chump
n.n. a person who is very foolish or easy to trick. You use this word when someone makes a silly mistake or is taken advantage of by others.
n. a person who is perceived as foolish, gullible, or easily deceived. Often carries a derogatory or dismissive tone.
He was a total chump for falling for that scam.
The con artist played on the victim's fear, making him a chump who lost his life savings.
While some might view his investment as a calculated risk, others saw him as a chump who failed to recognize the inherent volatility of the market.
Origin uncertain; probably a blend of chunk and lump or stump, or perhaps a nasalised variant of chub (“someone chubby, something thick”). Compare Icelandic kubbur (“block of wood, chip (computing)”), Old Norse kumbr for kubbr (“block of wood”), English chop.
Variant of chomp, itself a variant of champ (“to bite”). More at champ.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Last updated May 19, 2026