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?
|
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
|
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.
|
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
|
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.