slump
/slʌmp
/- Kait sighed and slumped her shoulders, leaning her forehead against the door frame.
- He slumped heavily into his armchair and busied himself with his smoking accoutrements.
- As his shoulders slumped again, David leaned forward and took his face in his hands.
Synonyms
- When growth slowed, and share prices slumped, they were unable to raise money for further expansion.
- The idea was to build up a substantial European mining company but copper prices slumped in 1997.
- As commodities such as coffee or soya flooded into the world market, prices slumped, causing more economic chaos.
Synonyms
- However, he slumped to a 75, Westwood shot 65 and beat his friend by three clear strokes.
- However, Saunders' side slumped to a 2-1 defeat in a match that proved just how fickle they were.
- Three of the top four in the A Section must be cursing their luck, as they slumped to defeats against opposition from the wrong half of the table.
Synonyms
- Niedermeier attributed the slump to the price falls in most local shares.
- These have been compounded by the huge slump in share price values that most analysts predict will not be recovered.
- Also, a slump in property prices could mean your retirement taking a big hit, or being forced to wait until the housing market recovers.
Synonyms
- The world was mired in economic slump, which brought with it mass unemployment and wage cuts.
- The domestic economy is in a slump, and unemployment in Hualien is particularly serious.
- Two things did more than anything to usher in a new upturn in struggle - the black nationalist message of Marcus Garvey and the economic slump of the Great Depression.
Synonyms
- The station has seen a recent slump in numbers due to people leaving through retirement or ill health.
- Hundreds of thousands of tourists flock to the area each year and despite the recent slump in tourism local hoteliers are reaping the benefits of Sundberg's visit.
- The grouse population has traditionally been prone to yearly fluctuations, but global warming is being blamed in some quarters for a sustained slump in numbers.
Derivatives
slumpy
- Pity the young, for whose benefit they marched, for what are they to do in a free market that considers them excess labour in a slumpy economy?
- Where should we put our money then to save for retirement if a slumpy economy comes to pass?
- His spent his off season shipping of the slugger for the scrappy but slumpy speedster.
Origin
Late 17th century (in the sense 'fall into a bog'): probably imitative and related to Norwegian slumpe 'to fall'.
slough from Old English:
A slough is a swamp (slōh in Old English), and a slough of despond a condition of despondency, hopelessness, and gloom. The phrase comes from John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (1678), where it is the name of a deep boggy place between the City of Destruction and the gate at the beginning of Christian's journey. Slump (late 17th century) originally meant to fall in a bog and probably came from the sound that would be made. The economic sense is late 19th century. Slough in southern England also takes its name from Old English slōh, not the most appealing of origins. To add to the unglamorous town's image problems, the English poet John Betjeman wrote of it in 1937: ‘Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough! / It isn't fit for humans now.’ The slough meaning the skin shed by a snake is Middle English and originally meant ‘skin’ in English. It may be related to Low German sluwe ‘husk, peel’.