If you describe people as lumpen, you think they are dull and clumsy.
[mainly British, literary, disapproval]
The people seemed lumpen and boring.
lumpen in British English
(ˈlʌmpən)
adjective
informal
stupid or unthinking
Word origin
from German Lump vagabond, influenced in meaning by Lumpen rag, as in lumpenproletariat
lumpen in American English
(ˈlʊmpən; E ˈlʌmpən)
adjective
1.
designating or of persons or groups regarded as belonging to a low or contemptible segment of their class or kind because of their unproductiveness, shiftlessness, alienation, degeneration, etc.
nounWord forms: plurallumpen
2.
such a person or group
Word origin
shortened < lumpenproletariat < Ger, lowest level of the proletariat: coined (1850) by Karl Marx < lumpen-, trashy (< lump, scoundrel, ragamuffin, lit., rag < MHG lumpe: see limp1) + proletariat, proletariat
Examples of 'lumpen' in a sentence
lumpen
Like all lumpen bureaucracy, it serves the system more than the individual.
Times, Sunday Times (2011)
The climax, a lumpen but enthusiastic dance routine, is pure bliss.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
Her plotting is maddeningly episodic, her dialogue lumpen, her characters cursorily drawn.