[Known since end of 16th c. Agrees in form and meaning with LG. klump, MLG. klumpe (whence also mod.G. klumpe(n), Du. klomp, MDu. clompe, lump, mass. Cf. OE. clympre, CLUMPER. There is no evidence to show whether the English goes back with these to OLG. or WGer., or is of later adoption from LG. The stem klump- appears in ON. with another grade of the labial as klumb-, whence klumba, klubba; CLUB.
In sense 4 it is immediately derived from MDu. and MLG. clumpe, klumpe, Du. klomp a wooden shoe, i.e., a shoe entirely shaped out of a lump of wood (as worn by the North German peasantry); which is a special application of the Du. and LG. word as given above. Although, therefore, this use has not been developed in English from the radical sense, it may be treated as belonging to the same word, esp. as there is a general association of meaning: cf. also CLUMP v.
Klumb- was probably a nasalized form of *kluƀ-; comparing this with the stem kulƀ- of OHG. cholbo, OLG. *kolƀa (MLG. and MDu. colve, Du. kolf ‘club’), and ON. kolfr javelin, kylfi, kylfa ‘knot, club,’ we are led to a pre-Teut. *glbh, whence app. L. globus rounded mass, ball.]
1. A compact mass or piece, a heap, a lump (often implying clumsiness of form).
c. 1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Clump, a Heap or Lump.
1721. Bradley, Philos. Acc. Wks. Nat., 120. Frog Spawn … is brought forth in a clump.
1755. Johnson, Clump, a shapeless piece of wood or other matter, nearly equal in its dimensions.
1767. Monro, in Phil. Trans., LVII. 503. In this crystallisation the salt seemed to form in clumps.
1868. ‘E. Garrett’ (Mrs. Mayo), Occup. Retired Life, I. vii. 241. A baker gave me a clump o’ bread.
1872. Dana, Corals, ii. 144. The bluff declivity with its clinging clumps.
2. ‘A cluster of trees; a tuft of trees or shrubs’ (J.); now also, a compact mass or patch of any growing plant, e.g., a clump of lily of the valley.
a. 1586. Answ. Cartwright, 44. Are a clump of fruite trees called an orcharde, yf they stand open in the fielde without a fence?
1759. B. Martin, Nat. Hist. Eng., I. Hants, 117. Two large Clumps of Scots Fir Trees.
1766. Pennant, Zool. (1768), II. 344. It builds its nest with the leaves of water plants on some dry clump among the reeds.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess. Friendship, Wks. (Bohn), I. 89. That clump of waving grass that divides the brook.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., i. (1876), 3. A large clump of bananas.
1882. Vines, Sachs’ Bot., 369. New clumps of young plants.
b. By extension.
1870. Hawthorne, Eng. Note-Bks. (1879), I. 121. The clump of village houses.
Mod., Crochet Directions. Clump of four long stitches; clump of six long stitches.
3. Clumps: a parlor game of questions and answers, also called clubs.
Played by two sides; two members, one from each side, agree upon the name of something; each side then gathers in a close group or clump round the member of the other side, and tries to find out from him by questions, answered only by ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ the thing thought of, the contest being to try which side shall first succeed in doing this.
1883. Miss Braddon, Gold. Calf, III. vi. 187. Brian was good at everything—charades, clumps, consequences, dumb crambo.
4. A thick extra sole on a shoe, either added outside the sole proper after the shoe is made, or inserted between the sole and bottom of the shoe in the process of making. [In this use the word has app. passed through the senses of wooden shoe, wooden sole or clog, to that of extra thick sole.] Hence clump-boot, -shoe, a heavy boot or shoe with a clump-sole, or thick double sole for rough wear; whence clump-soled adj.
1879. Miss Braddon, Cloven Foot, xxxiv. 266. Put on your waterproof and clump soles.
5. Mining. The compressed clay of coal strata; = CLUNCH.
1865. in Brande.
6. Comb., as clump-block, Naut. (see quots.); clump-built a., ? clumsily built; clump-headed a. (see quot.); clump-boot, etc., see 4.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 37. *Clump blocks used … for lower tacks and sheets, clews of topsails, &c.; or where a short and thick block will answer the purpose of the common ones.
1882. Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 34. They are rove through iron-bound clump blocks.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb. (1861), 208. Those *clump-built sloops.
1827. Steuart, Planter’s G. (1828), 126. When the leading shoots of the stem begin to lose their preeminence, and gradually disappear among the other branches, the top of the Tree assumes a rounded form, and becomes what is called *clump-headed.
¶ Erroneously used for CLAMP.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 317. The frame carrying the dividing-point or tracer … may be there fastened by tightening two clumps.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 69. Supported by iron clumps called knees.
