Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
No pronunciation record was provided for this word.
name
A nursery rhyme character who falls from a wall and breaks irreparably in the manner of an egg; (figurative) by extension, anything similarly fragile, irreparably damaged, or insecure, precariously at risk of such irreparable damage.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A Romani drink of ale boiled with brandy.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
an egg-shaped character in a nursery rhyme who fell off a wall and could not be put back together again (late 17th century)
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: imaginary being, imaginary creature
History
Possibly baby talk forms of Humphrey, since Dump and Dumphrey have been recorded as pet forms of this given name. Various suggestions have been offered for the original meaning of the nursery rhyme, chiefly concerning the English Civil War, although none has received general acceptance- modern scholars believe it may have been intended to be a riddle, with the answer of "an egg".
Across languages
13 source translations are retained for this English entry.
