Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To release or throw down in a large mass.
  • intransitive verb To empty (material) out of a container or vehicle.
  • intransitive verb To empty out (a container or vehicle), as by overturning or tilting.
  • intransitive verb To get rid of; discard.
  • intransitive verb Informal To discard or reject unceremoniously.
  • intransitive verb To place (goods or stock, for example) on the market in large quantities and at a low price.
  • intransitive verb Computers To transfer (data stored internally in a computer) from one place to another, as from a memory to a printout, without processing.
  • intransitive verb Slang To knock down; beat.
  • intransitive verb To fall or drop abruptly.
  • intransitive verb To discharge cargo or contents; unload.
  • intransitive verb Slang To criticize another severely.
  • noun A place where refuse is dumped.
  • noun A storage place for goods or supplies; a depot.
  • noun An unordered accumulation; a pile.
  • noun Computers An instance or the result of dumping stored data.
  • noun Slang A poorly maintained or disreputable place.
  • noun Vulgar Slang An act of defecating. Often used with take.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A dull, gloomy state of the mind; sadness; melancholy; sorrow; heaviness of heart: as, to be in the dumps.
  • noun Meditation; reverie.
  • noun plural Twilight.
  • noun A slow dance with a peculiar rhythm.
  • noun Music for such a dance.
  • noun Any tune.
  • noun A deep hole filled with water.
  • To throw down violently; plunge; tumble.
  • To put or throw down, as a mass or load of anything; unload; especially, to throw down or cause to fall out by tilting up a cart: as, to dump a stickful of type (said by printers); to dump bricks, or a load of brick.
  • To plunge into.
  • To knock heavily.
  • To fall or plunge down suddenly.
  • To unload a cart by tilting it up; dispose of a refuse load by throwing it out at a certain place: as, you must not dump there.
  • In printing, to remove type from the stick and place it on the galley: as, where shall I dump?
  • To press closely; subject to severe pressure, as bales of wool. [Australia.]
  • noun The sound of a heavy object falling; a thud.
  • noun Anything short, thick, and heavy.
  • noun Hence A clumsy medal of lead formerly made by casting in moist sand; specifically, a leaden counter used by boys at chuckfarthing and similar games.
  • noun A small coin of Australia.
  • noun plural Money; “chink.”
  • noun A place for the discharge of loads from carts, trucks, etc., by dumping; a place of deposit for offal, rubbish, or any coarse material.
  • noun The pile of matter so deposited; specifically, the pile of refuse rock around the mouth of a shaft or adit-level.
  • noun A nail. See the extract.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun engraving A thick, ill-shapen piece; a clumsy leaden counter used by boys in playing chuck farthing.
  • noun A car or boat for dumping refuse, etc.
  • noun A ground or place for dumping ashes, refuse, etc.
  • noun That which is dumped.
  • noun (Mining) A pile of ore or rock.
  • noun a coarse term for defecation.
  • noun A dull, gloomy state of the mind; sadness; melancholy; low spirits or a mild depression; despondency; ill humor; -- now used only in the plural.
  • noun Absence of mind; revery.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English dumpen, dompen, to fall suddenly, drop, of Scandinavian origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Akin to Old Norse dumpa ("to thump") ( > Danish dumpe ("to fall suddenly"))

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Examples

Comments

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  • "In the Great War, a place for piling up supplies, as of shells or other ammunition, for distribution; also, the supplies themselves when so deposited."

    December 14, 2006

  • In bookselling, also called "dump bin," a cardboard book stand provided by a publisher to display and promote a major title or series.

    October 23, 2007

  • In a hospital, a dump describes when one service, exasperated with a patient and/or unable to think how to help them best, unceremoniously transfers care to another service to be rid of the problem.

    "Did you see that patient with the chest pain?"

    "Yes! It was a total dump. His labs are normal and the EKG is fine; they just didn't want to tell him it's all in his head."

    January 26, 2008

  • Short for dump truck.

    March 10, 2008

  • In the early days of the colony (New South Wales, Australia), there was no mint. Governor Macquarie imported Spanish coins and 'converted' them by punching a hole in the middle of each one. The coins thus made were known as holey dollars. The centre portions, also used as currency, were known as dumps.

    September 26, 2013