[f. LUMP sb.1 or v.3 + -ING2.]
† 1. Forming itself into lumps; coagulating.
1751. Lavington, Enthus. Meth. & Papists, III. (1754), 94. The Blood begins to boil, and the Heat rarefies and disperses the lumping Mass.
† 2. Weighing heavy. Obs.
13[?]. Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS., 620/303. Heore hertes were colde as lumpyng led.
b. Hence colloq.: Great, big. (Cf. thumping, bouncing, etc.) Formerly often in phr. (now dial.) lumping pennyworth = ‘plenty for one’s money.’ Also lumping weight, good or full weight.
1705. Hickeringill, Priest-cr., II. viii. 73. But Money is Money … and therefore a lumping peny-worth Priestcraft will afford you, as aforesaid.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull, IV. vi. Wilt thou purchase it, Nic.? thou shalt have a lumping Pennyworth.
1753. Scots Mag., 330/1. We are not to wonder at the lumping compliments.
1768. G. White, Selborne, xii. A full grown mus medius domesticus weighs … one ounce lumping weight.
1825. Bentham, Offic. Apt. Maximized, Observ. Peel’s Sp. (1830), 16. One lumping assertion there is, upon which the whole strength of his argument rests.
1861. T. A. Trollope, La Beata, II. xiv. 103. A family group with three or four lumping brats around her.
1881. Clark Russell, Ocean Free-Lance, II. 30. She should be a lumping boat, to judge by the size of her mainsail.
c. Of movement: Heavy, clumsy, attended by heavy shocks. Also of the noise produced by such movement.
1884. Reade, Gd. Stories, 254. There was a lumping noise and a great clatter.
3. Characterized by putting things together indiscriminately or without regard for detail.
1802–12. Bentham, Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827), I. 435. By lumping charges together, and (after a lumping mass of proof) pronouncing a lumping judgment on the whole mass,—a precedent has been set.
1896. Engineering Mag., XVI. 48. The factory manager accustomed to ‘lumping’ methods of cost-keeping.
Hence Lumpingly adv., heavily and clumsily.
1847. Blackw. Mag., LXI. 74. The canvass flapped against the mast, as the old girl rolled lumpingly in the swell.
