rump

American  

[ruhmp] / rʌmp /

noun

1. the hind part of the body of an animal, as the hindquarters of a quadruped or sacral region of a bird.

2. a cut of beef from this part of the animal, behind the loin and above the round.

3. the buttocks.

4. the last part, especially that which is unimportant or inferior.

   a rump of territory.

5. the remnant of a legislature, council, etc., after a majority of the members have resigned or been expelled.

6. English History. the Rump, Rump Parliament.

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adjective

1. constituting a subsidiary or small group or the remnant of a once larger organization.

   Our local Shakespeare Club will hold a rump meeting at the Elizabethan Drama Teachers' convention.

rump British  

/ rʌmp /

noun

1. the hindquarters of a mammal, not including the legs

2. the rear part of a bird's back, nearest to the tail

3. a person's buttocks

4. Also called: rump steak.  a cut of beef from behind the loin and above the round

5. an inferior remnant

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Other Word Forms

• rumpless adjective

Etymology

Origin of rump

1375–1425; late Middle English rumpe < Scandinavian; compare Danish, Norwegian, Swedish rumpe rump, tail; cognate with German Rumpf body, trunk

Example Sentences

HTS has roots in al-Qaeda, though it broke with the group in 2016 and at times has fought its rump loyalists.

From BBC

All the other elephants in his herd run to him at the first sign of trouble; during calmer times, they willingly present him with their rumps in a seeming sign of submission.

From Salon

Serbia and Montenegro were all that was left in the rump Yugoslavia - along with Kosovo, a breakaway region of Serbia with an ethnic Albanian majority population.

From BBC

I read over the email and giggled at the nonsensical paragraph of letters and numbers and symbols at the end, courtesy of Fig’s rump.

From Literature

From 1966 World Cup champions to persistent underachievers dogged by a rump of hooligan supporters, the team became a source of national anxiety.

From Seattle Times

Related Words

• backside