Word.ws English Dictionary

Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty proper noun: a nursery rhyme character who falls from a wall and breaks irreparably in the manner of an egg; (figurative) by extension, anything similarly fragile, irreparably damaged, or insecure, precariously at risk of such irreparable damage.

humpty dumpty: a nursery rhyme character who falls from a wall and breaks irreparably in the manner of an egg;...
Image: William Wallace Denslow, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Proper noun

Humpty Dumpty

  1. A nursery rhyme character who falls from a wall and breaks irreparably in the manner of an egg; (figurative) by extension, anything similarly fragile, irreparably damaged, or insecure, precariously at risk of such irreparable damage.
    • ... she sits perched high up, astride a man's saddle, looking in her balloon garments, and doubtless feeling, more insecure than Humpty Dumpty on the wall.1907, Annie van Sommer et al., Our Moslem Sisters..., page 210
    • For many people, traditional Christian theology is a Humpty-Dumpty: it has tumbled from its perch and can't be put together again.2009, Philip Kennedy, A Modern Introduction to Theology: New Questions for Old Beliefs

Noun

Humpty Dumpty (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) A Romani drink of ale boiled with brandy.

Humpty Dumpty meaning in Arabic

Humpty Dumpty in Arabic

fairy tale character
هَمْبْتِي دَمْبْتِي hambtī dambtī

Origin of Humpty Dumpty

Possibly baby talk forms of Humphrey, since Dump and Dumphrey have been recorded as pet forms of this given name. Various suggestions have been offered for the original meaning of the nursery rhyme, chiefly concerning the English Civil War, although none has received general acceptance- modern scholars believe it may have been intended to be a riddle, with the answer of "an egg".

Words formed from Humpty Dumpty

Questions about Humpty Dumpty

What does Humpty Dumpty mean?
Humpty Dumpty means a nursery rhyme character who falls from a wall and breaks irreparably in the manner of an egg; (figurative) by extension, anything similarly fragile, irreparably damaged, or insecure, precariously at risk of such irreparable damage.
What is Humpty Dumpty in Arabic?
Humpty Dumpty in Arabic is هَمْبْتِي دَمْبْتِي (hambtī dambtī). See Humpty Dumpty meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is Humpty Dumpty?
Humpty Dumpty can be a proper noun or a noun.

Words near Humpty Dumpty in the dictionary

  1. humps and dumps
  2. humpsore
  3. humpties
  4. Humptulips
  5. humpty
  6. Humpty Dumpty
  7. Humpty Dumpty word
  8. Humpty Dumpty words
  9. Humpty Dumptyish
  10. Humpty Dumptyism
  11. humpty-dumpties

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Humpty Dumpty (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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