Also 6 thomp, 6–7 thumpe. [Only mod.Eng (16th c.); of echoic formation. Parallel echoic formations are EFris. dump a knock, late Icel. dumpa to thump, Sw. dial. dumpa to make a noise, dompa to thump. The earliest evidence of the word-group in Eng. is in THUMPER 1. The following shows it as a mere imitation of a noise.
c. 1550. Bale, K. Johan (Camden), 53. Sedycyon extra locum. Alarum! Alarum! tro ro ro ro ro,… Thomp, thomp thomp, downe, downe, downe, to go, to go, to go! K. J. What a noyse is thys … without the dore?]
1. trans. To strike or beat heavily, as with the fist, a club, or any blunt instrument, producing a dead, dull, somewhat hard sound; also, without reference to the sound produced, to hammer, pound, knock forcibly.
To thump a cushion, the pulpit, etc.: said of a preacher who uses violent gestures; cf. CUSHION-thumper.
c. 1537. [implied in THUMPER 1].
1548. Elyot, s.v. Incurso, Puguis aliquem incursare, to renne on one to thumpe and beate hym with his fystes.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, Pertundo, to beate with hammers: to thumpe, or knocke.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 19. Thee pacient panting shee thumpt and launst wyth a fyrebolt.
a. 1635. Corbet, On Gt. Tom of Christ-Church, 1. Be dumbe ye infant Chimes, thumpe not your mettle.
1673. Hickeringill, Greg. F. Greyb., 218. In thumping the pulpit … has frighted some from their seats.
1716. Gay, Trivia, I. 13. The sturdy Pavior thumps the ground.
1725. B. Higgons, Rem. Burnet, II. Hist. Wks. 1736, II. 79. He [Bp. Burnet] would … with greater Pleasure and Vehemence have thump’d a Cushion in that Congregation, we now call a Conventicle.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., I. 711. There was he pinch’d and pitied, thump’d and fed.
1907. Q. Rev., April, 393. It was left to the Navy League to thump the big drum.
b. With extension: To drive or force (down, forward, off, out, etc., or into some position or condition) by thumping.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., III. ii. 11. When my hart … Beats…, Then thus I thumpe it downe.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., VI. ii. 10. He with his speare … Would thumpe her forward and inforce to goe.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XVIII. 141. Thrice the feet the hands of Hector seized, And thrice th’ Ajaces thumped him off.
a. 1677. Barrow, Serm., Wks. 1716, II. 80. To think … a slow body may be thumpt and driven into passion … how can we … entertain such suppositions?
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 4. Born to the flail and plough, To thump the corn out and to till the earth.
c. Of the feet, etc.: To beat or strike (the ground, etc.) heavily and noisily; also of a body: to impinge upon with a thump; to strike violently.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 21. Downe the pilot tumbleth … headlong. Thrise the grauel thumping.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., VI. x. 10. A shrill pipe he playing heard on hight, And many feete fast thumping th’hollow ground.
1902. Eliz. L. Banks, Newspaper Girl, 173. His tail would thump the floor most vigorously.
d. With that which beats, strikes, or knocks as object. To thump down, to put or throw down with a thump.
1720. Ramsay, Wealth, 72. While you may thump your Pows against the Wa’.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr. (1823), I. 9. And lumping knocks as one would thump a flail.
1852. Hawthorne, Blithedale Rom., xvii. Baggage, which he thumped down upon the floors.
2. fig. To ‘beat’ (in a fight), to drub, lick, thrash severely. colloq.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., V. iii. 334. These bastard Britaines, whom our Fathers Haue in their owne Land beaten, bobb’d, and thump’d.
1797–1802. G. Colman, Br. Grins, etc., Knt. & Friar, I. i. In our Fifth Harry’s reign, when ’twas the fashion To thump the French … to excess.
1827. Scott, Jrnl., 14 Nov. We have thumped the Turks very well.
3. intr. To strike or beat with force or violence, with an abrupt dull noise; to knock or bump with force. Also to thump it.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Insulto, Insultare fores calcibus, to thumpe or beate at the doore with heeles.
a. 1619. Fletcher, etc., Knt. Malta, III. i. song. Drums beat, Ensigns wave, and Cannons thump it.
1663. Butler, Hudibras, I. III. 520. Colon, chusing out a stone, Level’d so right, it thumpt upon His manly Paunch.
1691. E. Taylor, Behmen’s Theos. Philos., 340. That which melodiously ringeth in the Light, rumbleth and thumpeth in the dark.
1832. Marryat, N. Forster, xiii. I heard the boat thumping under the main channels.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. vii. 72. The … floe-ice against which we were alternately sliding and thumping.
1883. Pall Mall G., 20 Dec., 3/2. No one thinks a drummer-boy a giant because he thumps away upon a big drum.
b. To walk with heavy sounding steps, to stump noisily; also, of a thing, to move with thumps or noisy jolts.
1604. T. M., Black Bk., in Middleton’s Wks. (Bullen), VIII. 28. I thumped down stairs with my cowheel.
1825. T. Hook, Sayings, Ser. II. Passion & Princ., xv. III. 378. Along … went the waggon, thumping and bumping up this hill and down that.
1894. Mrs. Dyan, All in a Man’s Keeping, 233. Long ropes … which thumped with wet swishes over the slippery decks.
1899. J. Lumsden, Edin. Poems & Songs, 77. He thumpeth down the stony street.
c. Of the heart, etc.: To beat violently or audibly; to throb forcibly.
1784. Cowper, Task, IV. 47. Who patient stands till his feet throb, And his head thumps.
1841. Thackeray, 2nd Fun. Napoleon, iii. Everybody’s heart was thumping as hard as possible.
1879. Browning, Ned Bratts, 282. Hearts heaved, heads thumped. Ibid. (1880), Dram. Idyls, Ser. II. Retio, 180. How my head throbs, how my heart thumps.
4. The verb-stem in combination with a sb.; as thump-cushion, a preacher who thumps the cushion of the pulpit; in quot. attrib.
1827. G. Darley, Sylvia, 60. Grip him fast by his thump-cushion arm, lest he overdo the action.
