Library / English Dictionary

THUMP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A heavy blow with the hand

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("thump" is a kind of...):

blow (a powerful stroke with the fist or a weapon)

Derivation:

thump (hit hard with the hand, fist, or some heavy instrument)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A heavy dull sound (as made by impact of heavy objects)

Synonyms:

clump; clunk; thud; thump; thumping

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("thump" is a kind of...):

sound (the sudden occurrence of an audible event)

Derivation:

thump (make a dull sound)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Hit hard with the hand, fist, or some heavy instrument

Example:

a bible-thumping Southern Baptist

Synonyms:

poke; pound; thump

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "thump" is one way to...):

hit (deal a blow to, either with the hand or with an instrument)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The fighter managed to thump his opponent

Derivation:

thump (a heavy blow with the hand)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Move rhythmically

Example:

Her heart was beating fast

Synonyms:

beat; pound; thump

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "thump" is one way to...):

move (move so as to change position, perform a nontranslational motion)

Verb group:

beat (indicate by beating, as with the fingers or drumsticks)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "thump"):

pulsate; pulse; throb (expand and contract rhythmically; beat rhythmically)

flutter; palpitate (beat rapidly)

thrash (beat so fast that (the heart's) output starts dropping until (it) does not manage to pump out blood at all)

flap (move noisily)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make a dull sound

Example:

the knocker thudded against the front door

Synonyms:

thud; thump

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "thump" is one way to...):

go; sound (make a certain noise or sound)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

thump; thumping (a heavy dull sound (as made by impact of heavy objects))

Credits

 Context examples: 

Senior experts and engineers from across the agency and the Lockheed Martin Corporation concluded Friday that the QueSST design is capable of fulfilling the LBFD aircraft’s mission objectives, which are to fly at supersonic speeds, but create a soft thump instead of the disruptive sonic boom associated with supersonic flight today.

(NASA Completes Milestone Toward Quieter Supersonic X-Plane, NASA)

I ’eard the thump of it, and I kind o’ velt somethin’ vistle past me, but ven I looked there vas the Eytalian a feelin’ of ’is muscles in the middle o’ the stage, and as to Bob, there vern’t no sign’ of ’im at all no more’n if ’e’d never been.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It came to me that their behavior was like that of hungry dogs, and in the fitness of things I should not have been astonished had Zilla suddenly developed a tail and thumped it on the floor in right doggish fashion.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

When he had travelled a few minutes it would begin a remorseless thump, thump, thump, and then leap up and away in a painful flutter of beats that choked him and made him go faint and dizzy.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)