dumpling
Americannoun
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a rounded mass of steamed and seasoned dough, often served in soup or with stewed meat.
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a dessert consisting of a wrapping of dough enclosing sliced apples or other fruit, boiled or baked.
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a short or stout person.
noun
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a small ball of dough cooked and served with stew
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a pudding consisting of a round pastry case filled with fruit
apple dumpling
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informal a short plump person
Etymology
Origin of dumpling
1590–1600; dump (of uncertain origin) + -ling 1
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Explanation
A dumpling is a delicious, bite-sized food that's made of savory ingredients wrapped in dough and cooked. Chinese dumplings can be steamed, boiled, or fried. If you order dumplings in a Chinese restaurant, you'll get a filling made with vegetables, meat, or fish — it might be a wonton, cooked in a soup, or a potsticker, steamed and then lightly fried. Most cultures have some version of a savory dumpling, and many have sweet dumplings as well, like apple dumplings, which have a fruit filling wrapped in pastry.
Vocabulary lists containing dumpling
Out of the Dust
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Foods from Asia
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for November 10–November 16, 2024
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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.
Amazon is now awash with squishy products: There is a cheese squishy, glitter dumpling squishies and even a squishy that resembles a stick of butter.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 28, 2026
But that has largely been the result of viewers dumpling cable, not actual growth in the market, data show.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 30, 2026
The finished dumpling — which can be enjoyed as a quick snack or meal — is deliciously pillowy and spicy with a hint of zing.
From Salon • Jan. 28, 2026
An antithesis of everything you think a dumpling would be, it’s an homage to every Scorpionic being, to their dueling urges to be both loved and protected from others.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 21, 2024
Three days before the lunar new year, she had eaten ywansyau, the sticky sweet dumpling that everybody eats to celebrate.
From "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan
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.
