galumph

present singular third person galumphs · participle present galumphing · participle past galumphed · past galumphed

1. intransitiveTo move heavily and clumsily, or with a sense of prancing and triumph.

   He instructed the taxi to wait and galumphed happily up.

   1935, Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night

   4 more examples

   The Wild Things are a triumph of stagecraft, and they galumph away with the show.

   1990, John von Rhein, The Chicago Tribune, "Wild Things Perfect Fare for Holidays", December 19, 1990

   Lily's heart galumphed. This wasn't the same temp she'd bribed away yesterday. Something had gone haywire. She braced herself. Myra looked at the woman, then at Lily, who was suddenly busy with her stenography.

   2008, Denise Hamilton, The Last Embrace, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 137

   The big fellow finally took a long look at the thing under his chin, and the current disturbance, and galumphed away, but Claudio was still dancing from boulder to boulder, trying to keep away from the teeth of the lunging females.

   2013, William Conway, Act III in Patagonia: People and Wildlife, Island Press, →ISBN, page 186

   In 2024, we might occasionally raise an eyebrow at Eurovision’s galumphing attempts to keep pace with pop culture – a bit of awkward rapping here, a clumsily deployed trap beat there, […]

   2024 April 5, Alexis Petridis, “Abba, cabaret and smug marionettes: the 1974 Eurovision song contest reviewed!”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

2. intransitive(of a seal) To move across land by undulating the body.