different between clack vs clump

English

Etymology

From Middle English clacken, clakken, claken, from Old English *clacian (“to slap, clap, clack”), from Proto-Germanic *klak?n? (“to clap, chirp”). Cognate with Scots clake, claik (“to utter cries", also "to bedaub, sully with a sticky substance”), Dutch klakken (“to clack, crack”), Low German klakken (“to slap on, daub”), Norwegian klakke (“to clack, strike, knock”), Icelandic klaka (“to twitter, chatter, wrangle, dispute”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klæk/

Noun

clack (plural clacks)

1. An abrupt, sharp sound, especially one made by two hard objects colliding repetitively; a sound midway between a click and a clunk.
2. Anything that causes a clacking noise, such as the clapper of a mill, or a clack valve.
3. Chatter; prattle.

   • whose chief intent is to vaunt his spiritual clack

4. (colloquial) The tongue.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

clack (third-person singular simple present clacks, present participle clacking, simple past and past participle clacked)

1. (intransitive) To make a sudden, sharp noise, or succession of noises; to click.
2. (transitive) To cause to make a sudden, sharp noise, or succession of noises; to click.
3. To chatter or babble; to utter rapidly without consideration.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Feltham to this entry?)
4. (Britain) To cut the sheep's mark off (wool), to make the wool weigh less and thus yield less duty.
5. Dated form of cluck.
   • 1934, Gladys Bagg Taber, Late Climbs the Sun (page 30)

     Only the chickens clacked at the Saturday quiet and fat mouse-minded cats licked whiskers on the empty steps.

   • 1964, Frances Margaret Cheadle McGuire, Gardens of Italy (page 57)

     We drive on between meadows of mown grass, through a pergola of vines, and so to an orchard of peaches, apples, and pears and a hen colony housed in neat modern cottages, the chickens clacking and scratching away […]

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English clompe, from Old English clymppe, a variant of clympre (“a lump or mass of metal”), from Proto-Germanic *klumpô (“mass, lump, clump; clasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *glemb?- (“lump, clamp”).Alternatively, possibly from Middle Dutch clompe or Middle Low German klumpe (compare German Klumpen). Cognates include Danish klump (probably from Low German as well). Compare Norwegian Bokmål klump.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kl?mp/
• Rhymes: -?mp

Noun

clump (plural clumps)

1. A cluster or lump; an unshaped piece or mass.
2. A thick group or bunch, especially of bushes or hair.
   • 1954, Lucian Hobart Ryland (translator), Adelaide of Brunswick (originally by Marquis de Sade)

     clump of trees

3. A dull thud.
4. The compressed clay of coal strata.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Brande & C to this entry?)

5. A small group of trees or plants.
6. (historical) A thick addition to the sole of a shoe.

Derived terms

• clumpy

Translations

to be checked

Verb

clump (third-person singular simple present clumps, present participle clumping, simple past and past participle clumped)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To form clusters or lumps.
2. (transitive, intransitive) To gather in dense groups.
3. (intransitive) To walk with heavy footfalls.
4. (transitive, Britain, regional) To strike; to beat.
   • 1912, Mrs. Coulson Kernahan, The Go-Between (page 79)

     There is his poor little cap hanging up on the door; and there on the table is the knife he chipped a piece out of through not minding the mark on the knife machine, and I clumped his head for him, poor lamb!

Derived terms

• clump up

Translations

References

Further reading

• Clump in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)