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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.

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

"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

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

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

The horse nearest Jake had a splintery wooden crack in its dingy rump and the eyes walled blind and frantic, shreds of paint peeled from the sockets.

From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers

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.