dump / dəmp/ • n. 1. a site for depositing garbage. ∎  a place where a particular kind of waste, esp. dangerous waste, is left: a nuclear waste dump. ∎  a heap of garbage left at a dump. ∎ inf. an unpleasant or dreary place: she says the town has become a dump. ∎ inf. an act of defecation.2. Comput. a copying of stored data to a different location, performed typically as a protection against loss. ∎  a printout or list of the contents of a computer's memory, occurring typically after a system failure.• v. [tr.] 1. deposit or dispose of (garbage, waste, or unwanted material), typically in a careless or hurried way: trucks dumped 1,900 tons of refuse here | [intr.] an attempt to prevent people from dumping on vacant lots. ∎  put down or abandon (something) hurriedly in order to make an escape: the couple dumped the car and fled. ∎  put (something) down firmly or heavily and carelessly: she dumped her knapsack on the floor. ∎ inf. abandon or desert (someone): his girlfriend dumped him for being fat. ∎  send (goods unsalable in the home market) to a foreign market for sale at a low price: other countries dump steel in the U.S. at below-market prices. ∎ inf. sell off (assets) rapidly: investors dumped shares in scores of other consumer-goods firms.2. Comput. copy (stored data) to a different location, esp. so as to protect against loss. ∎  print out or list the contents of (a store), esp. after a system failure.3. Football tackle (a quarterback) before he can throw a pass.PHRASAL VERBS: dump on inf. criticize or abuse (someone); treat badly: you get dumped on just because of your name.

dump
1. In a system handling large numbers of users' files stored on magnetic disks, one of the periodic records of the state of the disks that are made on some form of offline storage device. This protects against failures either in hardware or software that can lead to the corruption of stored information. In the event of a system error that causes information to be lost, the most recently copied version of the information can be reinstated from the dump.

On a large multiuser system, the total volume of stored information means that it may not be practicable to dump all the information on every occasion. In these cases an incremental dump can be taken, containing only those files that are marked as having been altered since the last dump; this reduces the total amount of information to be copied during the dump, allowing dumps to be made more frequently.

2. A printed version of the contents of system memory taken when a system crash has occurred. In principle it is possible to determine the immediate cause of a system crash by studying the dump and determining the reason for any inconsistencies in its contents. In practice this may be difficult even with the assistance of dump analysis software.

3. To take a dump (defs. 1 or 2).

dumps / dəmps/ • pl. n. (in phrase (down) in the dumps) inf. (of a person) depressed or unhappy.

dump 2
A. †throw down or fall with sudden force XIV;

B. throw down in a mass (orig. U.S.) XIX. In north. ME. perh. of Scand. orig. (cf. Da. dumpe, Norw. dumpa fall suddenly or with a rush, and Sw. dimpa, pt. damp, pp. dumpit); but an independent imit. orig. is poss.
Hence sb. matter dumped, place of dumping. XIX.

dump, dumpe. Title given to some Eng. kbd. pieces of the 16th and early 17th cents., often in variation form and possibly elegiac in intention (‘down in the dumps’, for example, means ‘in a depressed mood’). My Ladye Careys Dompe is a typical (though anonymous) example.