Meaning
A ball or flat round of flour dough, boiled or fried, that goes with soups, stews, and saltfish. The plain boiled dumpling is a staple 'belly-full' food, filling and cheap; small elongated ones rolled between the palms are 'spinners', and the fried version is a 'fry dumpling' or Johnny cake. A cornerstone of the Jamaican pot and plate, the dumpling stretches a meal and fills a hungry belly, torn open to scoop up gravy or eaten alongside the fish and the stew, one of the most everyday and beloved of the island's staple foods.
Examples
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Put some dumpling inna di soup.
Put some dumplings in the soup.
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Boil dumpling go good wid ackee an saltfish.
Boiled dumpling goes well with ackee and saltfish.
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She roll di dumpling an drop dem inna di pot.
She rolled the dumplings and dropped them in the pot.
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Mi granny mek di bes fried dumplin inna di mawnin.
My grandmother makes the best fried dumplings in the morning.
Fried dumplin is a classic breakfast served with ackee, callaloo or saltfish.
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Put two dumplin inna di soup fi mi.
Put two dumplings in the soup for me.
Boiled dumplins go into Saturday soup; 'fi mi' means 'for me'.
Origin
From English 'dumpling'; a cornerstone starch of Jamaican cooking in boiled, spinner, and fried forms.
How it’s used
The boiled flour dumpling is the base sense; 'spinner' (small) and 'fry dumpling' are variants. See Fry dumpling, Spinner.