Meaning & use

lumpers

noun·Advanced

Last updated

Laborers who load and unload cargo, especially trucks or shipping containers, typically hired for individual shifts.

See it in a sentence

The warehouse called in extra lumpers to unload the delayed trailers by morning.

Lumpers worked through the night to clear the backlog of freight at the dock.

A note on using this word

In taxonomy, lumpers also refers to scientists who prefer classifying organisms into fewer, broader groups, as opposed to splitters, who favor many narrow categories.

Words with a similar meaning

dockworkersstevedores

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Another way to use it

2. noun

Taxonomists or scholars who favor grouping things into broad categories rather than many fine distinctions.

The lumpers argued the two subspecies should be classified as one.

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