rump

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the hindquarters of an animal, or informally the buttocks of a person

   The horse had a white patch across its rump.

2. 2
   noun

   a cut of meat taken from an animal's hindquarters

   The butcher recommended a lean piece of rump for the roast.

3. 3
   noun

   a small or inferior remnant of a group, organization, or territory after most of it has gone

   Only a rump of the original coalition remained after the resignations.

From Middle English rumpe, probably from a Scandinavian or Low German source related to Old Norse rumpr ('rump') and Middle Low German rump ('trunk or body'). The figurative sense 'a surviving remnant' became prominent after England's Rump Parliament, the reduced Parliament left after Pride's Purge in 1648.

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