▪ I. thump, n.
(θʌmp)
[Goes with thump v.]
1. a. ‘A hard heavy dead dull blow with something blunt’ (J.), as with a club or the fist; a heavy knock; also, the heavy sound of such a blow (not so dull as a thud). Also fig.
| 1552 Huloet, Bownce, noyse or thumpe, bombus, crepitus. 1563 B. Googe Eglogs iv. (Arb.) 43 Thou yat throwest the thunder thumps from Heauens hye, to Hell. a 1625 Fletcher Nice Valour iii. ii, Now your thump, A thing deriv'd first from your hemp-beaters, Takes a man's wind away, most spitefully. 1675 Hobbes Odyss. 262 Down with a thump he falls upon his face. 1716 Addison Freeholder No. 50 ¶4 Their Thumps and Bruises might turn to account,..if they could beat each other into good Manners. 1784 Cowper Task i. 357 Thump after thump resounds the constant flail. 1834 Dickens Sk. Boz, Steam Excurs., The unfortunate little victim..receiving sundry thumps on the head from both his parents. 1886 A. Winchell Walks Geol. Field 85 Heavy thumps sometimes heard before and during the action, in geyser-holes. |
† b. to cry thump: to make a thumping sound; to thump. Obs.
| 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster iii. iv, How can I hold my fist from crying thump? 1604 Dekker 1st Pt. Honest Wh. i. vii, Did you not heare something crie thump? |
c. Repeated, expressing a series of thumps.
| 1850 Browning Christmas Eve iv. 64 The thump-thump and shriek-shriek Of the train. 1885 Fargus Slings & Arrows x. 193 The steady, monotonous thump, thump, thump of the engines. 1899 Werner Capt. of Locusts 69 The thump-thump of the women's pestles pounding the maize in the grain-mortar. |
d. adverbially: With a thump (also fig.).
| 1704 N. N. tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. I. 56 Here Tacitus..bid him leave off his fulsome Preambles, and fall thump to the Business of the Impeachment. 1840 Thackeray Catherine i, Which..made his heart to go thump—thump! against his side. |
2. spec. a. A knocking or pounding of machinery arising from slackness at a joint where there is reciprocal motion. b. pl. A beating of the chest in the horse due to spasmodic contractions of the diaphragm, analogous to the hiccup in man.
| 1903 Rep. U.S. Dept. Agric. (On Dis. Horse 140), Thumps or Spasm of the Diaphragm... Thumps is produced by causes similar to those that produce congestion of the lungs and dilatation or palpitation of the heart. |
3. In Yorkshire (esp. Halifax): a local festival; a feast, wake, etc. Thump Sunday, the Sunday of the annual fair or festival week.
| 1884 Folk-Lore Jrnl. II. 25 Last Halifax Thump, a teetotaller..was punished, according to custom, by the company laying him face downwards and beating him on the back of the body with a heated fire-shovel. 1916 J. Hartley Seets i' Yorks. & Lancs. ii. 19 It'll be five year sin come Halifax thump Sunday. 1930 Brit. Weekly 4 Sept. 448/4 A correspondent sends us a description of ‘Deanhead Thump Sunday’, the..annual musical festival. 1976 H. Wilson Governance of Britain ii. 40 A prime minister must, and if he is a northerner usually does, understand the complex of Wakes Weeks and Feast Weeks, to say nothing of Longwood Thump. |
Add: 4. dial. (chiefly Lancs.). Used emphatically, as a euphemism for ‘hell’ (see hell n. 9), in exclamations of strong disagreement, outrage, etc.
| 1930 E. Raymond Jesting Army I. i. 6 Do Ah care how long it takes us to get there? Do Ah? Thoomp! Ah never was a soldier, tha knows. 1963 New Society 22 Aug. 5/1 The Lancashire, ‘Did he thump!’ where thump is an emphasized negative becomes at this school, ‘did he knock!’ as in ‘Will you lend me two and a kick to get some fags?’..‘No, will I knock!’ 1987 Melody Maker 15 Aug. 6 ‘What the thump have you done to your hair?’ exclaims Def Leppard's Phil Coleen. |
▪ II. thump, v.
(θʌmp)
Also 6 thomp, 6–7 thumpe.
[Only mod.Eng. (16th c.); of echoic formation. Parallel echoic formations are EFris. dump a knock, late Icel. dumpa to thump, Sw. dial. dumpa to make a noise, dompa to thump. The earliest evidence of the word-group in Eng. is in thumper 1. The following shows it as a mere imitation of a noise:
c 1550 Bale K. Johan (Camden) 53 Sedycyon extra locum. Alarum! Alarum! tro ro ro ro ro,..Thomp, thomp, thomp, downe, downe, downe, to go, to go, to go! K. J. What a noyse is thys..without the dore?]
1. a. trans. To strike or beat heavily, as with the fist, a club, or any blunt instrument, producing a dead, dull, somewhat hard sound; also, without reference to the sound produced, to hammer, pound, knock forcibly.
to thump a cushion, thump the pulpit, etc.: said of a preacher who uses violent gestures; cf. cushion-thumper.
| c 1537 [implied in thumper 1]. 1548 Elyot s.v. Incurso, Pugnis aliquem incursare, to renne on one to thumpe and beate hym with his fystes. 1565 Cooper Thesaurus, Pertundo, to beate with hammers: to thumpe, or knocke. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 19 Thee pacient panting shee thumpt and launst wyth a fyrebolt. a 1635 Corbet On Gt. Tom of Christ-Church 1 Be dumbe ye infant Chimes, thumpe not your mettle. 1673 Hickeringill Greg. F. Greyb. 218 In thumping the pulpit..has frighted some from their seats. 1716 Gay Trivia i. 13 The sturdy Pavior thumps the ground. 1725 B. Higgons Rem. Burnet ii. Hist. Wks. 1736 II. 79 He [Bp. Burnet] would..with greater Pleasure and Vehemence have thump'd a Cushion in that Congregation, we now call a Conventicle. 1746 Exmoor Scolding 6 Chell vump tha. 1803 G. Colman John Bull iii. ii. 35 If he don't behave himself, I'll come in and thump him blue. 1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. i. 711 There was he pinch'd and pitied, thump'd and fed. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair viii. 67 Don't you remember..how she was always thumping Louisa? 1907 Q. Rev. Apr. 393 It was left to the Navy League to thump the big drum. 1960 J. Rae Custard Boys ii. xii. 145 If you interrupt me again, Felix, I'll bloody well thump you. 1978 D. Devine Sunk without Trace xxi. 194, I saw red. If I didn't get out, I would thump him. |
b. With extension: To drive or force (down, forward, off, out, etc., or into some position or condition) by thumping. Also, with out: to produce (a tune, beat, etc.) by thumping.
| 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. iii. ii. 11 When my hart..Beats.., Then thus I thumpe it downe. 1596 Spenser F.Q. vi. ii. 10 He with his speare,..Would thumpe her forward and inforce to goe. c 1611 Chapman Iliad xviii. 141 Thrice the feet the hands of Hector seized, And thrice th' Ajaces thumped him off. a 1677 Barrow Serm. Wks. 1716 II. 80 To think..a slow body may be thumpt and driven into passion..how can we..entertain such suppositions? 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. I. 4 Born to the flail and plough, To thump the corn out and to till the earth. 1929 T. Wolfe Look Homeward, Angel xxiii. 315 She..thumped out popular tunes on a battered piano. 1974 C. Ryan Bridge Too Far iii. i. 134 The bass drummer..thumped out a symbolic beat in Morse code: three dots and a dash—V for victory. |
c. Of the feet, etc.: To beat or strike (the ground, etc.) heavily and noisily; also of a body: to impinge upon with a thump; to strike violently.
| 1582 Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 21 Downe the pilot tumbleth..headlong. Thrise the grauel thumping. 1596 Spenser F.Q. vi. x. 10 A shrill pipe he playing heard on hight, And many feete fast thumping th' hollow ground. 1902 E. Banks Newspaper Girl 173 His tail would thump the floor most vigorously. |
d. With that which beats, strikes, or knocks as object. to thump down, to put or throw down with a thump.
| 1720 Ramsay Wealth 72 While you may thump your Pows against the Wa'. 1821 Clare Vill. Minstr. (1823) I. 9 And lumping knocks as one would thump a flail. 1852 Hawthorne Blithedale Rom. xvii, Baggage, which he thumped down upon the floors. |
e. To express by thumps.
| 1928 Manch. Guardian Weekly 26 Oct. 335/3 His [sc. a dog's] tail..thumped a welcome. |
2. fig. To ‘beat’ (in a fight), to drub, lick, thrash severely. colloq.
| 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, v. iii. 334 These bastard Britaines, whom our Fathers Haue in their owne Land beaten, bobb'd, and thump'd. 1797–1802 G. Colman Br. Grins, etc., Knt. & Friar i. i, In our Fifth Harry's reign, when 'twas the fashion To thump the French..to excess. 1827 Scott Jrnl. 14 Nov., We have thumped the Turks very well. |
3. a. intr. To strike or beat with force or violence, with an abrupt dull noise; to knock or bump with force. Also to thump it.
| 1565 Cooper Thesaurus s.v. Insulto, Insultare fores calcibus, to thumpe or beate at the doore with heeles. a 1619 Fletcher, etc. Knt. Malta iii. i. song, Drums beat, Ensigns wave, and Cannons thump it. 1663 Butler Hudibras i. iii. 520 Colon, chusing out a stone, Level'd so right, it thumpt upon His manly Paunch. 1691 E. Taylor Behmen's Theos. Philos. 340 That which melodiously ringeth in the Light, rumbleth and thumpeth in the dark. 1832 Marryat N. Forster xiii, I heard the boat thumping under the main channels. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. I. vii. 72 The..floe-ice against which we were alternately sliding and thumping. 1883 Pall Mall G. 20 Dec. 3/2 No one thinks a drummer-boy a giant because he thumps away upon a big drum. |
b. To walk with heavy sounding steps, to stump noisily; also, of a thing, to move with thumps or noisy jolts.
| 1604 T. M. Black Bk. in Middleton's Wks. (Bullen) VIII. 28, I thumped down stairs with my cowheel. 1825 T. Hook Sayings Ser. ii. Passion & Princ. xv. III. 378 Along..went the waggon, thumping and bumping up this hill and down that. 1894 M. Dyan All in a Man's Keeping 233 Long ropes..which thumped with wet swishes over the slippery decks. 1899 J. Lumsden Edin. Poems & Songs 77 He thumpeth down the stony street. |
c. Of the heart, etc.: To beat violently or audibly; to throb forcibly.
| 1784 Cowper Task iv. 47 Who patient stands till his feet throb, And his head thumps. 1841 Thackeray Second Funeral Napoleon iii, Everybody's heart was thumping as hard as possible. 1879 Browning Ned Bratts 282 Hearts heaved, heads thumped. 1880 ― Dram. Idylls Ser. ii. Retio 180 How my head throbs, how my heart thumps. |
4. The verb-stem in combination with a n.; as ˈthump-cushion, a preacher who thumps the cushion of the pulpit; in quot. attrib.
| 1827 G. Darley Sylvia 60 Grip him fast by his thump-cushion arm, lest he overdo the action. |