An archaic slang phrase meaning to be in a bad mood — angry, sullen, or just generally difficult to deal with.
An archaic slang phrase meaning to be in a bad mood — angry, sullen, or just generally difficult to deal with. The 'hump' here is a figurative lump of irritability you're carrying around. Think of it as the Victorian version of 'woke up on the wrong side of the bed.' Rarely used today, but it has a satisfying bluntness to it.
No comments yet — say something.
Add your own interpretation of "have one's hump up".
The vocabulary of software engineers, AI researchers, and anyone living in a terminal or on GitHub — from LLM to MCP, CORS to vibe coding, agentic to enshittification.
See all Tech, Dev & AI slang on Slangora.
(slang, archaic) To become angry or sullen.
Get one's hump up is an old-fashioned slang phrase meaning to become irritated, angry, or sullen — to get your back up, as a cat does when annoyed. The hump here evokes the raised spine of a bristling animal or the hunched posture of someone in a bad mood. Though archaic in most modern usage, the phrase still turns up in period fiction and occasionally in regional speech where older idioms survive longer than average.
Dated slang meaning to get out quickly, scarper, or flee a situation in a hurry. The 'hump' here carries the sense of exerting physical effort — hunching over and moving fast, like carrying a heavy pack at speed. Used in criminal, military, and underworld contexts to mean making a rapid exit before trouble arrives. The phrase survives mainly in older British and American slang, occasionally revived for period-accurate dialogue.
(slang, archaic) To be angry or sullen.
No comments yet — say something.
Browse all slang words starting with H.
(slang) To depart in a hurry; to flee.