ENGLISH
REFERENCE

dump on

phr. v..
B2 Upper Intermediate Oxford

phr. v.. to treat someone unfairly by giving them too much work or blaming them for something that is not their fault.

phr. v.. to unfairly burden someone with excessive tasks, responsibilities, or criticism; often implies a power imbalance or a lack of consideration for the recipient.


SIMPLE

Don't dump all your extra work on me.

CONTEXTUAL

The manager decided to dump on the junior staff when the project failed, even though he made the final decisions.

COMPLEX

It is common in toxic corporate cultures for senior executives to dump on their subordinates whenever quarterly results fall below expectations.

Particles
on
Separability
inseparable
Pattern
dump + on + object
Usage

usually followed by a person or a group of people as the object.

Teaching tip

highlight the informal, slightly aggressive tone; it can also mean 'to tell someone all your problems' (emotional dumping), but the 'unfair blame/work' sense is more common in workplace contexts.

Pitfall

He dumped on me his problems.He dumped his problems on me.while 'dump on someone' is inseparable when it means to criticize, when 'dump' means to offload something, the thing being dumped usually comes before 'on'.

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