humpy

¹ American  

[huhm-pee] / ˈhʌm pi /

adjective

humpier, humpiest

1. full of humps.

2. resembling a hump; humplike.

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humpy ² American  

[huhm-pee] / ˈhʌm pi /

noun

Australian.

plural

humpies

1. any crude Aboriginal hut or shelter, especially a shanty built at the edge of a town.

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humpy ³ American  

[huhm-pee] / ˈhʌm pi /

Or humpie

noun

plural

humpies

1. humpback salmon.

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humpy ¹ British  

/ ˈhʌmpɪ /

adjective

1. full of humps

2. informal angry or gloomy

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humpy ² British  

/ ˈhʌmpɪ /

noun

1. a primitive hut

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Other Word Forms

• humpiness noun

Etymology

Origin of humpy¹

First recorded in 1700–10; hump + -y ¹

Origin of humpy²

First recorded in 1840–50; from Tharapal (an Australian Aboriginal language spoken between Moreton Bay and Wide Bay, southern Queensland), recorded as umpī (with an intrusive h )

Origin of humpy³

hump(back) + -y ²

Example Sentences

It was a Fowler’s toad, Anaxyrus fowleri, one of those humpy little spotted guys who live up and down the East Coast.

From New York Times • Oct. 6, 2022

It’s tiny, and looks like a bur, a bristling seed pod, almost angrily sprouting trees and brush from its humpy back.

From New York Times • Apr. 17, 2015

Even this far in, the bird has found a blue toothbrush and bits of turquoise plastic to frame its humpy.

From The Guardian • Sep. 6, 2010

The 24-year-old Frankenthaler painted it after a trip to Nova Scotia, whose coast is plainly visible in it: the pine-forested mountains and humpy boulders, the dramatic horizontal blue.

From Time Magazine Archive

The crow resembled more a humpy ball with straggling tail feathers, feathers as wispy and disordered as Gwystyl’s cobwebby hair.

From "The Black Cauldron" by Lloyd Alexander