hump
part of speech
noun (hump, humps); verb (hump — informal, to carry)
meaning for a pupil
1) A hump is a round lump that sticks up, such as on a camel's back. tree →
2) A hump is a small hill or a raised part of a road, like a speed hump. tree →
3) «Over the hump» means past the hardest part. tree →
4) «Have the hump» (British) means to be grumpy. tree →
5) To hump means to heave or strain hard, pushing your body along with great effort. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons camels store fat in their humps; humpback whales are named after the hump on their backs. In road safety speed humps (speed bumps) slow cars near schools. In everyday talk Wednesday is «hump day», the middle of the week. Phrases: speed hump, camel's hump, over the hump, have the hump.
examples
- A camel stores fat in its hump. tree →
- The car slowed down for the speed hump. tree →
- Humpback whales have a hump on their backs. tree →
- We cycled over a hump in the path. tree →
- The hardest part is done — we're over the hump. tree →
- My brother's got the hump because he lost. tree →
- Shortly afterward, refreshments, consisting mostly of Camel's hump and ribs, were served to the company. tree →
note
Countable noun (humps). «Speed hump» is British; Americans often say «speed bump». A one-humped camel is a dromedary, a two-humped camel a Bactrian camel. Myth: the hump does not hold water.
In the corpora
- Mammoths had a fatty hump on their backs that stored energy for the hard winters.
- A camel's hump stores fat, not water; when food is short the camel uses the fat and the hump goes floppy.
- A camel's hump stores fat, not water; camels save water very cleverly and can drink a huge amount at once.
- A camel can go many days without drinking and copes with great heat; its hump stores fat, not water.
- A camel's hump stores fat, not water.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «hump» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.