Other forms: stumps, stumped, stumping
A stump is what is left in the ground when a tree has been cut down: a short, flat-topped block of trunk with the roots still under it. Good to sit on, very hard to dig out.
Anything worn down to a short remainder is a stump — the stump of a candle, a pencil worn to a stump, the stump of a limb after an amputation. The verb is what catches learners out: to stump someone is to leave them with no answer, and stumped is the form you meet most, as in that question stumped me. In cricket, the stumps are the three upright sticks the bowler aims at. American politics keeps its own version, where a candidate out on the stump is out making campaign speeches. There is also a way of walking — to stump about the house is to move heavily and crossly.
1nounstumpThe base of a tree left in the ground after the trunk is cut away.
“They ground the stump down until the lawn was level again.”
2nounstubThe short part left of something that has been worn down or cut off.
“He lit the room with the stump of a candle.”
3verbleaveTo leave someone unable to answer or explain.
“The last question on the quiz stumped everyone.”
4nouncricketIn cricket, one of the three upright sticks that make a wicket.
“The ball clipped the top of the stump.”
stump is a piece left over after cutting.
Also accepted in games: tree stump
Stump came in from the Low Countries. Middle English stumpe answers Middle Low German stump and Middle Dutch stomp, going back to Proto-Germanic *stumpaz, which meant stump, blunt, or the part cut off. It pushed out the native Old English word for the same thing, stofn.
Proto-Germanic
*stumpaz — stump, blunt, part cut off
Proto-West Germanic
*stump
Old Dutch
*stump
Middle Dutch
stomp
Middle Low German
stump — stump
Middle English
stumpe
English, today
stump
Built from
From Middle English stumpe, stompe (“stump”), from or akin to Middle Low German stump (“stump”) or Middle Dutch stomp, from Old Saxon - or Old Dutch stump, from Proto-West Germanic stump, from Proto-Germanic stumpaz (“stump, blunt, part cut off”). Displaced native Old English stofn. Cognate with Middle Dutch stomp (“stump”), Old High German stumph (“stump”) (German Stumpf), Old Norse stumpr (“stump”). More at stop.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Nature & Weather, A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 9 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word