After Rep Madison Cawthorn claimed he’d been offered “key bumps” by other members of Congress, Merriam-Webster stepped in to define the term.
“People are talking about ‘key bumps,’ and so we have a duty to tell you some things about this,” the dictionary tweeted on Wednesday. “A ‘bump,’ in this context, may be defined as ‘a small quantity of an illicit drug when inhaled in powdered form at one time.’”
Mr Cawthorn, a first-term Republican representing North Carolina’s 11th district, drew widespread condemnation this week after publicly accusing lawmakers of outrageous behavior, including inviting him to orgies.
“All of a sudden you get invited to like, ‘Well, hey, we’re gonna have a kind of sexual get-together at one of our homes, you should come!’” Mr Cawthorn told conservative podcaster John Lovell. “And you realise they’re asking you to come to an orgy.”
The 26-year-old did not name the people who supposedly did this. Later, he claimed they also did drugs in front of him.
“You know, some of the people leading the movement to try and remove addiction in our country, and they watch them doing, you know, a key bump of cocaine right in front of you,” the congressman said.
As Merriam-Webster explained, “key bump” is not a widely used phrase – although that may change thanks to the congressman’s rantings.
“We do not enter ‘key bump’ as a fixed phrase, as it has not yet demonstrated wide currency of use,” the dictionary said. “You may, if you choose, refer to ‘small amounts of drugs sniffed off a key’ as ‘key bumps.’”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy says he spoke to Mr Cawthorn about the comments in his office on Wednesday.
“He’s got to turn himself around,” Mr McCarthy told CNN after the meeting. “I just told him he’s lost my trust, and he’s going to have to earn it back... He’s got a lot of members upset. You can’t just make statements out there.”Mr McCarthy said Mr Cawthorn admitted to him that the orgy and drug claims were not true.
The Independent has reached out to Mr Cawthorn’s office for comment.
