dumpling

A ball of dough that is cooked and may have a filling and/or additional ingredients in the dough.

Noun

  1. A ball of dough that is cooked and may have a filling and/or additional ingredients in the dough.

    1. (chiefly UK) Specifically, a ball of dough used in stews and other sauced dishes; a thick noodle.

    2. (chiefly US) Specifically, a food composed of a dough wrapper around a filling.

  2. A term of endearment.
    • My little dumpling.
  3. A piece of excrement.
    • 2018 Brent Butt as Brent Herbert Leroy, "Sasquatch Your Language", Corner Gas Animated Wherever legitimate tracks are found there's always some fresh scat, y'know, poo, flop, dumplings.

Origin

A folk word, first attested in c. 1600s, apparently from a Norfolk (East Anglian) dialect, of uncertain origin: * perhaps from some Low German word (compare dümpeln (“bobbing up and down”)), * or from the rare dialectal adjective dump (“lump, of the consistency of dough”) (first attested in the late 1800s), + -ling (diminutive suffix), although dumpling is recorded much earlier. However, compare dumpy (“short and stout”).

Forms

dumplings

Synonyms

dumpling

Hypernyms

food

Hyponyms

baozi guotie gyoza jiaozi khinkali knaidel kreplach manti momo pelmeni pierogi quenelle tortellini vareniki wonton

Related

canederlo gnocchi dim sim dim sum empanada har gow pierogi varenyky pelmeni quenelle ravioli shaomai shumai wonton

Derived

apple dumpling apple-dumpling shop Chinese dumpling clootie dumpling crotch dumpling dumpling-depot dumpling squid dumplingy hump dumpling Norfolk dumpling North Dumpling Island potato dumpling raspberry dumpling rice dumpling soup dumpling yeast dumpling