| 释义 |
▪ I. stump, n.1|stʌmp|
Forms: 4–6 stompe, 5 Sc. stowmpe, 5–7 stumpe, 6 stoomp, 6–7 stumppe, 6– stump.
[First in 14th c.; a. or cogn. w. MLG. stump masc., stumpe fem., (M)Du. stomp masc., subst. use of MLG. stump, (M)Du. stomp adj., mutilated, blunt, dull; corresp. to OHG. (MHG., mod.G.) stumpf adj. and n. masc.; the late ON. stump-r masc., MSw. stumper (mod.Sw. stump), Da. stump adj. and n., are prob. from LG.
The senses of the word, in Eng. and other Teut. langs., show close parallelism with those of stub n. and its cognates, but etymological connexion is difficult to establish. On the other hand, there is no morphological objection to the view that the Teut. root *stump- is an ablaut-variant of *stamp- (see stamp v.), but this is not supported by any striking similarity of sense.]
1. a. The part remaining of an amputated or broken-off limb or portion of the body.
to fight to the stumps: app. an allusion to quot. c 1600 below; cf. 3 b.
a1375Joseph Arim. 681 Þan Ioseph..bad þat mon knele, þe arm helede a-ȝeyn hol to þe stompe. c1430Syr Tryam. 1561 He [Tryamour] smote Burlond of be the kneys... Burlonde on hys stompus stode. c1440Sir Eglam. 739 Syr Egyllamowre,..Halfe the tonge [of the dragon] he stroke away, That fende began to ȝelle! And with the stompe that hym was levyd, He stroke the knyght in the hedd A depe wounde and a felle. c1450Mirk's Festial 223 Boþe hys hondys wern puld of by þe elboues,..and he wyth hys stompes stode soo. 1541Act 33 Hen. VIII, c. 12 §3 The..chief Surgeon..shalbe redye..to seare the stumpe when the hande is striken of. 1590Tarlton's News Purgatory 24 He threatned to cut out her tongue, it is no matter for that knaue quoth she, yet shall the stump call thee prick⁓lowse. 1597A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 37 b, [In an amputation] it is allwayes better to make the stumpe short, then longe. c1600Chevy Chase (later version) l. in Child Ballads III. 313 For when his leggs were smitten of he fought vpon his stumpes. 1615Crooke Body of Man 80 The nauell therefore is the stumpe of the vmbilicall vesselles, by which the Infant was nourished in the wombe. 1653T. Brugis Vade Mecum (ed. 2) 143 They are very necessary..to cauterize the end or stump of a bone after dismembring. 1672Wiseman Treat. Wounds ii. v. 30 Here your work is with a good Razor or Knife presently to plain the Stump, and pull up the Flesh, that you may saw off the end of the Bone as even as may be. 1766H. Walpole Let. to G. Montagu 3 Mar., The stumps that beggars thrust into coaches to excite charity and miscarriages. 1822Shelley Chas. 1st iii. 40 And hands, which now write only their own shame, With bleeding stumps might sign our blood away. 1853Ld. J. Russell in Life & Lett. 4th Earl Clarendon (1913) II. xiii. 23, I feel sure that they [sc. the English people] would fight to the stumps for the honour of England. 1898Syd. Soc. Lex., Stump of Eyeball, the remainder of the globe after the excision of whole or part of the eyeball. 1905Brit. Med. Jrnl. 1 July 15 The root of the appendix was..then amputated, the stump being buried by a purse⁓string suture of catgut.
b. A rudimentary limb of member, or one that has the appearance of being mutilated.
1555Eden Decades (Arb.) 232 This beast..hath in the place of armes, two great stumpes wherwith he swymmeth. 1611Coryat Crudities 54 A woman that had no hands but stumpes in stead thereof. 1635Swan Spec. Mundi viii. §2. (1643) 413 Out of their [sc. bees'] short feet or stumps, there grow forth as it were two fingers. 1664Power Exp. Philos. i. 32 The Sycomore-Locust... I could, near her shoulders, see the stumps of her growing wings. 1719N. Blundell Diary (1895) 158, I saw Matthew Buckinger who was born without Hands or Feet, I saw him writ very well with his Stumps. 1861P. P. Carpenter in Rep. Smithsonian Instit. 1860, 205 The eyes are on stumps at the base of the tentacles.
c. Jocularly used for: A leg. Chiefly in to stir one's stumps, to walk or dance briskly, † to do one's duty zealously.
c1460Towneley Plays xxx. 109 There I stode on my stumpe I stakerd that stownde. 1535Layton in Lett. Suppress. Monast. (Camden) 76 His hore..bestyrrede hir stumpis towardes hir startyng hoilles. 1559Mirr. Mag., Jack Cade xx, But hope of money made him stur his stumpes, And to assault me valiauntly and bolde. 1583Stubbes Anat. Abuses i. (1877) 147 Their pipers pipeing, drommers thundring, their stumps dauncing, their bels iyngling. 1596P. Colse Penelope (1880) 164, I doubt not but poore shepheards will stirre their stumps after my minstrelsie. 1603B. Jonson Ent. Althrope (1604) 11 Come on Clownes, forsake your dumps, And bestir your Hobnaild stumps. 1619H. Hutton Follies Anat. B 4 b, Making his stumppes supporters to vp⁓holde This masse of guttes. 1682N. O. Boileau's Le Lutrin ii. 16 Up starts amazed John, bestirs his Stump. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Bustle about, to be very Stirring, or bestir one's Stumps. a1728W. Starrat Epist. to A. Ramsay 7, [I] Right tozylie was set to ease my Stumps. 1785Burns Jolly Beggars v, I'd clatter on my stumps at the sound of a drum. 1832Marryat N. Forster x, Come this way, my hearty—stir your stumps. 1837Lytton E. Maltrav. iv. vi, Come, why don't you stir your stumps? I suppose I must wait on myself.
d. A wooden leg.
1679J. Yonge Currus Triumph. 18 It being difficult..to use an artificial stump or supplemental Leg, till the Ulcer be cicatrized. 1740Somerville Hobbinol i. 145 His [a one⁓legged fiddler's] single Eye Twinkles with Joy, his active Stump beats Time. 1771Smollett Humph. Cl. 5 May, At the same time [he] set his wooden stump upon my gouty toe.
2. a. The portion of the trunk of a felled tree that remains fixed in the ground; also, a standing tree-trunk from which the upper part and the branches have been cut or broken off. Cf. stub n.1
c1440Promp. Parv. 481/1 Stumpe, of a tree hewyn don, surcus. 1546Supplic. Poore Commons (E.E.T.S.) 92 The old stompes of these fruitles trees. 1558Warde tr. Alexis' Secr. 29 b, Take Polipodium (whiche is an herbe, like vnto Ferne) growyng vpon the stumpe or stocke of a Chestnut tree. 1638Junius Paint. Ancients 68 Thick woods, graced between the stumpes with a pure and grasse-greene soile. 1697W. Dampier Voy. I. 156 There are so many Stumps in the River, that it is very dangerous passing in the night. 1698Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 41 On the top of a withered Stump perching a Chamelion. 1717Berkeley Tour Italy Wks. 1871 IV. 567 Hills on left almost naked, having only the stumps of trees. 1764Dodsley Leasowes in Shenstone's Wks. (1777) II. 291 A number of these extempore benches (two stumps with a transverse board). 1781Cowper Conversat. 51 So wither'd stumps disgrace the sylvan scene, No longer fruitful, and no longer green. 1800Wordsw. Hartleap Well 125 You see these lifeless stumps of aspen wood—Some say that they are beeches, others elms. 1836C. P. Traill Backw. Canada 41 It would have broken my heart to have to work among the stumps, and never see..a well⁓ploughed field. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. xxvii. 213 Adjacent to my theodolite was a stump of pine. 1902S. E. White Blazed Trail xix, After you will come the backwoods farmer to pull up the stumps; and after him the big farmer and the cities.
transf.1655Fuller Ch. Hist. i. 23 The stumps of ruined Churches lately destroyed by Diocletian grew up into beautiful Buildings. 1899Baring-Gould Bk. West I. vii. 101 The main castle tower was..pulled down and left as a stump.
fig.1580Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 226 Philautus although the stumpes of loue so sticked in his mind..: yet [etc.]. 1583B. Melbancke Philotimus R ij b, You say you cannot boote me, yet do stumps of old loue stick in your stomacke.
