chump

chump

English

Etymology

Compare Icelandic kumbr (“a chopping”), English chop.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʃʌmp/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmp

Noun

chump (plural chumps)

1. (colloquial, derogatory) An incompetent person, a blockhead; a loser.

   That chump wouldn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.

2. A gullible person; a sucker; someone easily taken advantage of; someone lacking common sense.

   It shouldn't be hard to put one over on that chump.

   • 2012 August 5, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “I Love Lisa” (season 4, episode 15; originally aired 02/11/1993)”, in AV Club‎:

     Ralph Wiggum is generally employed as a bottomless fount of glorious non sequiturs, but in “I Love Lisa” he stands in for every oblivious chump who ever deluded himself into thinking that with persistence, determination, and a pure heart he can win the girl of his dreams.

3. The thick end, especially of a piece of wood or of a joint of meat.
   • 1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Chapter X:

     Shaped as if they had been unskilfully cut off the chump-end of something.

Synonyms

• (an unintelligent person): blockhead, idiot, dope, dolt, dunce, dummy
• (a gullible person): gull, sucker, dupe, sap, dummy, patsy, pigeon
• See also Thesaurus:dupe

Derived terms

• chump change
• chump chop
• off one's chump

Translations

an unintelligent person

Finnish: typerys (fi), tollo (fi) French: abruti (fr) m, idiot (fr) m, andouille (fr) f, âne (fr) m, imbécile (fr) m German: Dummkopf (de) m, Trottel (de) m Hungarian: bunkó (hu), tökfej (hu) Italian: fesso (it) m, allocco (it) m, balordo (it) m, grullo (it) m, ottuso (it) m

Latin: asinus Polish: matoł (pl) m Russian: дура́к (ru) (durák) Spanish: paquete (es) m or f Turkish: salak (tr), mal (tr), ahmak (tr)

a gullible person

Finnish: typerys (fi), tollo (fi), tohelo (fi), hölmö (fi) Hungarian: balek (hu) Italian: fesso (it) m, allocco (it) m, stupido (it) m, credulone (it) m

Russian: ло́х (ru) m (lóx) Turkish: keriz (tr), enayi (tr)

Verb

chump (third-person singular simple present chumps, present participle chumping, simple past and past participle chumped)

1. Dated form of chomp.
   • 1922, Arthur Machen, The Secret Glory

     At a neighbouring table two Germans were making a hearty meal, chumping the meat and smacking their lips in a kind of heavy ecstasy.