dumpy
1 Americanadjective
adjective
adjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of dumpy1
First recorded in 1610–20; dump(s) + -y 1
Origin of dumpy2
First recorded in 1740–50; perhaps akin to dumpling
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.
See Examples For:
But she brushed off the barbs, saying: "I am toothy, dumpy, ugly, overweight, a spinster – what the hell."
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
Ragoravich’s dacha is a “garish and almost grotesque” palace clad in marble that makes Maggie think of Versailles, but in a way that makes Versailles seem dumpy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2025
"Coxen's fig-parrots are small, dumpy, green parrots with very short tails, and historically they were scattered in rainforests between Bundaberg in Queensland and the Hastings River in New South Wales," Mr Backstrom said.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 29, 2023
She reflects on all the varied, tender memories a dumpy local chain store can hold, and what was lost when her daughter’s Walgreens closed.
From Slate ● Nov. 13, 2023
His main ambition in life is to turn our dumpy little mountain town into an A-list tourist destination.
From "Linked" by Gordon Korman
The drab brown print dresses and dowdy necklines make her look dumpier than nature or the part demand.
From New York Times ● Mar. 24, 2011
Piper saw a different person—fatter, dumpier, in a much louder, leopard-patterned shirt.
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
I put down my charcoal as Blanquette entered, bare-headed—wise girl, she scorned hats and bonnets—and as neatly dressed as her figure daily growing dumpier would allow.
From The Belovéd Vagabond by Locke, William John
Then they became conscious that a smaller and dumpier figure was standing in the darkness by the side of Willie.
From Capt'n Davy's Honeymoon by Caine, Hall, Sir
His clothes seemed coarser; his hands and feet were awkward; his body dumpier; his face rounder and more freckled.
From The Adventures of Bobby Orde by Brehm, Worth
The youngest, dumpiest, dullest of the four dull and dumpy daughters whom Mrs. Van Osburgh, with unsurpassed astuteness, had "placed" one by one in enviable niches of existence!
From House of Mirth by Wharton, Edith
Yet, given a yard or two or three of satin and a saucer of pins, Smalley could make the dumpiest of debutantes look like a fragile flower.
From Emma McChesney and Co. by Ferber, Edna
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.
