chump

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃʌmp/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmp

Etymology 1

Origin unknown. Perhaps a nasalised variant of chub (“someone chubby, something thick”). Compare Icelandic kubbur (“block of wood, chip (computing)”), Old Norse kumbr for kubbr (“block of wood”), English chop. Probably related to chunk.

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.

   • 2015, chief justice John G. Roberts, dissenting in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission et al., June 29 2015

     What chumps! Didn’t they realize that all they had to do was interpret the constitutional term “the Legislature” to mean “the people”?

2. (colloquial, derogatory) 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^[1]:

     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.

4. (UK, slang, obsolete) A person's head or face.

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

• average frustrated chump
• chump block
• chump-block
• chump blocker
• chump-change
• chump change
• chump chop
• off one's chump
• one pump chump

 

Translations

unintelligent person

• Finnish: typerys (fi), tollo (fi)
• French: abruti (fr) m, abrutie (fr) f, idiot (fr) m, idiote (fr) f, andouille (fr) f, âne (fr) m, imbécile (fr) m
• German: Dummkopf (de) m, Trottel (de) m
• Hungarian: bunkó (hu), tökfej (hu), lúzer (hu)
• Italian: fesso (it) m, fessa (it) f, allocco (it) m, allocca f, balordo (it) m, balorda (it) f, grullo (it) m, grulla (it) f, ottuso (it) m, ottusa (it) f
• Latin: asinus m
• Macedonian: глу́пак m (glúpak)
• Polish: matoł (pl) m
• Russian: дура́к (ru) (durák)
• Spanish: paquete (es) m or f
• Turkish: salak (tr), mal (tr), ahmak (tr)

gullible person

• Finnish: typerys (fi), tollo (fi), tohelo (fi), hölmö (fi)
• Hungarian: balek (hu)
• Italian: fesso (it) m, fessa (it) f, allocco (it) m, allocca f, stupido (it) m, stupida (it) f, credulone (it) m, credulona (it) f
• Russian: ло́х (ru) m (lóx)
• Turkish: keriz (tr), enayi (tr)

References

• (head or face): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

Etymology 2

Variant of chomp, itself a variant of champ (“to bite”). More at champ.

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.