# Why does my dog tump over the trash?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-dog-tump-over-the-trash/372620>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 14, 2006, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-dog-tump-over-the-trash/372620 "2006-09-14T00:15:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2006, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-dog-tump-over-the-trash/372620/41 "2006-09-17T07:18:27Z")

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I have lived in Ohio, Missouri, Colorado, and Virginia. I have never heard of the verb “tump” in my life, until now. If it was included in _The American Language_ by H. L. Mencken, I must have missed it. All I knew is that a “tumpline” was a strap across the forehead, used by Indian women to help support loads carried on their backs. From an Algonquian word, _mattump_. But that carries pretty much the opposite meaning: holding something up instead of capsizing it.

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**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2006, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-my-dog-tump-over-the-trash/372620/42 "2006-09-17T11:26:51Z")

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[QUOTE=happywaffle]  
“Tump over” is American slang (at least in my part of America) for “tip over.”  
[/QUOTE]

Which part of America? I’ve lived in the east and west and visited the northeast quite a bit, and have never heard “tump over”.

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