Humpty Dumpty

[ huhmp-tee duhmp-tee ]

noun
  1. an egg-shaped character in a Mother Goose nursery rhyme that fell off a wall and could not be put together again.

  2. (sometimes lowercase) something that has been damaged severely and usually irreparably.

Origin of Humpty Dumpty

1
Rhyming compound based on humpty;see hump, -ed3, -y2

Words Nearby Humpty Dumpty

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How to use Humpty Dumpty in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for humpty dumpty

humpty dumpty

/ (ˈhʌmptɪ ˈdʌmptɪ) /


nounmainly British
  1. a short fat person

  2. a person or thing that once overthrown or broken cannot be restored or mended

Origin of humpty dumpty

1
C18: after the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for “Humpty Dumpty”

“Humpty Dumpty”

A nursery rhyme:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall;
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.