¶ The lofty and massive church tower of Boston, Lincs. (a conspicuous sea-mark), has long been known as ‘Boston Stump’, perh. as having no spire. This designation is mentioned in E. J. Wilson Gloss. Gothic Archit. (1823) 21.
b. The base of a growing tree. to buy (timber) on the stump; before felling. Cf. stub n. 1 b, c.
1902S. E. White Blazed Trail xiv, You originally paid in cash for all that timber on the stump just ten thousand dollars. Ibid. xxxiv, There ought to be about eight or ten million [feet of timber]..worth in the stump anywhere from sixteen to twenty thousand dollars. 1902Daily Chron. 31 Dec. 6/3 Twenty-four hours from stump to saw-mill is a regular thing now in some of the eastern mills.
c. up a stump: perplexed, in difficulties (see also quot. 1834). Cf. up a tree s.v. tree n. 7. slang (orig. and chiefly U.S.).
1829S. Kirkham Eng. Gram. 206 Hele [= he will] soon be up a stump. 1834W. G. Simms Guy Rivers II. 241 Brooks..in backwood parlance, was ‘considerably up a stump’—that is to say, half drunk. 1880‘Mark Twain’ Tramp Abroad xxxvi. 402 The public reciter..would find himself ‘up a stump’ when he got to the church bell. 1924Galsworthy White Monkey i. xii. 100 Look here, Uncle Soames, I'm up a stump. 1944Duncan & Nickols Mentor Graham 147 For once in his life, work had him so up a stump that he could not snatch a moment for study or reading.
3. a. Something (e.g. a pencil, quill pen, cigar) that has been reduced by wear or consumption to a small part of its original length; a fag-end. = stub n. 9.
1516Will of R. Peke, And then the stumpe to be put in on tapere with more stuffe in ytt. 1660R. Wild Iter Bor. 4, I..had gnaw'd my Goose-quill to the very stump. 1709Steele Tatler No. 9 ⁋1 The Youth with broomy Stumps began to trace The Kennel Edge, where Wheels had worn the Place. 1809Sir G. Jackson Diaries & Lett. (1873) I. 16 A knife to improve the sorry stump that does duty for one [a pen]. 1829G. Head Forest Scenes N. Amer. 49 A black stump of a tobacco-pipe was in his mouth. 1840Dickens Old C. Shop v, An inkstand with no ink and the stump of one pen. 1865Le Fanu Guy Deverell iv. I. 53 When he threw his last stump [sc. of a cigar] out of the window they were driving through Penlake Forest. 1911Beerbohm Zuleika Dobson xiv. 218 ‘Yes, my Lord’, said the boy, producing a stump of pencil. 1913J. G. Frazer Golden Bough (ed. 3) Scapegoat iii. 163 The fires are fed with stumps of old brooms.
fig.1647N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. i. lix. 176 He is contented with the stump of the Crown.
b. Phrase, (to wear) to the stumps. Chiefly fig. Very common in 16–18th c.; now rare or Obs.
a1555in Foxe A. & M. (1563) 1313/2 Though our soule priestes sing til they be bleare eyed, say tyl they haue worne theyr tongues to y⊇ stumpes, neither their singings nor their sayings shall bryng vs out of hel. 1602T. Fitzherbert Apol. 37 God wil..throw into the fyre, those rods of his wrath, when he hath worne them to the stumps. 1614Day Festivals x. (1615) 287, I have endeavoured to carke and care for them all, have spent my whole life, and worne my selfe to the very stumps. 1660Gauden Slight Healings 63 The first reduceth a Nation to its stumps, and makes it a cripple a long time. 1679Hist. Jetzer 10 When they had almost quite worn out their patience to the stumps. c1680Beveridge Serm. (1729) II. 525 Thou may'st pray 'till thy tongue be worn to the stumps. 1716M. Davies Athen. Brit. I. 148 Erasmus plainly shews, that Archbishop Lee had driven him to his Stumps. 1732Berkeley Alciphr. ii. §17 This man of pleasure, when, after a wretched scene of vanity and woe, his animal nature is worn to the stumps.
c. The part of a broken tooth left in the gum.
c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 30 Thy mone pynnes bene lyche old yvory, Here are stumpes feble and her are none. 1601Holland Pliny xi. xxxvii. I. 338 He had a brother also who never cast his foreteeth, and therefore he wore them before, to the very stumps. 1613Shakes. Hen. VIII, i. iii. 49 Your Colts tooth is not cast yet? L.San. No my Lord, Nor shall not while I haue a stumpe. 1653T. Brugis Vade Mecum (ed. 2) 144 A punch to force out a stump of a hollow tooth. 1777St. James's Chron. 26–28 June 2/1 [Dentist's Advt.] Advice 1 l. 1 s. Taking out a Tooth or Stump, 1 l. 1 s. 1801G. Colman Poor Gentl. iv. i. 57 My cousin Crushjaw, of Case-horton; who lugs out a stump with perfect pleasure to the patient. 1877Encycl. Brit. VII. 99/1 The removal of roots and stumps as a preparatory step in the fitting of artificial teeth.
d. The part of a broken off branch that remains attached to the trunk.
1707Mortimer Husb. (1721) II. 83 If the Bough is large..cut it off at some distance from the Tree..; but by no means leave any Stumps to stand out at any distance, because they cannot be covered by the Bark, 'till the Diameter of the Tree grows beyond it, and in the mean time the Stump will be continually rotting.
e. A docked tail.
1544Betham Precepts War i. lxxxiii. E iv b, The weake man that laboured to plucke awaye [the horse's tail] heere by heere, made all bare to ye stompe. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. xi. 39 The knotty string Of his huge taile he quite a sunder cleft; Five ioynts thereof he hewd, and but the stump him left. 1770Cumberland West Indian ii. ix, To hang the false tails on the miserable stumps of the old crawling cattle. 1885Rider Haggard K. Soloman's Mines iii, Still it does look odd to trek along behind twenty stumps [of oxen], where there ought to be tails.
f. Naut. The lower portion of a mast when the upper part has been broken off or shot away. Also = stump mast (see 19).
1725N. Bailey Fam. Colloq. Erasm. (1733) 187, I be⁓thought my self of the Stump of the Mast. 1743Bulkeley & Cummins Voy. S. Seas 10 Fitted a Capp on the Stump of the Mizen-Mast. 1745P. Thomas Jrnl. Anson's Voy. 44 We got down our Stumps, which are generally set up in bad Weather instead of Top gallant Masts. 1773Gentl. Mag. XLIII. 321 A terrible storm arose, which obliged the Dolphin..to strike her top gallant-masts, and lie to in her stumps. 1800in Nicolas Disp. Nelson (1845) IV. 219 note, Half past 6, shot away the main and mizen-masts: saw a man nail the French ensign to the stump of the mizen-mast.
g. dial. The remains of a hay-stack, most of which has been cut away. (Eng. Dial. Dict.)
1785Jackson's Oxf. Jrnl. 15 Jan. 1/4 Two Hundred Tons of fine Old and New Hay, in several Ricks, Cocks, and Stumps. 1785[see staddle n. 8]. 1868Gloss. Sussex Wds. in Hurst's Horsham (1899).
h. The remaining portion of a leaf cut out of a volume; the counterfoil of a cheque. Cf. stub n. 10, stock n.1 42.
1887Ellis & Scrutton Catal. Feb. 5 It is conclusively shewn that the text is quite perfect, and that the eighth leaf of Sig. G. was a blank, of which there is still the stump remaining in this copy.
i. stump and rump adv. phrase: (Of destruction, removal, etc.) totally, completely. (See also rump n.1 4.) Cf. stout and rout. dial.
1825Brockett N.C. Gloss., Stump and rump, entirely. 1828Carr Craven Gloss. s.v., I's ruined stump and rump. 1901R. Buchanan Poems 140 (E.D.D.) Geordie swallowed them ‘stump an' rump.’
