▪ I. † crump, a.1 and n.1 Obs.
Also 7 cromp.
[OE. crump = OHG. chrumph, MHG. krumpf, a by-form, prob. intensive, of OE. crumb, OHG. chrumb (see crumb a.), which has largely supplanted the simpler form. There is however a long gap in the history during the ME. period, and it is possible that the 16th c. crump resulted from analysis of crump-back, crump-footed, etc., where crumped, crumpt, was in earlier use. For the etymological affinities of the group see Note to cramp n.1]
A. adj.
1. Crooked: said chiefly of the body or limbs from deformity, old age, or disease.
| a 800 Corpus Gloss. 1411 Obunca crump. c 1050 O.E. Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 459 Obunca crump. 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. iii. (1641) 21/2 All those steep mountains..Under first Waters their crump shoulders hid. 1652 Gaule Magastrom. 186 Cromp shoulders. 1656 W. D. tr. Comenius' Gate Lat. Unl. ¶287 A crump-back, swoln throat, and any bunch whatsoever, caus deformitie. 1719 D'Urfey Pills I. 34 Bowing low with her back-bone crump. |
2. Comb., as crump-back, a hunch-back, a crook-back; also crump-backed, crump-footed, crump-shouldered, etc.
[Cf. Ger. combinations in krumm-, as krummfusz, krumfüszig, Du. krom-, as krom-voet, krom-voetigh (Kilian).]
| 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 223 a, Croumpe shouldreed, shorte necked. 1599 Withals Dict. 96/1 Crumpe-footed, loripes. a 1661 B. Holyday Juvenal x. 191 Ne're contract With one throat-swoln, gor-bellied, or crump-back'd. 1661 Lovell Hist. Anim. & Min. 153 It helps crump-backs. 1715 tr. C'tess D'Aunoy's Wks. 370 She was Hunch-back'd and Crump-shoulder'd both before and behind. 1783 Ainsworth Lat. Dict. s.v. Back, Crump backed, gibbosus, humeris incurvus. |
B. n.
1. A hunch or hump on the back. rare.
| 1659 Torriano, Scr{iacu}gno, a bunch, a crump, a knob upon ones back. |
2. A crooked person, a hunch-back.
| 1698 Vanbrugh æsop ii. i, Esop..that piece of deformity! that monster! that crump! Ibid. iii. i, If I stand to hear this crump preach a little longer, I shall be fool enough perhaps to be bubbled out of my livelihood. 1719 D'Urfey Pills I. 78 Tho' the Crump too that Season, Got Bruges and Ghent by Treason. c 1765 T. Flloyd Tartarian T. (1785) 43/2 Nohoud..put only one of the crumps into his sack. |
▪ II. crump, a.2 Sc. and north.
(krʌmp)
[A parallel form of crimp a. 1; having app. associations with crump v.2, and with crumple. Cf. cramp n.1]
Brittle or friable under the teeth, easily ‘crumped’.
| 1787 Burns Holy Fair vii, And farls bak'd wi' butter, Fu' crump that day. 1811 Willan W. Riding Gloss. (E.D.S.), Crump, crimp, hard, brittle, crumbling. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Crump, crumpy..easily breaking under the teeth. 1878 Cumbrld. Gloss., Crump, brittle; crumbling. |
▪ III. † crump, n.2 Obs.
A variant of cramp n.1
| c 1460 Towneley Myst. 308 There I stode on my stumpe I stakerd that stownde: There chachid I the crumpe, yet helde I my grounde Halfe nome. |
▪ IV. † crump, n.3 Obs.
[Cf. crimp n.1]
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Crump, one that helps Sollicitors to Affidavit men, and Swearers, and Bail, who for a small Sum will be Bound or Swear for any Body. 1725 in New Cant. Dict. |
▪ V. crump, n.4 dial. or colloq.
[f. crump v.2 3.]
1. A hard hit, given with brisk or abrupt effect.
| 1850–60 [In use at Cricket]. 1879 Jamieson's Dict., Crump, a smart blow, Clydesdale. 1891 Farmer Slang Dict., Crump (Winchester College), a hard hit; a fall. |
2. The explosion of a heavy shell or bomb, or the sound of this; hence, the shell itself; crump-hole, a hole or crater made by a shell. Soldiers' slang.
