chump

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃʌmp/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmp

Origin uncertain; probably a blend of chunk and lump or stump, or perhaps a nasalised variant of chub (“someone chubby, something thick”). Compare Icelandic kubbur (“block of wood, chip (computing)”), Old Norse kumbr for kubbr (“block of wood”), English chop.

chump (plural chumps)

1. (colloquial, derogatory) An incompetent person, a blockhead; a loser.

   That chump wouldn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.

   • 2015, chief justice John G. Roberts, dissenting in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission et al., June 29 2015

     What chumps! Didn’t they realize that all they had to do was interpret the constitutional term “the Legislature” to mean “the people”?

2. (colloquial, derogatory) A gullible person; a sucker; someone easily taken advantage of; someone lacking common sense.

   It shouldn't be hard to put one over on that chump.

   • 2000 November 26, Eric Horsted, “War Is the H-Word” (20:47 from the start), in Futurama‎^[1], season 2, episode 17, spoken by Bender (John DiMaggio):

     “Well, that's it. Let's reactivate him. Wake up!” “[Yawns] Hey, chumps and chumpettes. Did you get the bomb out? Can I go back to saying the word I love to say?” “I'm sorry, but we couldn't remove it.” “It's stuck in there with glue or something. I don't know.” “Well, this is just great. What's the point of living if I can't say ass? [Gasps] Hey! I didn't blow up! Ass! Ass! Ass! Ass! Ass! All right! I'm back in the saddle.” “We couldn't disarm the bomb, so we reset the word that triggers it.” “It's from the list of words you almost never say.” “That's using your ass. So what's the word?” “We think it's better if you don't know.” “Oh, come on. I'm not going to say it. Please? Ooh, is it "please"?” “Nope.” “Hmm. Words I never say. Oh. I know. "Thanks."” “Bender, stop trying to destroy the world.” “Wait, wait, wait, wait. Is it "sorry"? No. "Funderful"? Mmm... "Non-alcoholic"?” “Quit it.” “Bender.” “Stop it, mon.” “Enough already.” “"Compassion"? "Shrimp toast"? "Antiquing"?” [Explosion] “I'm all right.”

   • 2012 August 5, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “I Love Lisa” (season 4, episode 15; originally aired 02/11/1993)”, in AV Club‎^[2]:

     Ralph Wiggum is generally employed as a bottomless fount of glorious non sequiturs, but in “I Love Lisa” he stands in for every oblivious chump who ever deluded himself into thinking that with persistence, determination, and a pure heart he can win the girl of his dreams.

3. The thick end, especially of a piece of wood or of a joint of meat.
   • 1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Chapter X:

     Shaped as if they had been unskilfully cut off the chump-end of something.

4. (UK, slang, obsolete) A person's head or face.

• (an unintelligent person): blockhead, idiot, dope, dolt, dunce, dummy
• (a gullible person): gull, sucker, dupe, sap, dummy, patsy, pigeon
• See also Thesaurus:dupe

• (head or face): John Camden Hotten (1873), The Slang Dictionary

chump (third-person singular simple present chumps, present participle chumping, simple past and past participle chumped)

1. (slang, transitive) To treat (someone) as a chump; to defraud or swindle (someone).

   Synonym: chump off

Variant of chomp, itself a variant of champ (“to bite”). More at champ.

chump (third-person singular simple present chumps, present participle chumping, simple past and past participle chumped)

1. Dated form of chomp.
   • 1922, Arthur Machen, The Secret Glory:

     At a neighbouring table two Germans were making a hearty meal, chumping the meat and smacking their lips in a kind of heavy ecstasy.