bumptious
Americanadjective
adjective
Usage
Where does bumptious come from? For as fun as the word bumptious sounds, its meaning is more forceful. Bumptious is recorded in the late 1790s and is a blend of bump and fractious, meaning “unruly” or “irritable.” Bumptious bumps fractious up to the next level, meaning “offensively self-assertive.”Many more amusing Americanisms await in our slideshow "These Wacky Words Originated In The USA."
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of bumptious
First recorded in 1795–1805; bump + (frac)tious
Explanation
Someone bumptious is cocky, aggressive, and loud. Bumptious people jump ahead of everyone in line at the ice cream truck and steal subway seats from pregnant women. It's good to speak your mind and stand up for yourself, but it's not good to be bumptious. When you're bumptious, you're obnoxious. Someone who dominates a conversation without listening to others is bumptious. Someone who takes more than their fair share of something is bumptious. To be bumptious is to be selfish and annoying. Bumptious people are often arrogant and usually thoughtless, and bumptious behavior shows no concern for other people.
Vocabulary lists containing bumptious
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Bumptious Geologist Kirtley Fletcher Mather had been speaking on "The Twilight of Democracy" at the opening of an adult education centre.
From Time Magazine Archive
Bumptious suspicion of life in the Great World is not merely an aspect of the "immaturity" of a colonial people.
From Time Magazine Archive
Bumptious and bright, by turns pompous and ingenuous, Barr implemented the trustees' decisions to make Dalton's all-girl high school coed and to more than double the size of the school, to 1,000.
From Time Magazine Archive
Bumptious Interior Secretary James Watt found himself at the center of a new embroilment last week.
From Time Magazine Archive
"Bumptious," fearless, bold, and spirited; a very energetic expression such as those rejoice in who would fair "DENHAM'S strength with Waller's sweetness join."
From The Humorous Poetry of the English Language; from Chaucer to Saxe by Parton, James
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
