Definition of GALUMPH

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Bump, thump, thud. There's no doubt about it, when someone or something galumphs onto the scene, ears take notice. "Galumph" first lumbered onto the English scene in 1872 when Lewis Carroll used the word to describe the actions of the vanquisher of the Jabberwock in Through the Looking Glass: "He left it dead, and with its head / He went galumphing back." Etymologists suspect Carroll created "galumph" by altering the word gallop, perhaps throwing in a pinch of "triumphant" for good measure (in its earliest uses, "galumph" did convey a sense of exultant bounding). Other 19th-century writers must have liked the sound of "galumph," because they began plying it in their own prose, and it has been clumping around our language ever since.

Examples of galumph in a Sentence

I could hear him galumphing around in the attic. the Great Dane galumphed across the floor to greet us

Recent Examples on the Web

There are also stretches of galumphing humor that go on too long. — Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, "Review: An Ecstatic ‘Rosenkavalier’ Introduces a Conductor to Carnegie," 30 Mar. 2018 North Carolina’s Luke Maye launched it in desperation and off-balance, with all of the grace of a grandpa galumphing through a three-legged race. — Tim Sullivan, The Courier-Journal, "Louisville basketball is finding its level, and it's lower | Tim Sullivan," 18 Feb. 2018 His margin may well have been provided by the FBI and U.S. intelligence establishment’s galumphing intervention in the Hillary Clinton email matter. — Holman W. Jenkins, WSJ, "When the Truth Is Crazy," 1 Sep. 2017 The problem for Besson's movie, besides the problems with the movie itself, is its late arrival, galumphing into theaters so many years after so many recyclers and copycats. — Michael Phillips, chicagotribune.com, "'Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets' review: DeHaan, Cara Delevingne on a mangled quest," 20 July 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'galumph.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.