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tumpline

American

[tuhmp-lahyn] / ˈtʌmpˌlaɪn /

noun

a strap or sling passed around the chest or forehead to help support a pack carried on a person's back.

tumpline British

/ ˈtʌmpˌlaɪn /

noun

Also called: tump. (in the US and Canada, esp formerly) a leather or cloth band strung across the forehead or chest and attached to a pack or load in order to support it

"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

Etymology

Origin of tumpline

1790–1800; tump (earlier mattump, metomp < Southern New England Algonquian < proto-Eastern Algonquian *mat- empty root appearing in names of manufactured objects + *-a·pəy string) + line ¹

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.

DeJong is a big, burly, bearded Canadian, the kind of guy who wears wool plaid when it�s 90 degrees and still uses a tumpline.

From Time Magazine Archive

One night one of them ate a piece out of my tumpline, which was partially under my head, while I slept.

From The Long Labrador Trail by Wallace, Dillon

Towline and pole, paddle and tumpline, rapids and portages—such tortures served to give the one a deep disgust for great hazards, and printed for the other a fiery text on the true romance of adventure.

From The Son of the Wolf by London, Jack

A tumpline is attached to the top of the knapsack straps.

From Camp and Trail by White, Stewart Edward

The speaker slipped his arms into his pack- harness and adjusted the tumpline to his forehead preparatory to rising.

From The Winds of Chance by Beach, Rex Ellingwood

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023