lumper
Americannoun
-
a day laborer employed to handle cargo, as fish or timber.
-
Biology Informal. a taxonomist who believes that classifications should emphasize similarities among organisms and therefore favors large, inclusive taxa (opposed to splitter).
noun
Etymology
Origin of lumper
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.
“I’m very conservative, and I’m a lumper at heart,” he admits.
From National Geographic • Feb. 16, 2024
A native of Hawaii, he worked as a lumper at the wholesale produce market but got too old for the physical job.
From Los Angeles Times
That year, the Labor Party formed its first majority government, a cabinet consisting of two miners, a wharf lumper, a building worker, a hatter, a compositor, an engine driver and, of course, Billy Hughes.
From Time Magazine Archive
He was not a splitter, but a lumper, a seeker of deeper anatomy.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Let an Englishman exchange his bread and beer, and beef, and mutton, for no breakfast, for a lukewarm lumper at dinner, and no supper.
From The slave trade, domestic and foreign Why It Exists, and How It May Be Extinguished by Carey, H. C. (Henry Charles)
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.
