Humpty Dumpty

American  

[huhmp-tee duhmp-tee] / ˈhʌmp ti ˈdʌmp ti /

noun

1. an egg-shaped character in a Mother Goose nursery rhyme that fell off a wall and could not be put together again.

2. (sometimes lowercase) something that has been damaged severely and usually irreparably.

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humpty dumpty British  

/ ˈhʌmptɪ ˈdʌmptɪ /

noun

1. a short fat person

2. a person or thing that once overthrown or broken cannot be restored or mended

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“Humpty Dumpty” Cultural  

1. A nursery rhyme:

   Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall;

   Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

   All the king's horses and all the king's men

   Couldn't put Humpty together again.

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Etymology

Origin of Humpty Dumpty

Rhyming compound based on humpty; see hump, -ed ³, -y ²

Example Sentences

In 1871 Lewis Carroll’s Humpty Dumpty told Alice: “When I use a word, it means whatever I choose it to mean.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 15, 2025

A house on the site said to be the inspiration for the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme has been put up for sale.

From BBC • Apr. 19, 2024

Humpty Dumpty is an apt analogy here: It’s easier to prevent his great fall than to put him together again after he’s broken.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 11, 2023

The best performance documentation in the exhibition is a video recording of his “Piano Destruction Concert: Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall,” recorded live at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1996.

From New York Times • Jul. 28, 2022

“I’ll never go down the stairs. Never! If I slip and fall, I’ll break like Humpty Dumpty into hundreds of pieces and then who’ll put me back together again?”

From "Lucky Broken Girl" by Ruth Behar