4. Applied to a person: A blockhead (cf. stock n.1 1 c, stub n. 2); a man of short stumpy figure (cf. stub n. 7 d). † Sometimes as a term of contemptuous address: also stumps.
1601B. Jonson Poetaster i. ii, Come, bee not ashamed of thy vertues, old stumpe. 1605Tryall Chevalry ii. i. in Bullen Old Pl. (1884) III. 289 Stumps, I challenge thee for this indignity. 1825Brockett N.C. Gloss., Stump, a heavy, thick-headed fellow. 1829Lytton Disowned ii, Come, Stump, my cull, make yourself wings. a1835Hogg Tales & Sk. (1837) VI. 352 He then sought out the common executioner, but he was a greatly, drumbly, drunken stump, and could tell him nothing. 1875J. Grant One of Six Hundred xxv. 201 Binnacle, the skipper, was a short, thick-set little stump of a fellow.
†5. A broken-off end of something. Also a splinter (cf. stub n. 5). Obs.
c1400Laud Troy Bk. 12539 He bare him thorow the scheld ymyddes, Thorow his plates In-to his brest; Opon the grounde ful stille he rest, For In his body lefft the stompe. 1625T. Godwin Rom. Antiq. 202 There came a fierce Lyon vnto him, moaning and grieuing, because of a stumpe of a tree which stucke fast in his foot.
6. a. The stalk of a plant (esp. cabbage) when the leaves are removed.
1819Scott Leg. Montrose viii, Where no forage could be procured for his horse, unless he could eat the stumps of old heather. 1879Sala in Daily Tel. 28 June, A very unlovely spot..presenting little beyond a prospect of empty baskets and cabbage stumps. 1882Garden 18 Mar. 188/1 When the Cauliflowers or Cabbages were all cut, the stumps were cleared off. 1897J. Hocking Birthright iii. 52 Others pelting me [in the pillory] with cabbage-stumps and turnips. 1913D. Bray Life-Hist. Brahui v. 99 Three nights running must he take a draught of water in which the plant charmāing has been well boiled, leaves and stumps and all.
†b. pl. Stubble. Obs.
1585Higins Junius' Nomencl. 107/2 Stramentum,..the strawe, stubble, or stumppes remaining in the grounde after the corne is rept.
c. pl. Hair cut close to the skin: cf. stub n. 4 c. Also, remains of feathers on a plucked fowl.
1584B. R. tr. Herodotus ii. 78 b, The ægyptians at the deceasse of their friends suffer their hayre to growe, beeing at other times accustomed to powle & cut it to y⊇ stumps. 1726Swift Gulliver ii. i, He said..that the Stumps of my Beard were ten times stronger than the Bristles of a Boar. 1845E. Acton Mod. Cookery 261 To roast a Fowl. Strip off the feathers, and carefully pick every stump or plug from the skin. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 855 It [i.e. the ringworm patch] is studded with stumps of broken hairs. 1905Brit. Med. Jrnl. 1 July 15 The scalp is carefully examined to see that no stumps are left.
7. a. A post, a short pillar not supporting anything.
a1700Evelyn Diary 12 Nov. 1644, In a little obscure place..is the Pillar or Stump at which they relate our Bl. Saviour was scourged. 1796W. H. Marshall Rur. Econ. Midl. (ed. 2) II. 389 Stump; post; as ‘gate stump’—stumps and rails. 1842Loudon Suburban Hort. 319 These short posts, or stumps, as they may be called, are formed of pieces of young larch-trees or oak branches, from which the bark has been taken. 1907Westm. Gaz. 27 Aug. 10/2 The pillar yesterday was fulfilling the prosaic, but useful, functions of a clothes stump.
b. Coal-mining. (See quots.)
1881Raymond Mining Gloss., Stump, Penn[sylvania]. A small pillar of coal, left at the foot of a breast to protect the gangway. 1883Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining 245 Stump, the block of solid coal at the entrance to a breast, having a narrow roadway on either side.
†c. A peak, summit. (Burlesque.) Obs.
1664[J. Scudamore] Homer à la Mode 57 She [Thetis] spies Saturnius with sawcer eyes, On one oth' highest stumps alone, (For on that hill [Olympus] is many a one). [Cf. Iliad i. 499.]
8. a. A stake. to pull up one's stumps: † (a) to break up camp, start again on the march (cf. stake n. 1 e) (obs.); (b) to leave one's home, job, or settled way of life, to move; also without possessive pronoun; cf. to pull up stakes s.v. stake n.1 1 e.
1530Palsgr. 277/2 Stumpe a shorte stake, estoc. 1647J. Sprigge Anglia Rediv. ii. i. 61 They marched that day but to Crookhorn,..but here Intelligence came that made them pull up their stumps, (as weary as they were).
1955‘A. Gilbert’ Is she Dead Too? xiii. 227 Seems to have pulled up his stumps now he's married again. Wonder if they left an address. 1974M. Butterworth Man in Sopwith Camel i. i. 19 I've been trying to bully him into pulling up stumps and doing something with the rest of his life.
9. Cricket.
a. Each of the three (formerly two) upright sticks which, with the bails laid on the top of them, form a wicket. to draw (the) stumps: to pull up the stumps, as a sign of the discontinuance of play or of the termination of a match or game.
1735in Waghorn Cricket-Scores (1899) 11 The stumps were immediately pitched. 17..Laws of Cricket (1744), The Stumps must be 22 Inches long. 1744J. Love Cricket iii. (1754) 20 The Bail, and mangled Stumps bestrew the field. 1777in Waghorn Cricket-Scores (1899) p. x, [June 4, the first match] to be played with three stumps, to shorten the game. 1833J. Nyren Yng. Cricketer's Tutor (1902) 16 The stumps must stand twenty-seven inches above the ground. 1837Dickens Pickw. vii, The ball flew..straight and swift towards the centre stump of the wicket. 1862Baily's Mag. Oct. 200 At half-past six the stumps were drawn. 1868Field 4 July 11/1 When the stumps and the match also were drawn, four wickets were down for 96 runs.
b. pl. = stump-cricket (see 19).
1903A. Westcott Life B. F. Westcott I. vi. 322 My father..himself occasionally joined us in a game of ‘stumps’.
c. An act of stumping a batsman out. Also stump-out. Cf. stump v.1 8.
1859All Year Round 23 July 305/2 All clever catches, and clever stumps too. 1871‘Thomsonby’ Cricketers in Council 38 A stump-out may send the batsman back to his friends. 1912A. A. Lilley Twenty-Four Years in Cricket v. 61 Stover's wicket-keeping was remarkable... He..was always able to gather the ball with ease, and thus create for himself the maximum of certainty in..effecting a possible stump.
d. pl. Close of play, when stumps are drawn. Chiefly Austral.
1954J. H. Fingleton Ashes crown Year xxv. 268 England carried on to stumps. 1962Times 3 Dec. 3/2 He looked to be coasting through to ‘stumps’ when Benaud bowled him. 1977World of Cricket Monthly June 30/2 Bold tactics by Intikhab..carried the Pakistani score to 6-249 at stumps.
†10.
a. The main portion of anything; the stock.
1634T. Johnson Parey's Wks. xxiii. xii. 883 A. Sheweth the stump or stock of the woodden leg.
†b. ? The ‘body’ of a coat. Sc. Obs.
1506Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. III. 313 For vj elne smal cammes to lyne the doublatis bodyis and stumpes of the cotis..ix s.
11. Lock-making. (See quot. 1856.) Cf. stub n. 8.
1808in Abridgm. Specif. Patents Locks etc. (1873) 17 Which moves the stump on the same tumbler from a stump fixed under, or a groove cut in the bolt. 1852Tomlinson's Cycl. Usef. Arts (1867) II. 95/1, b is the bolt into which is riveted the stump s. 1856G. Price Treat. Fire & Thief-proof Deposit., Locks & Keys 259 The ‘stump’ of the bolt is that stud which projects at right angles from the face of the bolt, and which passes in and out of the ‘slots’ through the gating in the levers, or combinations, or other moveable obstructions contained in the lock.
