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(l
mp) [f. LUMP n.1
Cf. LUMPING ppl. a. 2, which occurs much earlier than the verb.]
1. trans. a. To melt down into a lump. b. To form or raise into lumps. c. To cover with lumps.
1797 M. ROBINSON Walsingham (1805) IV. xc. 256 Topas nicked the family plate, and has lumped it by this time, with my pink diamond into the bargain.
1852 Meanderings of Mem. I. 12, I the mattress spread, And equal lay whatever lumps the bed.
1879 G. MEREDITH Egoist xxiii, An old cuirass..lumped with a strange adhesive concrete.
1893 EARL DUNMORE Pamirs II. 293 Ploughed fields, one of which was ‘lumped up’ for melon planting, each lump a mound about two feet high.
2. To put altogether in one ‘lump’, mass, sum, or group, without discrimination or regard for particulars or details; to take, consider, or deal with ‘in the lump’. a. simply. spec. in Taxonomy: To classify (plants and animals) without using minute variations as a basis for the establishment of a large number of different species or genera. Cf. LUMPER n. 3.
1624 BP. R. MONTAGU Immed. Addr. 84 They agree not long with and amongst themselues,..let them be lumped or consorted as they would haue it, as they please.
1721 C. KING Brit. Merch. I. 223 They are as much out in their Estimation..as they are in their other goods, which they lump at above 480000
l. whereas they amount only to 168884
l.
1781 F. BURNEY Diary Mar., I have been..provokingly interrupted in writing this, that I must now finish it by lumping matters at once.
1840 MARRYAT Poor Jack xiii, They always lump the petty officers and common seamen.
1852 H. C. WATSON Cybele Britannica III. 8 Early training under the late Professor Graham, and geographical convenience, are very likely to have given to me..a predisposition to ‘lump’ species.
1884 BROWNING Ferishtah, Camel-Driver, Man lumps his kind i' the mass. God singles thence Unit by unit.
1893 LYDEKKER Horns & Hoofs 75 Dr. Gray (who certainly did not err on the side of ‘lumping’ species).
1945 A. YOUNG Prospect of Flowers xx. 151 Our Village Schoolmistress carries lumping to an extreme degree.
1962 M
ACKWORTH-P
RAED &
GRANT Birds S. Third Afr. I. p. xi, It will be noted that we have not followed the modern trend of ‘lumping’ species and that we keep specific rank in this work for more birds than is usual nowadays.
1973 Nature 30 Mar. 353/1 The general absence of subgenera and species groups [in Chiarelli's classification of primates], combined with some tendency to ‘lump’ has meant the virtual disappearance of certain significant distinctions.
b. to lump together (occas. up).
1692 SIR T. P. BLOUNT Ess. 103 Take the World in Gross, and lump it together.
1726 AYLIFFE Parergon 82 A compensation of Expences ought to be made, that is to say in English, the Expences ought to be lump'd together and divided.
1856 MAXWELL in
Life viii. (1882) 239 A tendency in the human mind to lump up all causes, and give them an aggregate name.
1895 F. HARRISON in
19th Cent. Aug. 314 All systems of unorthodox philosophy are lumped together by him as mere forms of contemporary superstition.
c. to lump (together) in or into, occas. under.
1703 DE FOE Freeholder's Plea agst. Stockjobbing Elections Misc. 182 Our Liberties and Armies, and Fleets, and Parliaments, and Nation, are not Lump'd into Bargains.
1839 J. STERLING Ess., etc. (1848) I. 326 Mr. Carlyle lumps under the same condemnation all introspection of a man's being.
1883 S
IR J. B
ACON in
Law Rep. 27 Ch. Div. 511 The premium and the principal are lumped in one sum.
1902 BOND Lyly's Wks. II. 249 The..earlier work which I have lumped together under the wide title of Moralities.
d. to lump (something) into or (in) with (something else): see 2.
1796 BENTHAM Prot. agst. Law Taxes (1816) 56 It comes lumped to him in the general mass of law charges: a heap of items, among which no vulgar eye can ever hope to discriminate.
1831 T. L. PEACOCK Crotchet C. viii. Farmer Seedling lumps it in with his tithes... Lumps it in, sir! Lump in a charitable donation!
1857 HUGHES Tom Brown I. viii, ‘I won't’, said Tom,..lumping them all in his mind with his sworn enemy.
1874 G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE Uncle John II. xviii. 193 The General lumped him in with a body of dancing men..he was pleased to call the Light Brigade.
3. 
a. To pay in a lump sum. Obs. rare.
1755 Mem. Capt. P. Drake I. xv 147 The Turnkey proposed to us, to lump (as he called it) the coming down Money.
b. To lay the whole of (a particular sum of money) on a single object.
1864 Derby Day iii. 32 He lumped it all upon an outsider, and backed him to win the Chester Cup.
1872 BESANT &
RICE Ready Money Mort. v, If I only had a dollar in the world..I'd lump it all on my system.
4. intr. To collect together into a lump; to be formed or raised into lumps.
1720 R
OBIE in
Phil. Trans. XXXI. 122 [To] cause the Ashes to lump or clodder together.
1852 C. MORFIT Tanning & Currying (1853) 397 Leather thus made..does not lump under the hammer.
1856 SYMONDS in H. F. Brown
Biog. (1895) I. 82, I have a new cover and cushion made for my chair. It is much fatter and more comfortable than the old one, which used to lump up all in a heap.
5. To move heavily, ‘stump’ along; to drop down like a lump.
1861 F. W. ROBINSON No-Church Prol. (1863) 4 The old woman gave a snort like a sea-horse, lumped down in her bed, and drew her counterpane over her head.
Ibid. viii. 61 He scrambled up with an oath, lumped down again in a sitting posture, and stared before him stupidly.
1879 G. MEREDITH Egoist I. Prel. 4 They lump along like the old lob-legs of Dobbin the horse.
6. (Influenced by LUMPER n 1.) To act as a lumper, to load or unload cargoes. Hence, (colloq.) to carry or shift (something heavy) about.
1890 BARRÈRE &
LELAND Dict. Slang II. 33/2 (Thieves), to
lump the lighter, to be transported. In this case to
lump signifies to load.
1905 Westm. Gaz. 10 Oct. 10/1 He..soon had the squad of irregulars at hard work ‘lumping’ as heartily as any gang of dock labourers.
1911 ‘K
IWI’
On Swag 14 For a month or so [I] was lumping on the wharf at the Spit.
1925 A. B. A
RMITAGE Cadet to Commodore vi. 43, I earned sixteen shillings a week by ‘lumping’ in the docks.
1946 K. TENNANT Lost Haven (1947) xiii. 201 ‘I promised her a salmon.’ He felt a fool lumping the great thing about.
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