- a large mass that sticks out above the surface of something, especially the ground
- the dark hump of the mountain in the distance
- (British English) a road/speed/traffic hump (= a hump on a road that forces traffic to drive more slowly)
- a large curved part on the back of some animals, especially camelsTopics Animalsc2
- a round part that sticks out on the back of a person, caused by an unusual curve in the spine (= the row of bones in the middle of the back)
Word Originearly 18th cent.: probably related to Low German humpe ‘hump’, also to Dutch homp, Low German humpe ‘lump, hunk (of bread)’.
Idioms
See hump in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarybe over the hump
- to have done the most difficult part of something
bust a gut (doing something/to do something) (informal)
(also North American English, informal bust your butt/chops/hump, North American English, offensive, slang bust your ass)
- to make a great effort to do something
- It’s a problem which nobody is going to bust a gut trying to solve.
- I busted my chops to get into law school.
- These guys were busting their butts on the field, trying to excel at athletics.
bust your hump/butt/chops (doing something/to do something) (North American English, informal)
(also bust a gut British and North American English, informal, bust your ass North American English, taboo, slang)
- (informal) to make a great effort to do something
- I busted my hump to get into law school.
- These guys were busting their butts on the field, trying to excel at athletics.
- It’s a problem which nobody is going to bust a gut trying to solve.
get/take the hump | give somebody the hump
- (British English, informal) to become annoyed or upset about something; to make somebody annoyed or upset about something
- Fans get the hump when the team loses.
- Politicians give me the hump.
Check pronunciation:
hump