12. Applied to animals of stumpy form or with a stumpy tail.
a. dial. The stoat.
1854N. & Q. Ser. i. IX. 385/1 A gamekeeper..told me that there are three kinds of the weasel tribe in the woods: the weasel, the stoat or stump, and the mousehunt. Ibid. X. 120/2 Hampshire Provincial Words... Stump, a stoat.
b. The name of a shell-fish: see quot.
1875Melliss St. Helena 203 Scyllarus latus, Latr.—A large shell-fish, called ‘The Stump’.
13. A stump bedstead: see 19.
1875Carpentry & Join. 84 The details are almost identical, whether the form is the old-fashioned and well-nigh obsolete four-poster or the half-tester or stump.
14. Originally U.S.
a. In early use, the stump (sense 2) of a large felled tree used as a stand or platform for a speaker.
b. Hence, ‘a place or an occasion of political oratory’ (Cent. Dict.). to go on the stump, to take the stump: to go about the country making political speeches, whether as a candidate or as the advocate of a cause.
In the U.S. the word ‘does not necessarily convey a derogatory implication’ (Cent. Dict.). In Britain, though now common, it is still felt to be somewhat undignified.
a.1775Broadside (by a Boston Tory), Upon a stump he placed himself Great Washington did he. 1808J. Quincy Sp. 7 Dec. in Deb. Congress (1853) 766 This species of party insinuation was a mighty engine..on an election day, played off from the top of a stump, or the top of a hogshead, while the gin circulated. 1839Mrs. Kirkland New Home xliii. 287 He..mounted a stump, which had fortunately been left standing..and then and there gave ‘reasons for my ratting.’ 1842Congr. Globe 29 Jan. 183/1 A stump orator in the West.., who, when he got down from the stump, said [etc.].
b.1816Debates in Congress (1854) 1169, I [a Virginian member] think his [a South Carolinian's] arguments are better calculated for what is called on this side of the river stump, than for this Committee. 1831M. Carey New Olive Branch 17 Declaimers in the forum, or on stumps, or in newspapers. 1838L. Bacon in Ess. Chr. Minist. (1841) 84/2 All artifice and trick—all the devices of the stage and of the stump. 1866Lowell President on the Stump Pr. Wks. 1890 V. 264 Mr. Johnson is the first of our Presidents who has descended to the stump. 1868J. Bright Addresses (1879) 76 We have seen the archbishops and bishops..doing what is described in America when they say a man has taken to the ‘stump’. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. lvi. II. 382 It is more by the stump than in any other way that an American statesman speaks to the people. 1892Daily News 19 Dec. 2/3 If politicians took it up—‘put the gold dollar on the stump,’ as it is expressed—the trouble would be grievous. 1903Sat. Rev. 7 Feb. 172 A Front Bencher goes on the stump in the provinces.
15. Coffee-planting (India). See quot.
1877E. C. P. Hull Coffee Planting 274 This disease is there known as stump, from its being due to decay of the stump of a particular forest-tree peculiar to the district.
16. slang. See quot. Cf. stumpy n. 2.
1823Egan Grose's Dict. Vulgar T., Stump, money.
17. A stringed instrument of the lute family (see quots.). Obs. exc. Hist.
a1623in R. Johnson's Compl. Works for Solo Lute (1972) 22 (music title) Alman To the Stumpe. 1947E. Blom Everyman's Dict. Mus. 674/1 Stump, an obs. string instrument of the Cittern type invented c. 1600 by Daniel Farrant. 1961A. Birch in A. Baines Mus. Instr. through Ages vii. 166 There were other instruments too, for accompanying the voice or for solo playing, ‘stump’, ‘poliphant’, ‘penorcon’, but little more than their names has survived. 1976D. Munrow Instr. Middle Ages & Renaissance ix. 83/4 Of the stump there are no surviving examples or descriptions though the name does suggest a small instrument. One piece of stump music is extant, however, entitled Alman R. Johnson to the stump by F.P...giving the impression that the stump was a wire-strung equivalent of the theorbo.
18. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 2) stump-country, stump extracting, stump-extractor, stump fence, stump-hole, stump land, stump-wood; stump-dotted adj.; stump-like adj. and adv.; stump-wise adv.; (sense 3 c) stump-extractor, stump-puller; (sense 14) stump campaign, stump oration, stump orator, stump oratory, stump oratress, stump speaker, stump speaking, stump speech.
1888Bryce Amer. Commw. x. I. 132 The famous struggle of Mr. Douglas and Mr. Lincoln for the Illinois senatorship in 1858 was conducted in a *stump campaign.
1896Home Missionary (N.Y.) July 129 Vast tracts of ‘*stump country’ [in Michigan] are as truly virgin soil as if the region had just been discovered.
1902S. E. White Blazed Trail v, Sometimes he would look across the broad *stump-dotted plain to the distant forest.
1883M. P. Bale Saw-Mills 295 Capstans are also used for *stump extracting.
1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2432/2 *Stump-extractor i. (Agriculture). A tool or machine for pulling the stumps of trees...2. A dentist's instrument. 1883M. P. Bale Saw-Mills 294 There are many other varieties of stump extractors amongst those used in America.
1845S. Judd Margaret i. xvi, The stile by which they crossed the *stump-fence into the herb-garden. 1897Daily News 10 Sept. 8/3 The stump fence..consists of the gnarled roots of trees originally grubbed up from the land.
1828P. Cunningham N. S. Wales (ed. 3) II. 166 It is long before grasses grow upon the places out of which stumps have been burnt... But it is astonishing to observe what a height of richness wheat will attain on these spots, every *stump-hole being easily reckoned in a field of wheat from this great luxuriance alone.
1889Hardwicke's Sci.-Gossip XXV. 132 This tree attains a height of about six feet, and its branches spring from the gnarled top of the thick, *stump⁓like stem.
1831Constellation (N.Y.) 12 Feb. 98/2 You see, sir, I want an office, for, as I told 'em in my *stump horation twict, the man..is the very one that ought to be awarded.
1813T. Jefferson Writ. (1830) IV. 203 In the debates of Congress, of State legislatures, of *stump-orators. 1887Spectator 19 Mar. 391/1 The shallowness and flippancy of stump-orators.
1811E. Fletcher Let. 11 Jan. (1965) 26 For you must know that the people in these parts get into office by ‘*Stump oratory’ or praising and electioneering for themselves. 1854H. Miller Sch. & Schm. (1858) 496 Without any unnecessary display of stump-oratory. 1880McCarthy Own Times IV. 380 Mr. Disraeli himself had taken to going round the country, doing what would be called in America stump oratory.
1852Hawthorne Blithedale Rom. vi, She was made..for a *stump-oratress.
1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. 870/1 *Stump pullers are of the lever and claw style, or [etc.].
1848Let. fr. Washington in N.Y. Herald 21 June (Bartlett), The Hon. W. R. Thompson,..one of the most popular *stump speakers of the day, addressed a large meeting of Whigs from the stoop of Barnum's Hotel, Baltimore. 1864Lowell Lincoln Pr. Wks. 1890 V. 187 All that was known of him was that he was a good stump-speaker.
1842H. Mann Boston Orat. 4 July 46 The custom so prevalent at the West and South, of *stump speaking. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. cxi. III. 604 They shine in stump speaking, properly so called—that is, in speaking which rouses an audience but ought not to be reported.
1820J. Flint Lett. from Amer. (1822) 251 The harangues are called *stump-speeches. 1839Proffit in Congr. Globe 31 Dec. 72/2 He could make..a better stump speech himself. 1885Manch. Exam. 16 May 6/1 Mr. Redmond rose and insisted on delivering a stump speech on the sentiments of the Irish and English people regarding royalty.
1884C. Phillipps-Wolley Trottings of Tenderfoot 208 If a constitution was to grow up strong, it didn't want forcing with a lot of *stump-spouter's rubbish.
1719London & Wise Compl. Gard. xix. 129 In those vigorous Trees, we must leave upon them..some Branches cut *Stump-wise.
