English

Noun

dump ‎(plural dumps)

1. A place where waste or garbage is left; a ground or place for dumping ashes, refuse, etc.; a disposal site.

   A toxic waste dump.

2. A car or boat for dumping refuse, etc.
3. That which is dumped, especially in a chaotic way; a mess.
4. (computing) An act of dumping, or its result.

   The new XML dump is coming soon.

5. (computing) A formatted listing of the contents of program storage, especially when produced automatically by a failing program
6. A storage place for supplies, especially military.
7. An unpleasant, dirty, disreputable, or unfashionable, boring or depressing looking place.

   This place looks like a dump.

   Don't feel bad about moving away from this dump.

8. (vulgar, slang, often with the verb "take") An act of defecation; a defecating.

   I have to take a dump.

9. A dull, gloomy state of the mind; sadness; melancholy; low spirits; despondency; ill humor (usually plural).

   March slowly on in solemn dump. -- Hudibras.

   Doleful dumps the mind oppress. --William Shakespeare

   I was musing in the midst of my dumps. --John Bunyan.

10. Absence of mind; revery.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of John Locke to this entry?)

11. (mining) A pile of ore or rock.
12. (obsolete) A melancholy strain or tune in music; any tune.

    Tune a deploring dump.

    Play me some merry dump. --William Shakespeare

13. (obsolete) An old kind of dance.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Nares to this entry?)

14. (historical, Australia) A small coin made by punching a hole in a larger coin (called a holey dollar).
    • 2002, Paul Swan, Maths Investigations, page 66,

      Basically, to overcome an acute shortage of money in 1813, Governor Lachlan Macquarie bought silver dollars from Spain and then punched the centres out, thereby producing two coins - the ‘holey dollar’ (worth five shillings) and the ‘dump’ (worth one shilling and threepence). Talk about creating money out of nothing—the original silver dollar only cost five shillings! The holey dollar and the dump have been adopted as the symbol for the Macquarie Bank in Australia.

Derived terms

See also

• (obsolete Australian coin): holey dollar

Translations

Verb

dump ‎(third-person singular simple present dumps, present participle dumping, simple past and past participle dumped)

1. (transitive) To release, especially in large quantities and chaotic manner.
2. (transitive) To discard; to get rid of something one does not want anymore.
   • 2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

     The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. […] It was used to make kerosene, the main fuel for artificial lighting after overfishing led to a shortage of whale blubber. Other liquids produced in the refining process, too unstable or smoky for lamplight, were burned or dumped.

3. (transitive) To sell below cost or very cheaply; to engage in dumping.
4. (transitive, computing) To copy data from a system to another place or system, usually in order to archive it.
5. (transitive, informal) To end a relationship with.
6. (transitive) To knock heavily; to stump.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

7. (transitive, US) To put or throw down with more or less of violence; hence, to unload from a cart by tilting it

   We dumped the coal onto the fireplace.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bartlett to this entry?)

8. (transitive, US) To precipitate (especially snow) heavily.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:junk

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

See dumpling.

Noun

dump ‎(plural dumps)

1. (Britain, archaic) A thick, ill-shapen piece.
2. (Britain, archaic) A lead counter used in the game of chuck-farthing.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Smart to this entry?)

Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

dump

1. first-person singular present indicative of dumpen
2. imperative of dumpen