slump

English

Etymology

Probably of North Germanic origin: compare Danish slumpe (“to stumble upon by chance”), Norwegian slumpe (“happen by chance”), Swedish slumpa (“to sell off”). Compare also German schlumpen (“to trail; draggle; be sloppy”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /slʌmp/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmp

Verb

slump (third-person singular simple present slumps, present participle slumping, simple past and past participle slumped)

1. (intransitive) To collapse heavily or helplessly.

   Exhausted, he slumped down onto the sofa.

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     “Heavens!” exclaimed Nina, “the blue-stocking and the fogy!—and yours are pale blue, Eileen!—you’re about as self-conscious as Drina—slumping there with your hair tumbling à la Mérode! Oh, it's very picturesque, of course, but a straight spine and good grooming is better. […]”

2. (intransitive) To decline or fall off in activity or performance.

   Real estate prices slumped during the recession.

   • 2011 October 29, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 3-5 Arsenal”, in BBC Sport:

     The Gunners captain demonstrated his importance to the team by taking his tally to an outstanding 28 goals in 27 Premier League games as Chelsea slumped again after their shock defeat at QPR last week.

   • 2021 December 29, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Problems galore in 2021...”, in RAIL, number 947, page 3:

     But in the week ending December 6, usage slumped from 72% of pre-pandemic numbers to just 56%, following revised advice that we should work from home again.

3. (intransitive) To slouch or droop.
4. (transitive) To lump; to throw together messily.
   • 1859–1860, William Hamilton, edited by H[enry] L[ongueville] Mansel and John Veitch, Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC:

     These different groups […] are exclusively slumped together under that sense.

5. To fall or sink suddenly through or in, when walking on a surface, as on thawing snow or ice, a bog, etc.
   • a. 1678 (date written), Isaac Barrow, “(please specify the chapter name or sermon number). The Danger and Mischief of Delaying Repentance”, in The Works of Dr. Isaac Barrow. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: A[braham] J[ohn] Valpy, […], published 1830–1831, →OCLC:

     The latter walk on a bottomless quag, into which unawares they may slump.

6. (transitive, slang) To cause to collapse; to hit hard; to render unsconscious; to kill.

Translations

to collapse heavily

• Bulgarian: рухвам (bg) impf (ruhvam), рухна pf (ruhna), свличам (bg) impf (svličam), свлека pf (svleka)
• Finnish: romahtaa (fi), rojahtaa, lysähtää (fi)
• French: s’affaler (fr), s’effondrer (fr)
• German: absinken, zusammensacken (de), zusammenbrechen (de)
• Hungarian: roskad, leroskad (hu), rogy, lerogy (hu)
• Italian: crollare (it)
• Maori: horopū (of the earth on a slope), hapuru
• Polish: upadać (pl)
• Portuguese: despencar (pt)
• Russian: оседа́ть (ru) (osedátʹ), рухнуть (ru) pf (ruxnutʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: srozati se (sh)
• Spanish: desfallecer (es), desplomarse (es)
• Turkish: göçmek (tr)
• Ukrainian: звалитися (zvalytysja), (різко) падати (padaty)

to decline, to reduce, to fall off in performance or activity

• Hungarian: nagyot esik/zuhan, bezuhan, megzuhan
• Maori: tūpou (mi), makere

Noun

slump (plural slumps)

1. A heavy or helpless collapse; a slouching or drooping posture; a period of poor activity or performance, especially an extended period.
   1. (slang by extension) A period when a person goes without the expected amount of sex or dating.
      • 2004, Jonathan Tolins, The Last Sunday in June‎^[1]:

        TOM. We haven't had sex with each other in five months.
        MICHAEL. We're in a slump, I know that."

2. A measure of the fluidity of freshly mixed concrete, based on how much the concrete formed in a standard slump cone sags when the cone is removed.
3. (UK, dialect) A boggy place.
4. (Scotland) The noise made by anything falling into a hole, or into a soft, miry place.
5. (Scotland) The gross amount; the mass; the lump.
6. A cobbler-like dessert cooked on a stove.

   a blackberry slump

Derived terms

• slumplike

Translations

helpless collapse

• Catalan: depressió (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 低潮状态, 消沉 (zh) (xiāochén), 萎靡 (zh)

• Finnish: rojahdus (fi), romahdus (fi), lysähdys; (economic depression) lama (fi)
• German: Zusammenbruch (de) m, Zusammenfall m, Kollaps (de) m
• Italian: crollo (it) m
• Russian: депрессия (ru) f (depressija), хандра (ru) f (xandra)
• Spanish: bajón (es) m

measure of the fluidity of fresh concrete

• German: Ausbreitmaß n

a boggy place

• German: Morast (de) m
• Russian: топь (ru) f (topʹ)

noise made by anything falling into a soft, miry place

• German: Plumps m

Anagrams

• Plums, lumps, plums

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From the verb slumpa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /slʊmp/

Noun

slump m (definite singular slumpen, indefinite plural slumpar, definite plural slumpane)

1. random event, chance, happenstance

   Eg valde han ut på slump.

   I picked it randomly.

2. a good amount, quite a bit

   Eg vann ein god slump pengar i går.

   I won quite a bit of money yesterday.

Verb

slump

1. imperative of slumpa

Further reading

• “slump” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Spanish

Noun

slump m (plural slumps)

1. slump (decline)

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle Low German slump.

Pronunciation

• audio:

  (file)

Noun

slump c

1. chance, happenstance, randomness

Declension

Declension of slump

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	slump	slumps
	definite	slumpen	slumpens
plural	indefinite	slumpar	slumpars
	definite	slumparna	slumparnas

Derived terms

• slumpartikel
• slumpmässig
• slumptal (“random number”)
• slumpvariabel
• slumpvis

Related terms

• slumpa
• slumpa sig (“to happen by chance”)