slump

Meanings

Verb

• To collapse heavily or helplessly.
• To decline or fall off in activity or performance.
• To slouch or droop.
• To lump; to throw together messily.
• To fall or sink suddenly through or in, when walking on a surface, as on thawing snow or ice, a bog, etc.
• To cause to collapse; to hit hard; to render unsconscious; to kill.

Noun

• A heavy or helpless collapse; a slouching or drooping posture; a period of poor activity or performance, especially an extended period.
• A measure of the fluidity of freshly mixed concrete, based on how much the concrete formed in a standard slump cone sags when the cone is removed.
• A boggy place.
• The noise made by anything falling into a hole, or into a soft, miry place.
• The gross amount; the mass; the lump.
• A cobbler-like dessert cooked on a stove.

Origin

• Probably of North Germanic origin: compare Danish slumpe ("to stumble upon by chance"), Norwegian slumpe ("happen by chance"), Swedish slumpa ("to sell off"). Compare also German schlumpen ("to trail; draggle; be sloppy").