bump

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To hit something accidentally, usually with a knock

   My car bumped into the tree in the dark.

2. 2
   noun

   A sudden knock or jolt from hitting something

   The bump threw me off my bicycle.

3. 3
   noun

   A small raised swelling on the skin or a surface

   She had a painful bump on her forehead.

4. 4
   verb

   To meet someone by chance

   I bumped into an old friend at the store.

Multiword verbs with bump

• bump off Phrasal verb B1

  to kill someone deliberately, in informal speech

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Bump, recorded from the mid-16th century, was probably formed because it sounded appropriate and seemed to express the sound of feet hitting the ground, like jump and thump.

From Early Modern English bump (“a shock, blow from a collision”), probably of North Germanic origin; compare Danish bump (“a thump”), Danish bumpe (“to thump”), Old Danish bumpe (“to strike with a clenched fist”), all probably of imitative origin. Apparently related to Middle English bumben, bummen (“to make a hollow noise”), Dutch bommen (“to hum, buzz”), German Low German bumsen (“to bump, push”), German bummen (“to hum, buzz”), Icelandic bumba (“drum”). More at bum, bumble. Compare also bomb.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary