different between cushion vs bumper

English

Etymology

From Middle English cusshon, cuschen, quesshon, from later Old French coissin (modern coussin), from Vulgar Latin *cox?nus (“seat pad”), derived from Latin coxa (“hip, thigh”) with the suffix possibly after Latin pulv?nus (“pillow”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k???n/
• Rhymes: -???n

Noun

cushion (countable and uncountable, plural cushions)

1. A soft mass of material stuffed into a cloth bag, used for comfort or support; for sitting on, kneeling on, resting one's head on etc.
2. Something acting as a cushion, especially to absorb a shock or impact.
   1. A pad on which gilders cut gold leaf.
   2. A mass of steam in the end of the cylinder of a steam engine to receive the impact of the piston.
   4. (sports, billiards, snooker, pool) The lip around a table in cue sports which absorbs some of the impact of the billiard balls and bounces them back.
   5. The pillow used in making bone lace.
   6. An engraver's pad.
   7. (historical) The rubber of an electrical machine.
   8. (historical) A pad supporting a woman's hair.
3. (figuratively) a sufficient quantity of an intangible object (like points or minutes) to allow for some of those points, for example, to be lost without hurting one's chances for successfully completing an objective.
   1. (finance, countable, uncountable) Money kept in reserve.
      • 2007, Belverd Needles, Marian Powers, Financial Accounting: Media Enhanced (page 826)

        Interest coverage is important because it is an indicator of how much cushion a company has in making its interest payments.

      • 2013, Stijn Claessens, Kirsten Forbes, International Financial Contagion (page 85)

        If one of the banks has a significant enough cushion of capital and a strong enough balance sheet, then it would not experience a bank run, and the domino effect in panel A would not have occurred.

4. (obsolete) A riotous dance, formerly common at weddings.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

Descendants

Translations

See also

• pillow
• squab

Verb

cushion (third-person singular simple present cushions, present participle cushioning, simple past and past participle cushioned)

1. To furnish with cushions.

   to cushion a sofa

2. To seat or place on, or as on a cushion.
   • 1734, Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, A Dissertation on Parties

     How many doughty monarchs, in later and more polite ages, would have slept in cottages, and have worked in falls, instead of inhabiting palaces, and being cushioned up in thrones, if this rule of government had continued in force ?

3. To absorb or deaden the impact of.

   to cushion a blow

   • 1903, Edward Porritt, "Poynings' Law", The Unreformed House of Commons Vol.II p.429 (CUP):

     the development of popular interest in Parliament made it less possible for the Privy Council in Dublin to cushion a bill which the Commons had presented to the Lord Lieutenant

4. To conceal or cover up, as under a cushion.

Translations

References

English

Etymology

From bump +? -er.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?b?mp?(?)/
• Rhymes: -?mp?(?)

Noun

bumper (plural bumpers)

1. Someone or something that bumps.
2. (obsolete) A drinking vessel filled to the brim.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973, p. 443:

     […] they now shook hands heartily, and drank bumpers of strong beer to healths which we think proper to bury in oblivion.

   • 1818, Keats, Written in the cottage where Burns was born:

     Yet can I gulp a bumper to thy name,—

     O smile among the shades, for this is fame!

   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 8:

     Mr. Horrocks served myself and my pupils with three little glasses of wine, and a bumper was poured out for my lady.

   • 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, chapter 11

     Sydney Carton drank the punch at a great rate; drank it by bumpers, looking at his friend.

3. (colloquial, now chiefly attributive) Anything large or successful.
4. (automotive, US) Parts at the front and back of a vehicle which are meant to absorb the impact of a collision; fender.
5. Any mechanical device used to absorb an impact, soften a collision, or protect against impact.
   • The company sells screw-on rubber bumpers and feet.
6. (cricket) A bouncer.
7. (billiards) A side wall of a pool table.
8. (broadcasting) A short ditty or jingle used to separate a show from the advertisements.
9. (slang, dated) A covered house at a theatre, etc., in honour of some favourite performer.
10. (slang, Caribbean, Jamaican) A woman's posterior, particularly one that is considered full and desirable.
11. (music) An extra musician (not notated in the score) who assists the principal French horn by playing less-exposed passages, so that the principal can save their 'lip' for difficult solos. Also applied to other sections of the orchestra.
12. (pinball) An object on a playfield that applies force to the pinball when hit, often giving a minor increase in score.
13. (Australia, slang) A cigarette butt.

Descendants

Translations

Adjective

bumper (not comparable)

1. (colloquial) Large; filled to the bumpers at the top of a silo.

   We harvested a bumper crop of arugula and parsnips this year.

Translations

Verb

bumper (third-person singular simple present bumpers, present participle bumpering, simple past and past participle bumpered)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To drink from the vessels called bumpers.

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bomp?r/, [?b??mb??r]
• Homophone: bomber

Verb

bumper

1. present tense of bumpe

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English bumper.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?b?mp?r/
• Hyphenation: bum?per
• Rhymes: -?mp?r

Noun

bumper m (plural bumpers, diminutive bumpertje n)

1. bumper of a car, fender

Derived terms

• bumperkleven
• bumpersticker

Descendants

• Indonesian: bumper, bemper

Indonesian

Etymology

From Dutch bumper, from English bumper.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?b?mp?r]
• Hyphenation: bum?pêr

Noun

bumpêr (first-person possessive bumperku, second-person possessive bumpermu, third-person possessive bumpernya)

1. bumper.

Alternative forms

• bemper

Further reading

• “bumper” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Daring, Jakarta: Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2016.

Spanish

Noun

bumper m (plural bumpers)

1. bumper of a car