1953Forestry Abstr. XIV. 296/2 Miscellaneous notes are appended on: splitting *stumpwood with explosives.., and Spruce and Pine stumpwood for the manufacture of fibreboards. 1977Ibid. XXXVIII. 44/2 (heading) Determining the volume of stumpwood and rootwood in Picea abies.
19. Special comb.: stump bed, bedstead, a bedstead without posts; stump-bred a. Hunting = stub-bred; stump cricket = snob n.2; stump embroidery = stump work; stump-end, (a) the end of the stump of a tail; (b) the remnant of a cheque-book containing the ‘stumps’ or counterfoils; stump foremast (see stump mast); stump-grubber, a machine designed to excavate the stumps of trees after the trees have been felled (cf. stump-machine); stump-grubbing, the excavation of tree-stumps by manual or mechanical means; stump joint (see quot.); stump-jump, -jumping adjs. Austral., designating a kind of plough by which land can be ploughed without clearing it of the stumps; also absol. as n.; stump jumper U.S., a countryman or hillbilly (cf. stubble-jumper s.v. stubble n. 5); stump-machine U.S., a machine for extracting tree-stumps; stump mast (see quot.); stump mortise = stub mortise (W. 1911); † stump nail = stub-nail; † stump pie, a kind of meat-pie; stump plant, a cutting consisting of a short cut-back stem and roots which may or may not be pruned; stump-shot = stub-short, -shot (see stub n. 11); stump-spire Arch. (see quot.); stump-tenon = stub-tenon (W. 1911); stump topgallant mast (see stump mast); stump tracery Arch. (see quot.); stump tree U.S. (see quot. 1892); stump water U.S., the rain-water which collects in the stumps of hollow-trees, associated esp. with folk remedies and charms; stump word, a word formed by abbreviating a single longer one, esp. by reducing it to a single syllable (freq. the first) or the minimum necessary for understanding; cf. clipping vbl. n.2 2 c; stump-work, a peculiar kind of raised embroidery practised in the 15–17th c. (see quot. 1904).
1841Penny Cycl. XXI. 45/2 Under a *stump bed, immediately beneath, was a dog-kennel.
1823J. Simpson Ricardo I. 235 Having never yet known a luxury beyond a *stump bedstead, and a flock bed. 1841J. T. J. Hewlett Peter Priggins I. i. 29 In one corner was a stump-bedstead, with a kind of dimity canopy.
1897*Stump-bred [see stub-bred s.v. stub n. 11].
1888A. Lang in Steel & Lyttelton Cricket (Badm.) i. 1 There is a sport known at some schools as ‘*stump-cricket’,..which is a degenerate shape of the game. 1907C. B. Fry in Daily Chron. 10 Oct. 4/4 The old and renovated game of ‘Le Bon Diable’..bears the same relation to Diabolo-Tennis as stump-cricket does to proper cricket.
1904Mrs. Head in Burlington Mag. IV. 173/1 Side by side with *stump-embroidery flourished two varieties of flat and semi-flat work.
1768Phil. Trans. LX. 122 Tails..sewed together at the *stump-ends. 1894‘J. S. Winter’ Red Coats 42 There were several stump-ends of old cheque-books there.
1897Kipling Capt. Cour. i. 20 Harvey heard a chuckle from Dan, who was pretending to be busy by the *stump-foremast.
1971Sylwan CXV. x. 19 Investigation of the technical and economic efficiency of the Odyniec *stump-grubber. 1977Forestry Abstr. XXXVIII. 580/1 The specifications of the stump-grubbers are tabulated, and data are given on stump-grubbing performance.
1938M. Richardson in B. A. Botkin Treas. S. Folklore (1949) iii. i. 442 He went on the *stump-grubbing gang, soon as he got to the Farm. 1961Forestry Abstr. XXII. 582/1 (heading) Using a vibratory shock method in stump-grubbing. 1977Stump-grubbing [see stump-grubber above].
1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. 870/1 *Stump joint, the form of joint used in the folding carpenter's rule. The ends or stumps of the parts when in line, abut against each other.
1896Waybrook Implement Co. Advt. (Morris), This wonderful result [of the harvest] must in the main, be put down to the *Stump-jump Plough. 1898Morris Austral Eng. 443 Stump-jump Plough. 1911E. M. Clowes On Wallaby xi. 297 Those people who..were once in undisputed possession of these mountains and forests—before the days of the axe and saw, the ‘stump-jump’, and the ‘mallee roller’.
1936J. H. Street Look Away xiii. 87 That's the home of the hillbillies. Some folks call 'em ‘*stump-jumpers’. 1944in H. Wentworth Amer. Dial. Dict. 606/2 She musta been one o' these West Virginia stump-jumpers.
1898M. Davitt Life & Progr. Australia xiii. 64 The most useful implement to the hardy settlers up here is the *stump-jumping plough.
1900Borough News 11 Aug. 3/1 I'm breaking up that ten-acre field of *stump land. 1907Black Cat June 21 Once outside the limits of the stump-land, Mehetabel made the best of her speed to the Knoll.
1868B. J. Lossing The Hudson 54 One of the *stump-machines stood in a field near the road.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Stump-mast, a lower mast without tops. Common in those steam-vessels which never depend wholly upon sails.
1704in Bagford Ballads (1876) 64 The Lad..quickly fell to vomiting strange things, As bits of Glass, *stump Nails and crooked Pins.
1695J. H. Family Dict. s.v., *Stump-Pye to Season: Take Veal or Mutton, mince it raw, [etc.].
1953Brit. Commonw. Forest Terminol. i. 36 Cutting, root and shoot, one consisting of a pruned tap⁓root and cut-back stem. Syn...*stump plant. 1960Forestry Abstr. XXI. i. 31/1 Stump plants made from 1-year seedlings were planted in pots.
1812J. Smyth Pract. Customs (1821) 293 No other allowance is to be made, in taking the length of plank, for the *stump-shot, or split end.
1842Penny Cycl. XXII. 356/2 If no better [name] can be found, we would suggest that of *Stump-spire for one whose height does not exceed two diameters at its base. Ibid. 357/2.
1804in Naval Docs. U.S. Wars with Barbary Powers (U.S. Office Naval Rec.) (1942) IV. 346 You will know my ship by her having *stump top GI Masts. 1840R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xx. 59 The ship, with her stump top-gallant masts and rusty sides.
1835R. Willis Archit. Mid. Ages vi. 61 The After Gothic of Germany..has tracery in which the ribs are made to pass through each other, and are then abruptly cut off. This may be called *Stump Tracery.
1891in Century Dict. (citing Fallows), *Stump tree. 1892Newhall Trees N.E. Amer. 190 Kentucky Coffee Tree, Stump Tree (Gymnocladus disicus,..G. Canadensis). Ibid. 192 The fewness and abruptness of its large branches give to it in the winter a dead and stumpy look.
1892J. C. Harris Uncle Remus & Friends 290 De way ter git rid er ha'nts wuz ter git some prickly-pear root en bile it in *stump-water en sprinkle it 'roun' de yard. 1972J. S. Hall Sayings from Old Smoky 133 ‘His head is full of stump water.’ That is, ‘He don't use his brain.’.. Possibly ‘stump water in the head’ meant originally that the person had been affected by magic, that is, was ‘teched in the head’, or dazed.
1922O. Jespersen Language ii. ix. 169 We come to those changes which result in what one may call ‘*stump-words’... Words may undergo violent shortenings both by children and adults. 1963Amer. Speech XXXVIII. 156 Other stump words or clipped forms such as info, auto. 1971Stump word [see melo].
1904Mrs. Head in Burlington Mag. IV. 173/1 English *stump-work has..a definite individuality... Lace, brocade, satin,..peacock's feathers and human hair were all blended together by the finest and most elaborate of embroidery stitches, and raised on ‘stumps’ of wood, or wool pads, in the most fantastic of designs. 1938Burlington Mag. Oct. 172/2 Stuart ‘stump-work’ embroidery. 1958Times 25 Nov. 18/6 A highly important Venetian glass mirror with stumpwork panels. 1971Country Life 10 June 1426/2 A mirror framed in stumpwork embroidery made in England three centuries ago.
▪ II. stump, n.2|stʌmp|
[Of obscure history.
