sump

• sumph (obsolete)

From Middle English sompe, either from Middle Dutch somp, sump or Middle Low German sump from Old Saxon *sump, from Proto-West Germanic *sump, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *sumpaz. Doublet of swamp.

• IPA^(key): /sʌmp/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmp

sump (plural sumps)

1. A hollow or pit into which liquid drains, such as a cesspool, cesspit or sink.
2. The lowest part of a mineshaft into which water drains.
3. A completely flooded cave passage, sometimes passable by diving.
4. (automotive) The crankcase or oil reservoir of an internal combustion engine.
5. (nautical) The pit at the lowest point in a circulating or drainage system (FM 55-501).
6. (construction) An intentional depression around a drain or scupper that promotes drainage.
7. (Scotland) A sudden or heavy fall of rain; a deluge.
   • 1821, “Mark Macrabin, the Cameronian”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, page 147:

     then, seating himself thus, he replied to him of the east.—'Sounding sump o' rain Saunders Creeshmeloof—saw ye ever a drap o' rain for eight and forty hours after the bonnie sinking sun that sat sae red and sae lang on the summit of Blackwood hills this blessed afternoon? That starry plow o' thine is […] '

   • 2024 January 23, Traci Hall, Murder at a Scottish Castle, Kensington Cozies, →ISBN, page 12:

     "Me and the lads did it this morn."
     "It was pouring!" Brody said.
     "If I was tae stop an activity because of a sump o' rain, I'd never get anythin' done," Finn remarked with a twinkle in his eye.

sump (third-person singular simple present sumps, present participle sumping, simple past and past participle sumped)

1. (intransitive) Of a cave passage, to end in a sump, or to fill completely with water on occasion.

   We discovered a new passage, but it sumped after 100 metres.

   This low passage sumps quickly after moderate rainfall.

• umps

sump

1. swamp

From Middle Low German sump and German Sumpf.

sump m (definite singular sumpen, indefinite plural sumper, definite plural sumpene)

1. a swamp (type of wetland)

• sumpskilpadde

• “sump” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Middle Low German sump and German Sumpf.

sump m (definite singular sumpen, indefinite plural sumpar, definite plural sumpane)

1. a swamp (type of wetland)

• “sump” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Middle Low German sump and German Sumpf. Probably a doublet of sopp and svamp.

sump c

2. (fishing, containers) a corf, a container for keeping live fish
3. (geography) marshy ground
4. short for kaffesump (“coffee grounds”)

• sumprunkare (“corf-rocker; an occupation”)
• sumpmark (“marsh”)

• sumpa

• → Finnish: sumppu

• sump in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• sump in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• sump in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
• sump in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)