rump
Americannoun
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the hind part of the body of an animal, as the hindquarters of a quadruped or sacral region of a bird.
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a cut of beef from this part of the animal, behind the loin and above the round.
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the buttocks.
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the last part, especially that which is unimportant or inferior.
a rump of territory.
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the remnant of a legislature, council, etc., after a majority of the members have resigned or been expelled.
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English History. the Rump, Rump Parliament.
adjective
noun
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the hindquarters of a mammal, not including the legs
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the rear part of a bird's back, nearest to the tail
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a person's buttocks
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Also called: rump steak. a cut of beef from behind the loin and above the round
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an inferior remnant
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of rump
1375–1425; late Middle English rumpe < Scandinavian; compare Danish, Norwegian, Swedish rumpe rump, tail; cognate with German Rumpf body, trunk
Vocabulary lists containing rump
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.
He had just separated the new Muslim state of Pakistan from the now-independent rump of largely Hindu India.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 30, 2026
Water and other specialties stay behind in the rump DuPont.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 9, 2025
But when the show’s first Hamlet, ambulated by an Oxford-trained actor named Dipo Ola, performs a few lines, he’s instantly more compelling than the sight of ParTeb shaking his rump.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 17, 2025
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 • Dec. 9, 2023
They looked like the rump of a boarding school, like the one he had taught at near Lille in the summer before he went up to Cambridge.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
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.
