slump
verb (used without object)
to drop or fall heavily; collapse.
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slump
American
[sluhmp]
/ slʌmp /
verb (used without object)
-
slumps,
present (3rd person singular)
-
slumped,
past participle, past
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slumping
present participle
-
to drop or fall heavily; collapse.
Suddenly she slumped to the floor.
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to assume a slouching, bowed, or bent position or posture.
Stand up straight and don't slump!
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to decrease or fall suddenly and markedly, as prices or the market.
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to decline or deteriorate, as health, business, quality, or efficiency.
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to sink into a bog, muddy place, etc., or through ice or snow.
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to sink heavily, as the spirits.
noun
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slumps
plural
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an act or instance of slumping.
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a decrease, decline, or deterioration.
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a period of decline or deterioration.
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any mild recession in the economy as a whole or in a particular industry.
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a period during which a person performs slowly, inefficiently, or ineffectively, especially a period during which an athlete or team fails to play or score as well as usual.
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a slouching, bowed, or bent position or posture, especially of the shoulders.
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a landslide or rockslide.
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the vertical subsidence of freshly mixed concrete that is a measure of consistency and stiffness.
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New England Cooking. a dessert made with cooked fruit, especially apples or berries, topped with a thick layer of biscuit dough or crumbs.
slump
1
British
/ slʌmp /
verb
-
to sink or fall heavily and suddenly
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to relax ungracefully
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(of business activity, etc) to decline suddenly; collapse
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(of health, interest, etc) to deteriorate or decline suddenly or markedly
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(of soil or rock) to slip down a slope, esp a cliff, usually with a rotational movement
noun
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a sudden or marked decline or failure, as in progress or achievement; collapse
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a decline in commercial activity, prices, etc
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economics another word for depression
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the act of slumping
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a slipping of earth or rock; landslide
Slump
2
British
/ slʌmp /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
slumpsimple
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slumpssimple
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have slumpedperfect
-
has slumpedperfect
-
am slumpingprogressive
-
are slumpingprogressive
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is slumpingprogressive
-
have been slumpingperfect progressive
-
has been slumpingperfect progressive
Past
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slumpedsimple
-
had slumpedperfect
-
was slumpingprogressive
-
were slumpingprogressive
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had been slumpingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of slump
1670–80; originally, to sink into a bog or mud; perhaps imitative ( cf. plump 2)
Explanation
To slump is to fall or slouch down. It's also a downturn in performance — a struggling ballplayer and a sinking economy are both in a slump. There are many kinds of slumps, but they all involve things going downhill. If you slide down in your chair, you slump. Other slumps are less physical. If a successful quarterback starts losing games and throwing interceptions, that's a slump. The original meaning of slump, back in the 1670s, was "fall or sink into a muddy place," while the more figurative meanings came much later.
Vocabulary lists containing slump
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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.
See Examples For:
Struggling with injury, baseball’s best player is trapped in a dreadful slump.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
The Dodgers are not benching Shohei Ohtani despite lingering injuries and a long slump.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026
The presence of Cruise -- a man sometimes credited with rescuing the box office after its pandemic slump with "Top Gun: Maverick" -- was always going to make the film stand out.
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026
As for the U.S. stock market, the S&P 500 saw a slight decline Monday, as it was dragged down by a slump in its tech sector.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 12, 2026
He heard her rise and then slump into a chair.
From "Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas
Appeared in the September 17, 2026, print edition as 'Markets Slump As Warsh Warns on Inflation'.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Born in Nagoya, Japan in 1955, Mr Toriyama broke into the comic book world in the early 1980s with Dr. Slump, which tells the story of a little girl robot Arale and her scientist creator.
From BBC ● Mar. 8, 2024
His Dr Slump series that started in 1980 became a huge hit, elevating him to a best-selling young comic artist.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 7, 2024
He was expected to release a new mixtape with rapper Ski Mask the Slump God this year.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 8, 2019
Ike Slump and Mort Bemis were remanded to the town jail in default of bail in the sum of ten thousand dollars each.
From Ralph in the Switch Tower by Allen Chapman
The comments made by Broadcom’s CEO at a conference in Singapore have been cited as a reason for microchip stocks’ slumps on both Monday and Tuesday.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
Meanwhile, in U.S. supermarkets, fresh-lettuce sales are sliding, and California farmers are plowing their crops back into the ground as demand slumps.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
She slumps over a cloth in the arms of a caretaker with her eyes closed, but rouses when another person brings her what appears to be raw meat.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
Analysts attributed slumps in Tesla sales in 2025 to be partly due to customers turning against Musk.
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2026
I open my eyes as Eric slumps to the ground, and then—chaos.
From "Insurgent" by Veronica Roth
Video showed a man wearing a French tricolor sash slumped beside a vehicle.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026
While tech stocks and some industrial names tied to the artificial-intelligence build-out slumped this week, the average stock in the increasingly top-heavy S&P 500 made it through a difficult week largely unscathed.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 17, 2026
Seoul jumped more than two percent and Tokyo around 1.8 percent, though they slumped 7.6 percent and 4.9 percent respectively Thursday.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
Stocks slumped and yields touched multiyear highs Monday after President Trump rejected a proposal for a seven-day ceasefire with Iran and the oil market flashed a warning sign that fuel supplies are running low.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
But the way he had slumped over onto one elbow had signaled that he was feeling frustrated.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
It was only a short distance to the flat but Pauline felt her friend slumping even before they reached the school gate.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026
Treasury yields were slumping across the curve early Thursday as bonds headed for their biggest one-day rally in at least a year.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 15, 2026
Roberts had swapped Hernández and slumping Will Smith in the batting order, moving Hernández up to third and Smith down to fifth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
Faced with slumping sales in China and weaker-than-expected demand for electric cars, Porsche wants to cut its workforce by a quarter by 2030.
From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026
The front of Lincoln’s body shows no sign of physical violence, and the forward slumping indicates that the attack must have come from behind.
From "Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever" by Bill O'Reilly
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