Meaning

Of or relating to social outcasts..

Definitions by Sense

1. Of or relating to social outcasts.
2. Of or relating to the lumpenproletariat.
3. Plebeian.
4. A member of the lumpenproletariat.
5. Lump-like.
6. (rare, ambitransitive) To make or become like lumps; make or become lumpy

Example Sentences

A little lumpen novelita. [Story of orphaned teenagers turning to crime.]

In Sydorenko's memorable words: "Our ideals as 'lumpens' are: to find a cozy place, to eat well, to multiply and to die peacefully. A 'lumpen' does not have a nationality, nor does he have a fatherland. Nor conscience. He remains beyond politics and morality."

[About prominent critics lambasting his film 2001:] New York was the only really hostile city. Perhaps there is a certain element of the lumpen literati that is so dogmatically atheist and materialist and Earth-bound that it finds the grandeur of space and the myriad mysteries of cosmic intelligence anathema.

This something, which is neither body nor machine but interior and alien to them both, pertains to the 'meat' in Gibson's world insofar as the 'meat' - that useless corporeal remainder discarded by the machine - retains an excess that cannot be reduced to the lumpen mass of fleshy existence.

Using the last two as an example, there is a constant sense of contrast in the poem, in this case between the streamlined ship which will surge through the water and the mere lumpen shape of the clumsy iceberg.

Billy and Dandy had draped a tarp over the body but the shape itself looked lumpen and grotesque.

a slaloming winger putting lumpen defenders on their backsides, or even a sneaky centre-forward, using his boundless energy to lead the press and force mistakes.

They had chicken soup with the matzo meal balls a little lumpened by hurry, challah, roast chicken, kasha, honey-cake.

Word Forms

• lumpens
• lumpening
• lumpened

Synonyms for lumpen

Related Words

When Should You Use Lumpen?

Use lumpen when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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