thumping

Bible-thumping

derogatory
1. noun Ardent, overzealous, and aggressively evangelical belief in or espousal of the tenets of the Christian faith. The minister was famous for his fiery Bible-thumping on TV and whipping the crowd into a frenzy of hellfire and brimstone. After Mary started spending more time with her church's youth group, her friends from school began to complain about her constant Bible-bashing. Your mom needs to stop the Bible-bashing with the kids—I don't want her to turn them off of organized religion.
2. adjective Of or relating to such an espousal or faith. My father was a Bible-thumping Catholic, so he didn't exactly approve of me marrying an atheist. You need to stop these Bible thumping lectures and just accept that I observe a different religion now. I wonder how many people these Bible-thumping evangelicals actually win over.

chest-thumping

1. noun An emphatic expression or display of anger or frustration. Well, when you ignore your constituents' concerns, you're going to be met with this kind of chest-thumping when you’re out in the community. All the coach's chest-thumping still hasn't gotten his players to play with any energy. I don't know why Eric thinks people are going to be receptive to his alpha male chest-thumping. It's not like he's even our boss or anything!
2. noun An ostentatious display of dominance, superiority, and pride. Typically said of men. Don't mind the boss's silly chest-thumping. He always gets that way during production updates, but he'll relax once the real work gets underway. When you guys are done with your chest-thumping, can we please get back to the issue at hand—and come up with an actual solution? We all know he's lost his fortune, so his chest-thumping is just pathetic at this point.
3. adjective Of, indicating, or inspiring such a feeling of dominance, superiority, and pride. The politician always makes these chest-thumping nationalistic performances whenever he's on TV. Only a man would take the microphone away from someone else just to make such ridiculous chest-thumping statements. It seems like, the less someone knows, the more likely they are to make an embarrassing chest-thumping display like that.

thump (one's) chest

To make an ostentatious display of one's dominance, superiority, and pride. Typically said of men. The manager likes to thump his chest and make a big show of his authority during our production meetings, but you'd be hard-pressed to see him doing any actual work around the office. The politician always makes a point of thumping his chest during press briefings, never missing a chance to brag about his successes in office.
See also: chest, thump

thump down

To throw, hurl, or slam someone or something down (on something) with an audible thud. A noun or pronoun can be used between "thump" and "down." The drunk man tried to take a swing at the police officer, who thumped him down on the sidewalk. Don't just thump that thing down like that—you could break it!
See also: down, thump

thump on (someone or something)

To beat or pound on someone or something with force. The two brothers thump on each other all the time, but they're really very close. The manager thumped on the table to bring some order to the meeting.
See also: on, thump

thump out

1. To create some kind of rhythm, tune, or percussive beat by thumping (on something). A noun or pronoun can be used between "thump" and "out." Someone started thumping out a beat on an upturned bucket while Jeff improvised the words. I couldn't remember how the song went, so she thumped the rhythm out for me on the table.
2. To play a song (on some instrument with keys), especially in a very rough or informal manner. Someone ran over to the piano and started thumping out "Jingle Bells."
See also: out, thump

tub-thumping

Forceful or aggressive promotion of one's agenda through public speech or other means. Primarily heard in UK. I wish they would quit their tub-thumping and get on with the show. We don't care about their politics.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

thump something down

to throw something down so it makes a pounding noise. Nancy thumped the parcel down and caught her breath. She thumped down the parcel.
See also: down, thump

thump something out (on the piano)

to pound out music on a piano. Joel thumped a happy tune out on the piano. He thumped out a well-known tune.
See also: out, thump
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

tub-thumping

BRITISH, JOURNALISM
Tub-thumping is used as an adjective and a noun to describe people's behaviour when they are supporting an idea or course of action in a loud and forceful way. Economic recovery does not depend on tub-thumping speeches from politicians, but on the Government creating jobs. The players neither need, nor will respond to, tub-thumping. Note: You can call someone who behaves in this way a tub-thumper. Marsh was far from being a tub-thumper. Note: This expression is used to show disapproval. Note: People sometimes used to refer to pulpits (= the place in a church where the priest stands to speak) as `tubs', especially when talking humorously about nonconformist preachers. The image is of a preacher banging the pulpit with his fist to emphasize his message.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
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