humpback
/ˈhʌmpbæk/
humpback noun: a humped back (deformity in humans caused by abnormal curvature of the upper spine).
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Noun
humpback (plural humpbacks)
- A humped back (deformity in humans caused by abnormal curvature of the upper spine).
- […] the Stone in my Fathers Body was so immense, that I’ve wonder’d it did not bunch up behind, and make him have a Hump-back, or at least overpoise him in walking, and drag him backward with its incredible weight.1691, John Dunton, chapter 6, in A Voyage Round the World, London: Richard Newcome, page 122
- In the Male Line, there happened an unlucky Accident in the Reign of Richard the Third; the eldest Son of Philip, then Chief of the Family, being born with an Hump-back and very high Nose.1709 October 1, Richard Steele, “The Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff Esq.”, in The Tatler, volume 2, number 75, London, published 1712, page 166
- A hump or protuberance on the shoulders or back of an animal.
- […] the cows stood about with gloomy eyes and hump-backs, surly and dangerous […]1902, Somerset Maugham, chapter 16, in Mrs Craddock, London: Heinemann, published 1955, page 157
- On the bare hills one begins to see unfamiliar silhouettes of animals against the sky. […] the peaked humpbacks of gnu on a ridge […]1969, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, “Immersion in Life”, in Earth Shine, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, page 52
- A rounded topographical feature, such as a mountain or hill.
- On either side were the high, irregularly sloped mountains, with their foot hills robed in the same bright green as the valley, and with their bald hump-backs and sharp peaks, treeless, verdureless, and desolate […]1858, Royal B. Stratton, Captivity of the Oatman Girls, San Francisco: [for the author], Chapter 4, p. 134
- The Goons kept appearing and disappearing in different places, always closer to them, as they worked their way over the humpback of the terrain.1968, Barry England, Figures in a Landscape, New York: Random House, Part 1, p. 78
- A person with a humpback; a person who suffers from kyphosis.
- […] Tom’s more specific and kindly impressions gradually melted into the old background of suspicion and dislike toward him as a queer fellow, a humpback, and the son of a rogue.1860, George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss, Book 2, Chapter 6
- […] I stared up at the raw spots on his cheek and thought, there is no safety anywhere: a humpback, a cripple—they all have the trigger that sets love off.1951, Graham Greene, The End of the Affair, Penguin, published 1975, Book 2, Chapter 7, p. 81
- A humpback whale.
- A humpback salmon.
Verb
humpback (third-person singular simple present humpbacks, present participle humpbacking, simple past and past participle humpbacked)
- To hunt humpback whales.
- The captain of the James Rodgers […] was an old hand at humpbacking […]1895, Charles Nordhoff, chapter 10, in Whaling and Fishing, New York: Dodd, Mead, page 191
- […] the Alice Knowles […] did her whaling in the south Atlantic, by turns humpbacking off the African coast and cruising around Tristan in season.1953, Emma Mayhew Whiting, Henry Beetle Hough, chapter 16, in Whaling Wives, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 240
humpback meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Telugu and Malayalam
humpback in Tamil
- பின்கூனல் மார்பு ருத்தம், பின்வளைவு
humpback in Urdu
- humpbacked person
- کبڑا kubṛā
humpback in Telugu
- humped back
- కుబ్జము kubjamu
- humpbacked person
- కుబ్జుడు kubjuḍu
humpback in Malayalam
- കൂന്, വളവ്, കൂനൻ
More languagesFewer languages
- humpback in Kannada
- ಕೂನಬೆನ್, ಕೂನುಬೆನ್ನು, ಗೂನುಬೆನ್ನು
- humpback in Sanskrit
- भट bhaṭa
- humpback in Tagalog
- kuba
- humpback in Arabic
- أَحْدَب ʔaḥdab, حَدْبَاء ḥadbāʔ
- humpback in Persian
- گوژپشت gužpošt
Examples of humpback in a sentence
- He saw Dmitri half rise from his chair so that the shadow of his humpback shifted on the whitewashed wall.1948, Philip Gibbs, chapter 5, in Behind the Curtain, Toronto: The Ryerson Press:
- I could see clear out to the humpbacks of small islands along the great lake, where small banks of fog hung.2002, Michael Collins, chapter 38, in The Resurrectionists, Penguin, published 2006, page 286:
Synonyms of humpback
Forms of humpback
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | humpbacks |
| alternative form | hump-back |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | humpbacks |
| present participle | humpbacking |
| past participle | humpbacked |
| past | humpbacked |
Origin of humpback
From hump + back.
Words formed from humpback
Phrases with humpback
Questions about humpback
- What does humpback mean?
- Humpback means a humped back (deformity in humans caused by abnormal curvature of the upper spine).
- What is humpback in Tamil?
- Humpback in Tamil is பின்கூனல் மார்பு ருத்தம், பின்வளைவு. See Humpback meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use humpback in a sentence?
- He saw Dmitri half rise from his chair so that the shadow of his humpback shifted on the whitewashed wall.
- What part of speech is humpback?
- Humpback can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce humpback?
- Humpback is pronounced /ˈhʌmpbæk/.
- What is the plural of humpback?
- The plural of humpback is humpbacks.
Words near humpback in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: humpback (page history and authors); humpback (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); humpback (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); humpback (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); भट (Sanskrit) (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-humpback.wav.
Cite this entry: “humpback.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/humpback. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.