plural dumplings
1
a
: a small mass of dough cooked by boiling or steaming
chicken soup with dumplings
b
: a casing of dough enclosing a typically savory filling (such as meat or seafood) and cooked usually by boiling, steaming, or pan-frying see gyoza, pot sticker, wonton
c
: a usually baked dessert of fruit wrapped in dough
apple dumplings
2
: something soft and rounded like a dumpling
especially
: a plump person or animal often of short stature
"I wanted to do it [rowing] because it was something I had never heard of. I was a little dumpling as well. I wanted to lose weight." —
Spencer Turrin, quoted in The Daily Telegraph (England)
Spencer Turrin, quoted in The Daily Telegraph (England) Examples of dumpling in a Sentence
We had vegetarian dumplings as an appetizer.
Recent Examples on the Web
Special flavors for baseball games will includes buffalo chicken dumplings, kung pao chicken dumplings, and wagyu beef dumplings.
—Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner, Forbes, 18 Mar. 2025
Dig in: Ma brings upscale dining to the mix with elaborate sushi rolls, ramen, dumplings and Asian tapas like tuna tarare tacos.
—Anna Spiegel, Axios, 14 Mar. 2025
Hipster coffee shops and soup dumpling joints are again drawing long lines of customers.
—Vivian Wang, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2025
Din Tai Fung currently has more than 165 locations in 13 countries—including a new California location in Santa Monica with rooftop views—but started in a modest cooking oil shop when its owner Bing-Yi Yang and his wife Pen-Mai Lai started selling xiao long bao soup dumplings on the side in 1972.
—Rachel Chang, Travel + Leisure, 12 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for dumpling
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Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner, Forbes, 18 Mar. 2025
Dig in: Ma brings upscale dining to the mix with elaborate sushi rolls, ramen, dumplings and Asian tapas like tuna tarare tacos.
—Anna Spiegel, Axios, 14 Mar. 2025
Hipster coffee shops and soup dumpling joints are again drawing long lines of customers.
—Vivian Wang, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2025
Din Tai Fung currently has more than 165 locations in 13 countries—including a new California location in Santa Monica with rooftop views—but started in a modest cooking oil shop when its owner Bing-Yi Yang and his wife Pen-Mai Lai started selling xiao long bao soup dumplings on the side in 1972.
—Rachel Chang, Travel + Leisure, 12 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for dumpling
Cite this Entry
“Dumpling.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dumpling. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
dumpling
noun
dump·ling
ˈdəm-pliŋ 
1
: a portion of dough cooked by boiling or steaming
2
: a dessert of fruit baked in biscuit dough
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