Library / English Dictionary

TRAMP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A long walk usually for exercise or pleasure

Example:

she enjoys a hike in her spare time

Synonyms:

hike; hiking; tramp

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

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

walk (the act of walking somewhere)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tramp"):

trudge (a long difficult walk)

Derivation:

tramp (travel on foot, especially on a walking expedition)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A commercial steamer for hire; one having no regular schedule

Synonyms:

tramp; tramp steamer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

steamer; steamship (a ship powered by one or more steam engines)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A heavy footfall

Example:

the tramp of military boots

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

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

footfall; footstep; step (the sound of a step of someone walking)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A foot traveler; someone who goes on an extended walk (for pleasure)

Synonyms:

hiker; tramp; tramper

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

footer; pedestrian; walker (a person who travels by foot)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tramp"):

backpacker; packer (a hiker who wears a backpack)

Derivation:

tramp (move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment)

tramp (cross on foot)

tramp (travel on foot, especially on a walking expedition)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A person who engages freely in promiscuous sex

Synonyms:

swinger; tramp

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

debauchee; libertine; rounder (a dissolute person; usually a man who is morally unrestrained)

Sense 6

Meaning:

A vagrant

Example:

he tried to help the really down-and-out bums

Synonyms:

bum; hobo; tramp

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

clochard; drifter; floater; vagabond; vagrant (a wanderer who has no established residence or visible means of support)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tramp"):

dosser; street person (someone who sleeps in any convenient place)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment

Example:

They rolled from town to town

Synonyms:

cast; drift; ramble; range; roam; roll; rove; stray; swan; tramp; vagabond; wander

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

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

go; locomote; move; travel (change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically)

Verb group:

drift; err; stray (wander from a direct course or at random)

wander (go via an indirect route or at no set pace)

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

maunder (wander aimlessly)

gad; gallivant; jazz around (wander aimlessly in search of pleasure)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

tramp (a foot traveler; someone who goes on an extended walk (for pleasure))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cross on foot

Example:

We had to tramp the creeks

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

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

cover; cross; cut across; cut through; get across; get over; pass over; track; traverse (travel across or pass over)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

tramp (a foot traveler; someone who goes on an extended walk (for pleasure))

Sense 3

Meaning:

Travel on foot, especially on a walking expedition

Example:

We went tramping about the state of Colorado

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

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

hike (walk a long way, as for pleasure or physical exercise)

Domain category:

athletics; sport (an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

The children tramp to the playground

Derivation:

tramp (a long walk usually for exercise or pleasure)

tramp; tramper (a foot traveler; someone who goes on an extended walk (for pleasure))

Sense 4

Meaning:

Walk heavily and firmly, as when weary, or through mud

Example:

Mules plodded in a circle around a grindstone

Synonyms:

footslog; pad; plod; slog; tramp; trudge

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

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

walk (use one's feet to advance; advance by steps)

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

slop; slosh; splash; splosh; squelch; squish (walk through mud or mire)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

tramper (someone who walks with a heavy noisy gait or who stamps on the ground)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I’m just off a two-yearer in an eight-knot tramp, short-handed at that, and I wants a rest.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I set out; I walked fast, but not far: ere I had measured a quarter of a mile, I heard the tramp of hoofs; a horseman came on, full gallop; a dog ran by his side.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

With the Judge’s sons, hunting and tramping, it had been a working partnership; with the Judge’s grandsons, a sort of pompous guardianship; and with the Judge himself, a stately and dignified friendship.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Tramps slouched into the recess and struck matches on the panels; children kept shop upon the steps; the schoolboy had tried his knife on the mouldings; and for close on a generation, no one had appeared to drive away these random visitors or to repair their ravages.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The feeling with which I used to watch the tramps, as they came into the town on those wet evenings, at dusk, and limped past, with their bundles drooping over their shoulders at the ends of sticks, came freshly back to me; fraught, as then, with the smell of damp earth, and wet leaves and briar, and the sensation of the very airs that blew upon me in my own toilsome journey.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Possibly the tramp wanted to hide that any murder at all had been committed.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Now I can hear the heavy feet tramping again along the hall, with many other idle feet coming behind them.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

"A poor old tramp explains his poor old ulcers," he muttered, remembering his Henly.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I shall row and tramp about, so I don't want any starch to think of.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

No three tramps that one could have met in a Surrey lane could have looked more hopeless and bedraggled.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)