| 1914 Times 10 Dec. 6/1 The heavy shell..ending in a loud ‘crump’ as it bursts on the ground. 1915 D. O. Barnett Lett. 180 Suddenly a yellow cloud leaped up three times as high as the tower itself..and after a bit there was the deuce of a crump. Ibid. 220, I got buried by a six-inch crump. 1915 ‘Boyd Cable’ Between Lines 254 There was some fancy driving past them crump holes in the road. 1917 P. Gibbs Battles of Somme 171 The enemy was ‘lathering’ the field of observation with every kind of ‘crump’ and shell. 1930 Blunden Poems 186 A crump at any moment May blow us to bits. 1961 Guardian 3 Apr. 5/4 The steady crump of falling bombs. |
3. Mining. A violent burst in the floor, walls, or ceiling of a mine.
| 1925 Pendleton Reporter 7 Nov. 8/2 The accident was due to a ‘crump’. ‘Crumps’ are caused through the floor of the mine rising owing to an accumulation of gases below it. 1927 Command Paper 2946 (Reports XI) 244 Crumps are..caused by..great cumulative stress set up by the folding and thrusting of the strata..which..causes violent roof⁓falls and up-thrusting of the floor of the mine. 1967 Gloss. Mining Terms (B.S.I.) viii. 8 Bump (crump), a sudden and heavy release of strain energy in the major body of rock surrounding a mine working, resulting in displacement of the strata. |
▪ VI. † crump, v.1 Obs.
[f. crump a. or its source: see crimp v.1 and cramp n.1 Cf. also G. dial. krummen, krumpen, Du. krommen, to become crooked, to crook, krumpfen to shrivel, shrink up, which are similarly related to G. krumm, krumpf adj. Also the transitive krümmen, krümpen, krumpfen: see Grimm.]
1. intr. To draw itself into a curve, curl, curl up.
| c 1325 Poem Times Edw. II, 115 in Pol. Songs (Camden) 329 Summe bereth croune of acolite for the crumponde crok. 1605 B. Jonson Volpone v. ii, But your Clarissimo, old round-backe, he Will crumpe you [= to or for you], like a hog-louse, with the touch. |
2. trans. (and refl.) To bend (a thing) into a curve, crook, curl up.
| 1480 [see crumped]. |
| 1743 Parsons in Phil. Trans. XLII. 535 He turns his Tail to the Wall, and, extending his hind Legs asunder, crumps himself up. 1818 Keats Extracts from Opera, A careless nurse..May have crumpt up a pair of Dian's legs, And warpt the ivory of a Juno's neck. |
3. fig. ? To ruffle, disturb.
| 1656 Heylin Surv. France 158 Who being so often troubled and crumped by them have little cause to afford them a liking. |
▪ VII. crump, v.2
(krʌmp)
[A word imitating the sound made in eating moderately firm and ‘short’ substances, or in walking over slightly compressed snow, greater firmness and less brittleness being implied than in the use of crunch or crush. There is possibly some association with crump a.2; cf. also crumple v. 6.]
trans. and intr.
1. To eat with an abrupt but somewhat dulled sound; applied esp. to horses or pigs when feeding.
| 1646 H. More Pref. Verses in J. Hall's Poems, A Pig, that roots In Jury-land or crumps Arabick roots. 1760 Miss Talbot in Lett. w. Miss Carter (1808) 484 Two years ago I could as easily have eat an Elephant as a sea biscuit, which I now crump again very comfortably. a 1825 Forby, Crump, to eat anything brittle or crimp. 1827 Clare Sheph. Cal. Aug. 74 The restless hogs will..crump adown the mellow and the green. [1878 Cumbrld. Gloss., Crump, the sound of horses' teeth when eating.] |
2. Applied to the sound made by the feet in crushing slightly frozen snow; and to the action which produces it. Cf. crumple v. 6.
| 1789 D. Davidson Seasons 133 (Jam.) To the pliant foot..the grassy path crumps sonorous. Ibid. 151 Close upon her snow-cap'd haunt..watchful lest his crumping tread Should her untimely rouse. 1820 Clare Poems Rural Life, Addr. to Plenty, And upon the crumping snows Stamps, in vain, to warm his toes. |
3. To strike with a brisk or abrupt effect.
[There is a certain analogy of manner between this and the prec. senses.]
| 1850–60 [In use at Cricket]. 1879 Jamieson's Dict., Crump, to smack, to thwack, as ‘he's crumpit my croun wi' his stick’. 1889 Boy's Own Paper 4 May 496/1 Let me see The way well pitched up balls to crump. 1892 Sat. Rev. 2 Jan. 12/2 We could slog to square-leg, or crump to the off. |
4. Soldiers' slang. a. trans. To bombard with heavy shells. b. intr. To fire heavy shells; also, to explode with a ‘crump’ (see prec., 2). Hence ˈcrumping vbl. n.
| 1915 ‘Boyd Cable’ Between Lines 254 We could hear the blighters crumpin' away back down the road behind us. 1916 Blackw. Mag. Jan. 125/1 You may imagine with what methodical solemnity the Bosche ‘crumps’ the interior of that constricted area. 1919 W. Deeping Second Youth xxiii. 196 Five-point nines were still crumping on the road ahead of them. Ibid., The crumping ceased, and they moved on. 1923 Kipling Irish Guards in Gt. War I. 170 No. 1 Company of the Irish saw a platoon of Coldstream in front of them crumped out of existence. 1952 E. F. Davies Illyrian Venture vii. 119 Mortars of about two-inch and three-inch size were crumping irregularly. 1968 J. R. Ackerley My Father & Myself vii. 66 Shells began to whizz over and crump in the ravine behind. |