LUMP


Meaning of LUMP in English

I. lump 1 S2 /lʌmp/ BrE AmE noun [countable]

1 . a small piece of something solid, without a particular shape:

Strain the custard to remove lumps.

lump of

Melt a lump of butter in your frying-pan.

2 . a small hard swollen area that sticks out from someone’s skin or grows in their body, usually because of an illness:

You should never ignore a breast lump.

3 . a small square block of sugar:

One lump or two?

4 . a lump in/to sb’s throat a feeling that you want to cry:

There was a lump in her throat as she gazed at the child.

5 . take your lumps American English informal to accept the bad things that happen and not let them affect you:

According to experts, the company took its lumps but is on the road to profitability.

6 . British English spoken someone who is stupid or ↑ clumsy :

He’s a big fat lump.

• • •

THESAURUS

▪ piece an amount of something that has been cut or separated from the main part:

Could I have another piece of cake?

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a piece of broken glass

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Emma cut the pie into eight pieces.

▪ bit a piece. Bit is more informal than piece and is often used about smaller pieces:

The notes were written on bits of paper.

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He threw a bit of wood onto the fire.

▪ lump a small piece of something solid or firm that does not have a regular shape:

two lumps of sugar

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a lump of coal

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a lump of clay

▪ scrap a small piece of paper, cloth etc that is no longer needed:

I wrote the phone number on a scrap of paper.

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The dog was eating scraps of food off the floor.

▪ strip a long narrow piece of cloth, paper etc:

a strip of cloth

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The leather had been cut into strips.

▪ sheet a thin flat piece of something such as paper, glass, or metal:

a blank sheet of paper

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a sheet of aluminium

▪ slice a thin flat piece of bread, cake, meat etc cut from a larger piece:

a slice of pizza

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Cut the tomatoes into thin slices.

▪ chunk a piece of something solid that does not have a regular shape – used especially about food, rock, or metal:

The fruit was cut into large chunks.

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a chunk of bread

▪ hunk a large piece with rough edges, which has been cut or has broken off a bigger piece of food, rock etc:

a big hunk of cheese

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hunks of concrete

▪ block a piece of something solid, which has straight sides:

concrete blocks

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a block of cheese

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a block of ice

▪ slab a thick flat piece of stone, or of cake, meat etc:

The floor had been made from stone slabs.

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a slab of beef

▪ cube a piece that has six square sides – used especially about food:

a cube of sugar

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ice cubes

▪ wedge a piece that has a thick end and a pointed end, and is shaped like a ↑ triangle – used especially about food and metal:

a wedge of cheese

▪ bar a block of soap, chocolate, candy, or metal, which has straight sides:

a chocolate bar

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a bar of soap

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gold bars worth more than £26 million

▪ rasher British English a slice of bacon:

I usually have two rashers of bacon for breakfast.

II. lump 2 BrE AmE verb [transitive]

1 . lump it informal to accept a situation or decision you do not like because you cannot change it:

They’ve been told: take the lower interest rate, or lump it.

It’s the law so you can like it or lump it.

2 . to put two or more different people or things together and consider them as a single group, sometimes wrongly

lump something together

You can’t lump the symptoms together and blame them all on stress.

lump somebody/something in with somebody/something

The danger is that people who pay their bills on time will be lumped in with those that don’t.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.      Longman - Словарь современного английского языка.