The late appearance of the word suggests that it is an adaptation (influenced by stump n.1) of the far older Fr. synonym estompe, which, along with the related vb. estomper, † estomber, appears a 1700 in De la Hire Traité de la Pratique de la Peinture, published in Mém. de l'Acad. Roy. des Sciences 1666–1699 (1730) IX. 658. De la Hire evidently regarded the words as established in use; he suggests that estompe may be a corruption of étoupe (earlier estoupe) tow, link. This is impossible; most etymologists regard the n. as derived from the vb., which some believe to be ad. Du. stompen or afstompen to dull, blunt, though there seems to be no evidence that either of these vbs. was ever used in the sense of F. estomper.
The stump for crayon drawing is elaborately described, as an instrument used by Fr. pastellists, in A. Browne's Appendix Art Painting (1675), but without mention of either the English or the Fr. name. Browne says (in this copying W. Sanderson Graphice ii. 78, published 1658) that a ‘stubbed pencil’ (app. = ‘brush’, not ‘crayon’ or ‘lead pencil’), sometimes ‘stuffed with cotton or bombast’, was employed by some artists for the same purpose. Obviously a ‘stubbed pencil’ could be called in English a ‘stump’ (stump n.1 3); and the equivalent Du. stompe could be employed in the same way. On the whole, considering that in the 17th c. the art of crayon drawing received much improvement in Holland, the likeliest view seems to be that the word stompe was applied (with no intention of using a technical term) to the ‘stubbed pencil’ by Dutch artists working in French studios; and that in the adapted form estompe it became the Fr. name for the improved instrument invented in France. On this view the Eng. word would be an adaptation of the Fr., as the relative chronology suggests.]
A kind of pencil consisting of a roll of paper or soft leather, or of a cylindrical piece of indiarubber or other soft material, usually cut to a blunt point at each end, used for rubbing down hard lines in pencil or crayon drawing, for blending the lines of shading so as to produce a uniform tint, and for other similar purposes.
1778Encycl. Brit. (ed. 2) III. 2293/2 When the head is brought to some degree of forwardness, let the back-ground be laid in, which must be treated in a different manner, covering it as thin as possible, and rubbing it into [the] paper with a leather-stump. 1811Self Instructor 544 Blend your shadows..with a stump made of paper. 1859Gullick & Timbs Painting 316 The tints are rubbed in, and blended for the most part with the finger, although ‘stumps’ (Fr. estompes), and the point of the crayon.. are also used. 1860W. Collins Woman in White vii, Near it were some tiny jewellers' brushes, a washleather ‘stump’, and a little bottle of liquid, all waiting to be used in various ways for the removal of any accidental impurities which might be discovered on the coins. 1862Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit. II. No. 5483, Drawing stumps in paper, leather, and cork. 1869Eastlake Materials Hist. Oil Painting II. 252 His love of gradation and of the imperceptible union of half-tints led him [sc. Correggio] to use the ‘stump’ of some similar mechanical means.
▪ III. stump, n.3|stʌmp|
[f. stump v.1]
1. A heavy step or gait, as of a lame or wooden-legged person.
1770Foote Lame Lover i. Wks. 1799 II. 60, I hear his stump on the stairs. 1830Miss Mitford Village Ser. iv. 129 The old Brigade-Major,..lame of a leg,..was kept on the constant stump with explanatory messages.
b. Reiterated, with echoic intention. Also quasi-adv., (to go, come) stump, stump.
1690Pagan Prince xii. 35 For a Prince to go Stump, Stump with a wooden Leg, is no way Majestical. 1854Surtees Handley Cr. xxvii. (1901) I. 204 Stump, stump, stump, creak, creak, creak, came old heavy-heels along the passage. 1862Borrow Wild Wales xi. (1901) 63 She heard of a sudden a horse coming stump, stump, up to the door. 1890D. Davidson Mem. Long Life x. 261, I heard the stump, stump of a wooden leg behind me.
2. U.S. colloq. ‘A dare, or challenge to do something difficult or dangerous’ (W. 1911).
1871Mrs. Whitney Real Folks ii. 23 She understood life. It was ‘stumps’ all through... It was a stump when her father died, and her mother had to manage the farm... The mortgage they had to work off was a stump... It was a stump when her mother died and the farm was sold. 18..Electr. Rev. (Amer.) XIV. 4 (Cent.) The reason for this little freak was a stump on the part of some musicians, because..it was not supposed he could handle a baton. He did it. 1894Advance (Chicago) 18 Oct. 112/3 But me lad, the bravest thing ye did was to refuse to run the risk fer a mere stump!
▪ IV. stump, a.|stʌmp|
[Partly from the attrib. use of stump n.1, but perh. partly an original adj. corresponding to or adopted from Du., LG. stomp.]
1. Worn down to a stump.
1624Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. iii. xv. (ed. 2) 115 Like an Asse, he [a schoolmaster] weares out his time for prouender, and can shew a stumpe rod,..an old torne gowne, an ensigne of his infelicity. 1855Leifchild Cornwall 7 He cracked his stump whip.
2. Obtuse in outline, not pointed.
1676Lond. Gaz. No. 1135/4 At Yarmouth, the Fortune of Dunkirk,..carrying four Guns, and 38 Men, with a Stump [printed Stamp] Head, Decks flush, Broad Stern, [etc.].
3. Said of mutilated or malformed limbs. stump foot: a club foot. stump leg: a leg without a foot or with a club foot.
1563–83Foxe A. & M. 828/1 The goodman of y⊇ house hauing a stumpe foote. a1568R. Ascham Scholem. ii. (Arb.) 127 Euen the best translation, is..but an euill imped wing to flie withall, or a heuie stompe leg of wood to go withall. a1593Marlowe Ovid's Elegies ii. xvii. 20 With his stumpe⁓foote he halts ill-fauouredly. 1678Lond. Gaz. No. 1338/4 An iron grey Gelding Colt, a lame stump foot before, and two white feet behind. 1731Gentl. Mag. I. 401 To apprehend several Vagrants with stump Hands, sore Arms, Legs and Faces. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 453 He did not skate with a stump leg,..but put out a broad foot with which he could have a good flat tread. 1898Syd. Soc. Lex., Stump-foot. Same as Club-foot.
4. Comb., as stump-fingered, stump-footed, stump-legged, stump-nosed, stump-rooted, stump-tailed adjs. Also stump-foot [= Du. stompvoet]: n., a stump-footed person; adj. = stump-footed; stump-nose S. Africa [after Du. stompneus] = stompneus; stump-tail, (a) a stump-tailed dog; (b) Austral., a stump-tailed lizard (Trachysaurus).
1905D. Smith Days of His Flesh xlvi. 462 In the early Church Mark..was styled Mark the *Stump-fingered.
1593Tell-trothe's N.Y. Gift (1876) 13 Ioane *Stoomp-foot and Tom Totty. 1602Invent. in C. Wise Rockingham Castle & Watsons (1891) 206 Item one baie stumpefoote mare iijli. 1612J. Taylor (Water P.) Sculler E 1, The net the stump-foot Blackesmith made, Wherein fell Mars and Venus was betraid.
1602Breton Wonders worth Hearing (Grosart) 8/1 So was he faced like an olde Ape, *stumpe footed, and wry legged. 1691Wood Life (O.H.S.) III. 366 Solomon Nash... Stumpfooted.
1629Gaule Holy Madn. 324 Buckle⁓hamm'd, *Stump-legg'd. 1652― Magastrom. 186 The spindle-legd are fearful;..stump-legg'd, servile.
1838*Stump-nose [see klipfish 1]. 1878T. J. Lucas Camp Life & Sport in S. Afr. ii. 30 The harbour [near Cape Town] abounds in fish, amongst which ‘Stump-nose,’ ‘Seventy-four,’..and other strangely named but well flavoured fish are pre-eminent.
1895Jrnl. Cutan. & Genito-Urin. Dis. Nov. 466 Perhaps the old Peruvians were *stump-nosed.
1905T. W. Sanders Vegetables 170 The Shorthorn or *stump-rooted kinds [of carrot] will succeed on any light shallow soil.
