crump

plural crumps

1. The sound of a muffled explosion.

   Crump, crack! A shell exploded near them and the whole aircraft yawned to port as if somebody had punched it through the sky.

   1999, Kate Atkinson, Behind the Scenes at the Museum

   3 more examples

   And there was another bit [of a hymn]: ‘To an inheritance incorruptible. … Through faith unto salvation, Ready to be revealèd at the last trump.’ For ‘trump’ we always used to sing ‘crump.’ ‘The last crump’ was the end of the war and would we ever hear it burst safely behind us?

   1929 November, Robert Graves, chapter XVIII, in Good-bye to All That: An Autobiography, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 251

   Above this grey skyline slowly lifting clouds of dirty smoke rose into the morning air as the salvoes of Japanese shells exploded with a delayed crump.

   2000, Richard Woodman, The Darkening Sea

   "Now you can see what life is like for us here," said Yakov Shoshani, raising his voice to make himself heard over the sound of a loud crump.

   2008, Paul Wood, BBC News., Taking cover on Sderot front line

present singular third person crumps · participle present crumping · participle past crumped · past crumped

1. intransitiveTo produce such a sound.

   “Mortars crumped, and from the high ground to the east and south came the shriek of 88-millimeter shells, green fireballs that whizzed through the dunes at half a mile a second, trailing golden plumes of dust.”

   2007 September 28, William Grimes, “In Middle Leg of the Race, the Prize Was Italy”, in New York Times

comparative more crump · superlative most crump

1. ScotlandUKdialectalHard or crusty; dry baked

   a crump loaf

comparative more crump · superlative most crump

1. obsoleteCrooked; bent.

   Crooked backs and crump shoulders.

   1701, John Gauden (attributed), Several Letters between Two Ladies Wherein the Lawfulness and Unlawfulness of Artificial Beauty in Point of Conscience are Nicely Debated

present singular third person crumps · participle present crumping · participle past crumped · past crumped

1. USintransitivemedical slangTo decline rapidly in health (but not as rapidly as crash).

   if the patient is acutely crumping from cardiac arrest, do not waste time doing an ECG when you could be performing CPR.

   2009, Kevin Schwechten, USMLE Step 3 Triage: An Effective, No-nonsense Review, Oxford University Press, page 4

   2 more examples

   I can only be in one place at a time, so sometimes I just have to say, “Listen, I’ve got this other patient that’s crumping down the hall.[”]

   1998, Marsha E. Fonteyn, Thinking Strategies for Nursing Practice, Lippincott, page 167

   Not to be confused with the dance style, doctors use 'crumping' when they have a patient that is 'crashing, but not aggressively,' the Chicago doctor told Daily Mail Online.

   2017 December 30, Natalie Rahhal, “The secret codes doctors use to INSULT their patients right in front of them - and why the lingo harms your health care”, in Daily Mail Online

   Synonyms: circle the drain

plural Crumps

1. countableuncountableA surname from Middle English.

   1 more example

   In a news conference Monday afternoon, civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Massey’s family, connected her death to other cases of police violence against Black people across the US. […] Crump referenced what Grayson said – “I’ll f**king shoot you in the f**king face” – before Massey was shot.

   2024 July 24, Emma Tucker and Bill Kirkos, “What we know about the deputy charged with killing Sonya Massey in her home after she called 911 for help”, in CNN, archived from the original on 07 Feb 2025

2. A placename
   1. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Garfield Township, Bay County, Michigan, United States.
   2. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, United States.
   3. countableuncountableA city in Hardin County, Tennessee, United States.