Dictionary

dump

/dʌmp/

dump noun: a place where waste or garbage is left; a ground or place for dumping ashes, refuse, etc.; a disposal site.

Noun (1)

dump (plural dumps)

  1. A place where waste or garbage is left; a ground or place for dumping ashes, refuse, etc.; a disposal site.
    • a toxic waste dump
  2. A car or boat for dumping refuse, etc.
  3. That which is dumped, especially in a chaotic way; a mess.
    1. (Internet) A disorganized collection of images posted on social media.
  4. An act of dumping, or its result.
    • The new XML dump is coming soon.
  5. A formatted listing of the contents of program storage, especially when produced automatically by a failing program.
  6. A storage place for supplies, especially military.
    • an ammo dump
    • a munitions dump
  7. (slang) An unpleasant, dirty, disreputable, unfashionable, boring, or depressing looking place.
    • This place looks like a dump.
    • Don't feel bad about moving away from this dump.
  8. (euphemistic, often, slang) An act of defecation; a defecating.
    • I have to take a dump.
  9. (plural-normally) A sad, gloomy state of the mind; sadness; melancholy; despondency.
    • […] doleful dumps the mind oppress […]c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • […] I was musing in the midst of my dumps […]1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: […], London: […] Nath[aniel] Ponder […], →OCLC
  10. Absence of mind; reverie.
    • They see not what passes before their eyes; hear not the audible discourse of the company; and when by any strong application to them they are roused a little, they are like men brought to themselves from some remote region […]. The shame that such dumps cause to well-bred people, when it carries...a. 1705, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], published 1706, →OCLC, § 45, page 125
  11. A pile of ore or rock.
  12. (obsolete) A melancholy strain or tune in music; any tune.
    • Tune a deploring dump […]c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • O, play me some merry dump to comfort me.c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
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  1. (obsolete) An old kind of dance.
  2. (Australia, Canada, historical) A small coin made by punching a hole in a larger coin (called a holey dollar).
    • Basically, to overcome an acute shortage of money in 1813, Governor Lachlan Macquarie bought silver dollars from Spain and then punched the centres out, thereby producing two coins - the ‘holey dollar’ (worth five shillings) and the ‘dump’ (worth one shilling and threepence). Talk about creating...2002, Paul Swan, Maths Investigations, page 66
  3. A temporary display case that holds many copies of an item being sold.
    • The back of this display is constructed of a double row of cans which are interlocking. The double row is significant because it provides a source of stock to replenish the dump which will be located in the base of the stand.1958, Milton Alexander, Display ideas for super markets, page 211
    • Mass displays to move goods in bulk are dotted here and there throughout the store, particularly at the ends of the gondolas, and considerable use is made of dump displays.1959, Agenda: Co-operative Management Magazine - Volumes 7-8, page 68

Verb

dump (third-person singular simple present dumps, present participle dumping, simple past and past participle dumped)

  1. (transitive) To release, especially in large quantities and chaotic manner.
  2. (transitive) To discard; to get rid of something one no longer wants.
    • The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania.[…]It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led...2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847
  3. (transitive) To sell below cost or very cheaply; to engage in dumping.
  4. (transitive) To copy (data) from a system to another place or system, usually in order to archive it.
    • to dump the ROM from a rare Nintendo game cartridge
  5. (transitive) To output the contents of storage or a data structure, often in order to diagnose a bug.
  6. (informal, transitive) To end a romantic relationship with.
    • Sarah dumped Nelson after finding out he was cheating on her.
  7. (Scotland, obsolete, transitive) To knock heavily; to stump.
  8. (transitive) To put or throw down with more or less of violence; hence, to unload from a cart by tilting it
    • We dumped the coal onto the fireplace.
  9. (US, transitive) To precipitate (especially snow) heavily.
  10. (Australia, transitive) Of a surf wave, to crash a swimmer, surfer, etc., heavily downwards.
    • Blowing like a grampus from every orifice, I leaned on a passing wave which dumped me[.]1980, Ian Chappell, Chappelli has the last laugh, page 39

Noun (2)

dump (plural dumps)

