Stump
Stump , noun
[Old English stumpe, stompe; akin to Dutch stomp, German stumpf, Icelandic stumpr, Danish & Swedish stump, and perhaps also to English stamp.]
1.
The part of a tree or plant remaining in the earth after the stem or trunk is cut off; the stub.
2.
The part of a limb or other body remaining after a part is amputated or destroyed; a fixed or rooted remnant; a stub; as, the stump of a leg, a finger, a tooth, or a broom.
3.
The legs; as, to stir one's stumps. [Slang]
4.
(Cricket) One of the three pointed rods stuck in the ground to form a wicket and support the bails.
5.
A short, thick roll of leather or paper, cut to a point, or any similar implement, used to rub down the lines of a crayon or pencil drawing, in shading it, or for shading drawings by producing tints and gradations from crayon, etc., in powder.
6.
A pin in a tumbler lock which forms an obstruction to throwing the bolt, except when the gates of the tumblers are properly arranged, as by the key; a fence; also, a pin or projection in a lock to form a guide for a movable piece.
Collocations (4)
Leg stump (Cricket) , the stump nearest to the batsman.
Off stump (Cricket) , the stump farthest from the batsman.
Stump tracery (Architecture) , a term used to describe late German Gothic tracery, in which the molded bar seems to pass through itself in its convolutions, and is then cut off short, so that a section of the molding is seen at the end of each similar stump.
To go on the stump or To take the stump , to engage in making public addresses for electioneering purposes; -- a phrase derived from the practice of using a stump for a speaker's platform in newly-settled districts. Hence also the phrases stump orator, stump speaker, stump speech, stump oratory, etc. [Colloquial United States]
Stump , transitive verb
1.
To cut off a part of; to reduce to a stump; to lop.
Around the stumped top soft moss did grow.
2.
To strike, as the toes, against a stone or something fixed; to stub. [Colloquial]
3.
To challenge; also, to nonplus. [Colloquial]
4.
To travel over, delivering speeches for electioneering purposes; as, to stump a State, or a district. See To go on the stump, under Stump, n. [Colloquial United States]
5.
(a) (Cricket) To put (a batsman) out of play by knocking off the bail, or knocking down the stumps of the wicket he is defending while he is off his allotted ground; -- sometimes with out.
(b)
(Cricket) To bowl down the stumps of, as, of a wicket. — T. Hughes
A herd of boys with clamor bowled,
And stumped the wicket.
Collocations (1)
To stump it , (a) To go afoot; hence, to run away; to escape [Slang] — Ld. Lytton (b) To make electioneering speeches. [Colloquial United States]
Stump , intransitive verb
To walk clumsily, as if on stumps.
Collocations (1)
To stump up , to pay cash. [Provincial English] — Halliwell