humpbacked
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of humpbacked
1675–85; blend of huckbacked ( huck haunch + backed ) and crumpbacked ( Old English crump crooked + backed )
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.
It is awesome to witness an enormous reptile with a huge, humpbacked shell and enormously thick legs glomp slowly forward, with majestic indifference to the gawkers by the trail, myself included.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 3, 2023
This humpbacked start over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is one of great expectancy, so the first mile uphill is hardly noticeable and the second mile downhill gives a giddy but treacherous sense of ease.
From New York Times • Nov. 5, 2021
The work features Punchinello, the hook-nosed, humpbacked clowns who were some of the stock characters taken from the Commedia dell' Arte - an early form of professional theatre.
From BBC • Oct. 11, 2021
With two outs, Zimmerman shattered his bat but dumped a beautiful, humpbacked flare into center field for a single.
From Washington Post • Oct. 2, 2019
As once again the day wore to its end they came to long treeless slopes, where the land rose, swelling up towards a line of low humpbacked downs ahead.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
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.