  1. (UK, archaic) A thick, ill-shapen piece.
  2. (UK, archaic) A lead counter used in the game of chuck-farthing.
    • The capons were leaden representations of cocks and hens pitched at by leaden dumps.1825, William Hone, The Every Day Book

Noun (3)

dump (plural dumps)

  1. (Northern England) A deep hole in a river bed; a pool.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Dump

Dump

  1. A city in Toledo District, Belize.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Dump

Dump

  1. (US, derogatory, slang) Donald Trump.

dump meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

dump in Hindi

डंप करें, डंप

dump in Tamil

கொட்டிடம், தேவையற்றதை வீசுதல்

dump in Marathi

डंप करा

dump in Urdu

ڈالنا, پھینکنا
More languagesFewer languages
dump in Bengali
কাড়া kaṛa
dump in Telugu
డంప్, డంప్ చేయడానికి
dump in Malayalam
ചവറിടുന്ന സ്ഥലം, മണൽക്കുമ്പാരം, മനഃകുണ്ഠിതം, തള്ളിയിടുന്ന സ്ഥലം
dump in Kannada
ತಿಪ್ಪೆ, ರಾಶಿ, ಕಸದ ಗುಡ್ಡೆ, ತಿಪ್ಪೆಗುಂಡಿ
dump in Gujarati
ડમ્પ કરો, ડમ્પ, ડંપ કરો
dump in Odia
ଡମ୍ପ କରନ୍ତୁ, ଡମ୍ପ୍ କରନ୍ତୁ, ଡମ୍ପ କରିବା ପାଇଁ
dump in Nepali
डम्प, डम्प गर्नुहोस्, डम्प गर्न
dump in Tagalog
agsaman
dump in Arabic
مَزْبَلَة mazbala, نُفَايَة nufāya, مَكَان إِلْقَاء الْقُمَامَة makān ʔilqāʔ al-qumāma
dump in Vietnamese
vứt bỏ, đổ

Examples of dump in a sentence

  • "We'll check out of this dump tomorrow."1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 184:
  • ‘What on earth,’ he asked, ‘is a girl like you doing in a dump like this?’1960, J. E. Macdonnell, Don't Gimme the Ships, Melbourne: Horwitz Publications, page 33:
  • The holey dollar and the dump have been adopted as the symbol for the Macquarie Bank in Australia.2002, Paul Swan, Maths Investigations, page 66:
  • Although they may have a lot of clutter in promotional cardboard dump displays, that factor is likely to change.1985, Product Marketing for Beauty Industry Retailers & Manufacturers:

All 40 example sentences with dump

Synonyms of dump

28 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of dump

Forms of dump

Noun
pluraldumps
Verb
third-person singular presentdumps
present participledumping
past participledumped
pastdumped

Past tense of dump: dumped

Plural of dump: dumps

Origin of dump

From Middle English dumpen, dompen, probably from Old Norse dumpa (“to thump”) (whence Danish dumpe (“to fall suddenly”)), of uncertain origin, possibly imitative of falling, similar to thump.

See dumpling.

Cognate with Scots dump (“hole in the ground”), Norwegian dump (“a depression or hole in the ground”), German Low German dumpen (“to submerge”), Dutch dompen (“to dip, sink, submerge”).

Words formed from dump

Phrases with dump

3 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with dump

18 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about dump

What does dump mean?
Dump means a place where waste or garbage is left; a ground or place for dumping ashes, refuse, etc.; a disposal site.
What is dump in Hindi?
Dump in Hindi is डंप करें, डंप. See Dump meaning in Hindi.
How do you use dump in a sentence?
"We'll check out of this dump tomorrow."
What part of speech is dump?
Dump can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce dump?
Dump is pronounced /dʌmp/.
What is the plural of dump?
The plural of dump is dumps.

Words near dump in the dictionary

  1. dumoside
  2. dumosity
  3. Dumoulin
  4. Dumoulins
  5. dumous
  6. dump
  7. dump and burn
  8. dump bin
  9. dump bins
  10. dump cake
  11. dump cakes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dump (page history and authors); Dump (page history and authors); dump (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dump (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dump (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dump (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); কাড়া (Bengali) (page history and authors); dump (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dump (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dump (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dump (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dump (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dump (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: EN-AU ck1 dump.ogg.

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