Dumping

How to spell dumping

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce dumping

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dumping mean?

1. verbThe act of getting rid of waste or unwanted material, often carelessly or illegally.
2. nounThe practice of selling goods in a foreign market at a price below cost to undercut competitors.

Dumping in a sentence

• verb

  The council fined him for dumping rubble on a country lane.

• noun

  The steel industry accused foreign producers of dumping cheap imports.

• verb

  Illegal dumping of chemicals polluted the nearby river.

• noun

  New tariffs were introduced to stop the dumping of subsidised goods.

Where does dumping come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The verb 'dump' first appears in English around the 1300s, probably borrowed from a Scandinavian source; compare the Old Norse and dialectal Danish 'dumpe', meaning to fall or plump down suddenly. Its earliest sense was simply to drop something heavily or to let it fall in a mass, which is why the word still carries that blunt, physical feel. From the literal act of tipping a load came the modern idea of disposing of rubbish in a heap, and the participle 'dumping' covers that ongoing action. By the late nineteenth century the word had also gained an economic meaning, describing the practice of unloading surplus goods cheaply onto a foreign market. The spelling is straightforward once you remember the rule that a single short-vowel word ending in a consonant doubles that consonant before -ing, so 'dump' becomes 'dumping' with one 'p' doubled.

How the word is built

• dump (to drop or unload)
• -ing (present participle/gerund suffix)