thrump

English

Etymology

Onomatopoeic.

Noun

thrump (plural thrumps)

1. The sound or vibration from a dull, heavy, pounding blow or pulsation.
   • 2001, Mary Pershall, Asking for Trouble, page 252:

     Feel the thrump thrump thrump of the wheels beneath me.

   • 2006, Charles Casimer Krawczyk, Remembrance: As Long As We Live, page 238:

     There it was, the familiar sound thrump, thrump, thrump, as the honor guards took turns in casting shovelfuls of earth on the coffin, a sound Peter had grown to dread.

   • 2007, Walter A. Hazen, Everyday Life the Civil War:

     The thrump, thrump, thrump of the drums helped troops locate their units amid the noise and smoke surrounding them, and told soldiers how to position themselves.

   • 2013, Kate Douglas, Carved in Stone:

     Alex Martin watched the helicopter until it was no longer even a tiny speck in the early morning sky, until the pulsating thrump, thrump, thrump of its blades faded into the natural rhythms of the forest.

   • 2014, Mary Kay McComas, Kiss Me, Kelly:

     A car door closed, but it didn't have the loud squeaky thunk of a taxi door. It was a soft thrump, like a valve closing on a vacuum.

Verb

thrump (third-person singular simple present thrumps, present participle thrumping, simple past and past participle thrumped)

1. To cause a thrump.
   • 1830, John B. Skillman, Skillman's New-York Police Reports, page 121:

     Our dandy, as we are informed, is also a great favourite among the ladies — goes to parties, balls, and concerts — knows semibreve from a demisemiquaver, and can thrump a piano considerably.

   • 2007, Emily Ballou, Aphelion, page 238:

     She heads out the back of the hospital barracks, and there, under the new sprinkle of snow, the cold soaking through her gumboots, Esme splits the wood with an axe. Thrumps it open at the heart.

   • 2013, Thomas O'Malley, This Magnificent Desolation, page 297:

     As Clay thrumps back and forth behind the bar, Duncan changes his mind repeatedly, and if he pauses in deliberation when Clay returns, Clay does not wait but continues on behind the bar.