1868Sir J. Richardson etc. Mus. Nat. Hist. II. 20 The curious-looking creatures called *Stump-tails (Trachydosaurus) natives of Australia. 1902Longman's Mag. Oct. 514 Old Badger..the best stump-tail he ever had to help him.
1860P. P. Carpenter in Rep. Smithsonian Instit. 1859, 202 The *stump-tailed cats of the Isle of Man. c1875Cassell's Nat. Hist. IV. 296 The Stump-tailed Lizard. 1893Lydekker Roy. Nat. Hist. I. 117 The brown stump-tailed monkey (Macacus arctoides).
▪ V. stump, v.1|stʌmp|
Also 7 stompe, 5–6, 9 dial. stomp.
[f. stump n.1]
†1. intr. To stumble over a tree-stump or other obstacle. Also, to walk stumblingly (in quot. fig.). Obs.
c1250Owl & Night. 1392 Ne beoþ heo nouht alle forlore þat stumpeþ at þe fleysses more. Ibid. 1424 If mayde luueþ derneliche, heo stumpeþ & falþ icundeliche. 1430–40Lydg. Bochas ix. xxxviii. (1554) 217 b, Though I goe not vpright, but stomp and halt for lack of eloquence. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 78 If an oxe be wrinched and strayned in his sinnewes, in trauell or labour, by stumping on any roote or hard sharpe thing.
2. a. To walk clumsily, heavily, or noisily, as if one had a wooden leg.
1600Lane Tom Tel-troth's Message 327 Some [dames] in their pantophels too stately stompe [r.w. pompe]. 1673R. Head Canting Acad. 65 He..nimbly hops or stumps to a Coach side. a1726Vanbrugh Journ. Lond. i. i. (1728) 6 Here's John Moody arriv'd already; he's stumping about the Streets in his dirty Boots, and [etc.]. 1756Connoisseur No. 103 ⁋4 The maid-servants are continually stumping below in clogs or pattens. 1840Hood Miss Kilmansegg 1187 As the Giant of Castle Otranto might stump To a lower room from an upper. 1844W. Barnes Poems Rur. Life 355 Stumpy or Stump, to walk with short firm steps as a short stout person. 1856Kane Arctic Expl. I. xxxi. 431 Poor Wilson, just able to stump about after his late attack of scurvy. 1857Reade Course of True Love, Clouds & Sunshine iii. 204 The farmer stumped in, and sat down with some appearance of fatigue. 1874Punch 11 Apr. 155/1 ‘He [a horse] seems,’ I say, ‘to rather stump on his near fore-leg.’
b. slang. ‘To go on foot’ (Slang Dict. 1859); also stump it (in quot. 1841 to be off, decamp).
1803G. Colman John Bull iv. i. 41 Now, Sir, you and I'll stump it. 1841Lytton Night & Morning ii. ii, Stump it, my cove; that's a Bow Street runner. 1909A. M. N. Lyons Sixpenny Pieces xxii. 161 To the divil with cabs. Oi must stump ut. Stump ut on me ten old toes.
c. To knock on the floor in walking. nonce-use.
1872Browning Ring & Bk. ix. 12 Stumping with his staff, Up comes an usher.
d. trans.
1890W. C. Russell Ocean Trag. I. vi. 117 Pendulously stumping the quarter-deck.
3. trans. To reduce to a stump; to truncate, mutilate; also, † to stunt, dwarf.
1596Nashe Saffron-Walden Wks. 1910 III. 99 Whose pen..still splits and stumpes it selfe against olde yron. 1658Bromhall Treat. Spectres i. 148 He appeared a man that was stumped, or had his members cut off. 1658Evelyn Fr. Gard. (1675) 166 It will stump your [Asparagus] plant. 1752Scotland's Glory 24 That idol dagon prelacy We might have stumped tightly. 1829Examiner 595/1 The only prudent course of the people of the United States is forthwith to cut off their legs, and stump themselves into concentration. 1872Mrs. A. Gatty Bk. Sun-dials Introd. p. xx, In the reign of Elizabeth the mortuary crosses were cut down, or stumped, in our churchyards. 1877E. C. P. Hull Coffee Planting 93 These [coffee] plants..require, before being planted out on the estate, to be ‘stumped’, i.e. cut down to within some six inches above the roots.
4. To stub; to dig up by the roots. Colonial.
1790Phil. Trans. LXXX. 356 After which the [sugar] canes should be stumped out with care, and the stools burnt as soon as possible. 1828P. Cunningham N.S. Wales (ed. 2) II. 62 You may hear people even now..relate their tales of..felling and stumping trees on spots where our best houses stand. 1897Outing May 137/2 I've stumped every tree and root out'r that clearing.
5. To remove the stumps from (land). Also absol.
1796C. Marshall Garden. iii. (1813) 34 The walks should be stumpt, keeping the tops of the stumps very level. 1828P. Cunningham N.S. Wales (ed. 2) II. 164 In stumping land,..dry wood is piled over the stump, which..is set fire to. 1834Tait's Mag. I. 418/1 Very good land, sir; and I was to pay a hundred pounds for it, for you know it was cleared but not stumped. 1915W. P. Livingstone Mary Slessor v. ii. 269 She had as many as two hundred and fifty people engaged in cutting bush, levelling, and stumping.
6. ? To remove the stub feathers from (fowls): = stub v. 5.
1822Lamb Let. to Miss Wordsworth Xmas, She is to be seen in the market every morning,..cheapening fowls, which I observe the Cambridge poulterers are not sufficiently careful to stump.
7. local. To remove the ails from barley with a gridiron-shaped iron tool.
1787Winter Syst. Husb. 310 Barley should likewise be steeped the same as wheat, after being well shook in a sack by two men (stumping will bruise it) to be cleared from ailes. 1890Glouc. Gloss., Stump, to dress the beards from barley.
8. Cricket. Of the wicket-keeper: To put (a batsman) out by dislodging a bail (or knocking down a stump) with the ball held in the hand, at a moment when he is out of his ground. Also with out.
1744Report of Kent & All Eng. Match in Nyren Yng. Cricketer's Tutor (1833) 111 Bryan 12 s Kips. 1787Score of Match at Lord's in H. Bentley Cricket Matches (1823) 20th June, Aylward 94 Run out 15 stumpt out. 1833J. Nyren Yng. Cricketer's Tutor 29 Should you miss the ball, a clever wicket-keeper will surely stump you out. Ibid. 39 The wicket-keeper..should remove a little backward from the wicket..because by his doing so the catches will be much more easy, and he may stump as well. 1837Dickens Pickw. vii, In short, when Dumkins was caught out, and Podder stumped out, All-Muggleton had notched some fifty-four. 1859All Year Round 23 July 305/2 He caught two of the town off my first ‘over’, stumped two in my second, and [etc.]. 1884Lillywhite's Cricket Ann. 78 He caught three batsmen at the wicket and stumped one. 1897Encycl. Sport I. 247/1 (Cricket) Stump out, to get the batsman out under Law 23.
†9. intr. (See quots.) Obs. rare—0.
1721Bailey, To stump,..to brag or boast. 1735Dyche & Pardon Dict., Stump v.,..also to boast, brag, vaunt, or proudly value ones self upon some small Qualification, &c.
10. a. trans. = stump up, 17 b (a).
1841Hood Tale of Trumpet 260 Common prudence would bid you stump it;..It's the regular charge At a Fancy Fair for a penny trumpet.
b. intr. To pay up: = stump up, 17 b (b). Also with out.
1828Carr Craven Gloss., Stump, to pay ready money,..to pay down on the nail. 1844J. T. J. Hewlett Parsons & W. xlvii, I'll stump handsome when we're spliced. 1854Lever Dodd Family Abr. xliv. 401 There is no salary at first, so that the Governor must ‘stump out handsome’.
11. trans. slang. To render penniless. Chiefly in pass., to be ‘stony broke’.
1828Carr Craven Gloss., Stump,..2. to beggar. 1830Lower Tom Cladpole cxlviii, I..Paid the last tuppence I had got, An den I was just stump'd. 1836T. Hook G. Gurney III. 43 Haven't you heard, my dear fellow, we are stumped? 1900‘H. Lawson’ Over Sliprails 113 Going away from home with a few pounds in one's pocket and coming back stumped.
