dumps

[duhmps]

noun

1. a depressed state of mind (usually preceded byin the ).

   to be in the dumps over money problems.

dumps

/ dʌmps /

plural noun

1. informal,  a state of melancholy or depression (esp in the phrase down in the dumps )

Word History and Origins

Origin of dumps¹

1515–25; compare German dumpf dull, Middle Dutch domp haze

Word History and Origins

Origin of dumps¹

C16: probably from Middle Dutch domp haze, mist; see _damp

Idioms and Phrases

see down in the dumps.

Example Sentences

“I was feeling so in the dumps that I’d be choking on a line that I didn’t even want to say because if I say it, I’ll start crying,” he recalls.

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Marianne is first consumed by her own infatuation, then disconsolate when Willoughby dumps her for an heiress, and finally felled by a fever.

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Before this, their stocks were in the dumps because of a slowdown in oil drilling.

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Sometimes a stock that is in the dumps deserves to be, and betting on it is the functional equivalent of catching a falling knife.

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“We are not getting regular data dumps as we would,” he said.

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