What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Ponderous vs Plump - What's the difference?

ponderous | plump |

In obsolete terms the difference between ponderous and plump

is that ponderous is dense while plump is a knot or cluster; a group; a crowd.

As adjectives the difference between ponderous and plump

is that ponderous is heavy, massive, weighty while plump is having a full and rounded shape; chubby, somewhat overweight.

As a verb plump is

to grow plump; to swell out.

As an adverb plump is

directly; suddenly; perpendicularly.

As a noun plump is

a knot or cluster; a group; a crowd.

ponderous

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Heavy, massive, weighty.
  • * 1879 , , Archibald Malmaison , ch. 5:
    • [H]e saw, at the end of a shallow embrasure, a ponderous door of dark wood, braced with iron.
  • * Edgar B. P. Darlington, The Circus Boys on the Flying Rings , ch. 4:
    • The great elephant, when the cage was being placed, would, at a signal from its keeper, place its ponderous head against one side of the cage and push.
  • (figuratively, by extension) Serious, onerous, oppressive.
  • * 1781 , , Lives of the Poets , "Dryden":
    • It was Dryden's opinion . . . that the drama required an alternation of comick and tragick scenes; and that it is necessary to mitigate, by alleviations of merriment, the pressure of ponderous events, and the fatigue of toilsome passions.
  • * 1845 , , Pictures From Italy , ch. 11:
    • In its court-yard—worthy of the Castle of Otranto in its ponderous gloom—is a massive staircase.
  • * 1915 , , The Voyage Out , ch. 19:
    • For the time, her own body was the source of all the life in the world, which tried to burst forth here—there—and was repressed now by Mr. Bax, now by Evelyn, now by the imposition of ponderous stupidity.
  • Clumsy, unwieldy, or slow, especially due to weight.
  • * 1915 , , Little Miss Grouch , ch. 10:
    • Slowly, through an increasing glow that lighted land and water alike, the leviathan of the deep made her ponderous progress to the hill-encircled harbor.
  • * 1919 , , "Kew Gardens":
    • Following his steps . . . came two elderly women of the lower middle class, one stout and ponderous , the other rosy cheeked and nimble.
  • Dull, boring, tedious; long-winded in expression.
  • * 1863 , , "Cousin Phillis":
    • Over supper the minister did unbend a little into one or two ponderous jokes.
  • * 1918 , , A Daughter Of The Land , ch. 2:
    • [A]s certainly as any one said anything in her presence that she had occasion to repeat, she changed the wording to six-syllabled mouthfuls, delivered with ponderous circumlocution.
  • (rare) Characterized by or associated with pondering.
  • * , "Sermon Upon John III" in Works of Thomas Manton (2002 edition), ISBN 9781589603462, p. 464:
    • Ponderous thoughts take hold of the heart; musing maketh the fire to burn, and steady sight hath the greatest influence upon us.
  • * 1804 , The Literary Magazine and American Register , vol. 2, no. 7, p. 10:
    • The acute and ponderous mind of Dr. Johnson was not always right in its decisions.
  • * 1850 , Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country , vol. 41, p. 242:
    • They are the pleasantest of all companions, and perhaps the most affluent in correct opinions of men and things generally , although little addicted to ponderous consideration or deep research.
  • (obsolete) Dense.

    • Synonyms

    * heavy, massive * oppressive, serious

    Derived terms

    * ponderously * ponderousness

    plump

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To grow ; to swell out.
    • Her cheeks have plumped .
  • To drop or fall suddenly or heavily, all at once.
  • * Spectator
    • Dulcissa plumps into a chair.
  • To make plump; to fill (out) or support; often with up .
  • * Fuller
    • to plump up the hollowness of their history with improbable miracles
  • To cast or let drop all at once, suddenly and heavily.
    • to plump a stone into water
  • To give a plumper (kind of vote).
  • To give (a vote), as a plumper.
  • (used with for) To favor or decide in favor of something.
    • "A recent poll by the New York Times found that although most Brazilians plump for arch-rival Argentina as the team they most want to lose, the second-biggest group want Brazil itself to stumble." source: http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21600983-brazilian-workers-are-gloriously-unproductive-economy-grow-they-must-snap-out

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • Having a full and rounded shape; chubby, somewhat overweight.
  • * (Thomas Carew) (1595-1640)
    • The god of wine did his plump clusters bring.
  • *
  • Fat.

    • Synonyms

    * See also

    Antonyms

    * See also

    Adverb

  • Directly; suddenly; perpendicularly.

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A knot or cluster; a group; a crowd.
    • a plump of trees, fowls, or spears
    To visit islands and the plumps of men. — Chapman.

    References

    * ----