12. = stump up, 17 c.
1883Mrs. E. Kennard Right Sort xvii, I stumped a couple of horses last week, and an extra rest will do them all the good in the world.
13. (U.S. colloq.) To strike (the toe) unintentionally against a stone or something fixed: = stub v. 9.
1828–32Webster. 1857A. Lincoln in H. Binns Life A. Lincoln (1927) 181 Like the boy that stumped his toe..it hurt too bad to laugh. 1891Harper's Mag. Feb. 364/2 Mus' be powerful sorrowful ter set at home an' shed tears lest he mought her stumped his toe on the road.
14. a. (orig. U.S.) To cause to be at a loss; to confront with an insuperable difficulty; to nonplus.
The primary reference was prob. to the obstruction caused by stumps in ploughing imperfectly cleared land.
[1807: implied in stumper 5.] 1833[Seba Smith] Lett. J. Downing xii. (1835) 80 My Good Old Friend,—I'm stumped. I jest got a letter from the Gineral [etc.]. 1834Ibid. xxxii. 218 This stumps me considerable. 1840Haliburton Clockm. Ser. iii. xvi. (1848) 132 Bein' stumpt is a sure mark of a fool. The only folks among us that's ever nonplushed, is them just caught in the woods. 1842Congr. Globe 29 Jan. 183/1 He had been amazed—or, to use a Western phrase, he had been ‘stumped’ at the position occupied within these last few days by [etc.]. 1843Lowell Lett. I. 81, I met an Ohio abolitionist, who told me of his stumping a clergyman in a very neat manner. 1852C. B. Mansfield Paraguay, etc. (1856) 72, I am..continually stumped in my speculations by the reflection, that [etc.]. 1854‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green ii. xi, That beastly Euclid altogether stumps me. 1859J. R. Green Lett. i. (1901) 30, I stumped him on a question which I had got up [etc.]. 1871M. Legrand Cambr. Freshman 339 The papers I may do all right,..but the viva voce is safe to stump me. 1912C. Johnston Why World laughs 10 ‘But may I ask why this gay apparel?’ The lady was stumped for an instant. Then she made reply.
b. ? To obstruct (progress).
1858Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. II. lxvii. 5 The progress of sound knowledge..shall not be stumped to please lorn curates.
15. U.S. To challenge, ‘dare’ (a person) to do something.
1766J. Adams Diary 8 Dec., Wks. 1850 II. 204 Keen, of Pembroke was warm, and stumped Soule, the moderator, to lay down the money and prevent a tax upon the poor. 1836Haliburton Clockm. Ser. i. xxvi, I guess our great nation may be stumped to produce more eleganter liquor than this here. 1853Lowell Moosehead Jrnl. Pr. Wks. 1890 I. 17 Our Uncle would..say, ‘Wahl, I stump the Devil himself to make that ere boot hurt my foot’. 1890Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. Jan. 66 In some games..younger children are commanded, or older ones stumped or dared, to do dangerous things.
16. (Chiefly U.S.)
a. intr. To make stump speeches; to conduct electioneering by public speaking. Also to stump it.
a1838R. M. Bird Peter Pilgrim (1839) I. 86, I stumped through my district, and my fellow-citizens sent me to Congress! 1847Webster s.v., To stump it. 1859C. Mackay Life & Liberty Amer. I. 159 To stump, to address public meetings in the open air. 1860Emerson Cond. Life ii. Power Wks. (Bohn) II. 340 Stumping it through England for seven years made Cobden a consummate debater. 1874Slang Dict. 313 Stump, to go about speechmaking on politics or other subjects. 1878N. Amer. Rev. CXXVI. 275 Down in Carolina, stumping for Grant.
b. trans. To travel over (a district) making stump speeches; to canvass or address with stump oratory.
1856N.Y. Hards 5/1 Mr. Dickinson stumped the State. 1859C. Mackay Life & Liberty Amer. I. 159 To stump a State, to go on a tour of political agitation through a State. 1866Lowell Seward-Johnson Reaction Pr. Wks. 1890 V. 291 Furnishing the President with a pretext for stumping the West in the interest of Congress. 1885Manch. Exam. 6 July 4/7 Those Tory orators who were stumping the country. 1892Kipling & Balestier Naulahka 17 Sheriff was stumping the district and was seldom at home.
17. stump up.
a. trans. To dig up by the roots.
1599Nashe Lenten Stuff 60 Their imaginary dreame of Guilding crosse in theyr parish of S. Sauiours (now stumpt vp by the rootes). 1873Tristram Moab xviii. 362 The trees have been all stumped up or pollarded. 1899Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. Mar. 94 When the old hedgerow is stubbed or stumped up.
b. slang. (a) trans. To pay down, ‘fork out’ (money). (b) absol. or intr. (c) In extended use, const. with.
(a)1833T. Hook Parson's Dau. II. ii, All I know is, Paxton, Trail, Cockerell, and Co. stumped me up the money. 1842Barham Ingol. Leg., Merch. Venice 72 My trusty old crony, Do stump up three thousand once more as a loan. 1881Blackmore Christowell xxi, Father has stumped up a five pound note. 1884Bath Jrnl. 26 July 7/3 On returning to the yard at night he has to stump up ten shillings more.
(b)1835Dickens Sk. Boz, Mr. Watkins Tottle ii, Why don't you ask your old governor to stump up? 1857‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 21 Stump-up, pay your money or your share. 1862Mrs. H. Wood Channings viii, ‘And it will be a very easy way of earning money.’ ‘Not so easy as making your mother stump up.’ 1893G. Allen Scallywag I. 30 The governor..fishes out his purse—stumps up liberally.
(c)1956‘C. Blackstock’ Dewey Death ii. 35, I hope the department will stump up with a decent wreath. 1958Listener 9 Oct. 569/2 The Americans stumped up with The Old Man and the Sea.
c. trans. To wear out, exhaust (a horse, etc.) by excessive strain.
1853J. Palliser Solitary Rambles v. 126, I..reminded him how completely he had stumped me up that afternoon. 1875Reynardson Down the Road 118 After a bit the new ploughs and harrows got old and required repairs, his horses got stumped up and old and required to be made into new ones. 1900Westm. Gaz. 12 June 8/1 Year by year we see one or more of our best horses stumped up by the adamantine course.
d. In pass. = sense 11 pass.
1854Househ. Words VIII. 75/2 To say that a man is without money, or in poverty, some persons remark that he is down on his luck, hard up, stumped up, [etc.].
Add:[13.] b. To extinguish (a cigarette) by pressing its lighted end against a hard surface; = stub v.1 12. Freq. const. out.
1922‘K. Mansfield’ Garden Party 136 He stumped his cigarette savagely on the green ash-tray. 1956M. Swan Paradise Garden xi. 126 She kept lighting cigarettes and stumping them out when they were half finished. 1973A. Behrend Samarai Affair iii. 30 At 1.15 on the dot cigarettes were stumped out, coffee cups drained.
▪ VI. stump, v.2 Drawing.|stʌmp|
[App. ad. F. estomper, related to estompe stump n.2 Cf. the following:
1802C. James Milit. Dict., Stomper, Fr. To sketch out a design, or to draw with colours that have been pounded into dust. Instead of the pencil or crayon, a roll of paper which is dipped into the coloured dust, serves to put on the different colours.]
trans. To tone or treat with a ‘stump’.
1807J. Landseer Lect. Engraving 125 Ryland..employed it [the chalk manner] so as rather to imitate such drawings as are done with crayons, or stumped, than such as are hatched with chalk. 1860O. W. Holmes Elsie Venner vii. (1887) 77 This must refer to her favorite monochrome, executed by laying on heavy shadows, and stumping them down into mellow harmony. 1868Browning Ring & Bk. ix. 56 His notion of the Mother-Maid: Methinks I see it, chalk, a little stumped!
absol.1820C. Hayter Introd. Perspective 169, I pay great attention to the model while stumping, so as to preserve all the lights. |