plump

adjective

1. 1

   Having a full and rounded shape; chubby, somewhat overweight.

   a plump baby; plump cheeks

   The god of wine did his plump clusters bring.

   My ideal is to be idle and to love a plump girl.

   He was a plump little man and we had been walking uphill at a pace—set by him—far too rapid for his short legs. He breathed stertorously, and half the drops which glimmered on his rotund face were not rain but sweat.

2. 2

   Sudden and without reservation; blunt; direct; downright.

   We are averse to plump queries, but we are going to ask our readers a plain, simple question Did you ever see a paper y'clept "The Yankee Blade?"

   After the plump statement that the author was at Erceldoune and spake with Thomas.

   I've said so haven't I? Plump and plain.

3. 3

   Of a wine: giving the sensation of filling the mouth.

   A plump wine, with an abundance of plum and berry characteristics and soft, round tannins. Easy to drink; ready on release.

verb

1. 1

   To grow plump; to swell out.

   Her cheeks have plumped.

2. 2

   To make plump; to fill (out) or support; often with up.

   to plump oysters or scallops by placing them in fresh or brackish water

   to plump up the hollowness of their history with improbable miracles

   Although Miss Pross, through her long association with a French family, might have known as much of their language as of her own, if she had had a mind, she had no mind in that direction […] So her manner of marketing was to plump a noun-substantive at the head of a shopkeeper without any introduction in the nature of an article […]

3. 3

   To give a plumper (kind of vote).

4. 4

   To give (a vote), as a plumper.

5. 5

   To favor or decide in favor of.

   A recent poll by the New York Times found that although most Brazilians plump for arch-rival Argentina as the team they most want to lose, the second-biggest group want Brazil itself to stumble.

verb

1. 1

   To cast or let drop (something) all at once, suddenly and heavily.

   to plump a stone into water

2. 2

   To drop or fall suddenly or heavily, all at once.

   September 24, 1712, The Spectator No. 492, letter from a prude Dulcissa plumps into a chair.

adverb

1. 1

   Directly; suddenly; perpendicularly.

   I suppose then, that going plump on a flying whale with your sail set in a foggy squall is the height of a whaleman’s discretion?

noun

1. 1

   The sound of a sudden heavy fall.

   As she beheld her, poor Mrs. Mack's heart fluttered up to her mouth, and then dropped with a dreadful plump, into the pit of her stomach.

noun

1. 1

   obsoleteA knot or cluster; a group; a crowd.

   a plump of trees, fowls, or spears

   To visit islands and the plumps of men.

2. 2

   A group of ducks or geese migrating, or sometimes other groups of birds.

   What Descartes called res cogitans is not a defined res but a network, a swarm, a cloud, much like a plump of geese flying south or ants foraging around their woodlands.

   A great example of professionalism in aviation: on the afternoon of January 15, 2009, in the middle of wintertime, a big plump of geese were flying south, getting off of the strong cold weather.

   A "plump" of ducks rose at the same time and took the route to the north in the wake of their noisier cousins

   On this account, the Kestrel is often seen in the winter months hovering near the farmyards, in hopes of making a successful dash among a plump of sparrows as they congregate over some fresh straw, or settle among the fowls for the purpose of picking up the grain which was intended for the poultry.

Forms

plural

plumps

comparative

plumper, more plump

superlative

plumpest, most plump

past tense

plumped

past participle

plumped

present participle

plumping

third person singular

plumps