Inflected stubbed, stubbing. Also 5 stobe, 5–6 stubbe, 7 stube, stubb. [f. STUB sb. Cf. Sw. stubba, Da. stubbe.]
1. trans. To dig up by the roots; to grub up (roots). Chiefly with up.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 26. Alle paryschenys, þat hewyn doun violently, or stubbyn, pullyn, or schredyn, or croppyn, ony treen in cherche-ȝerdes.
1555. W. Watreman, Fardle Facions, II. vii. 160. In the forenoone thei plante and graffe, digge vp settes, stubbe vp rootes.
1573–80. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 75. Go breake vp land, get mattock in hand, Stub roote so tough, for breaking of plough.
1574. in J. J. Cartwright, Chapters Hist. Yorks. (1872), 75. Wyth lyberty to take and stubbe the trees and bushes.
a. 1631. Donne, Eighty Serm., 390. If one give me a timber tree for my house, I know not whether the root be mine or no, whether I may stub it by that gift.
1639. Horn & Robotham, Gate Lang. Unl., xlviii. § 529. A woodmonger felleth down trees, and stubes them up by the roots.
c. 1695. J. Miller, Descr. New York (1843), 9. He … may … by stubbing up the trees and brushwood, have good arable land or pastures.
1706. Swift, Baucis & Phil., 178. ’Tis hard to be believ’d, How much the other Tree was Griev’d; Grew scrubb’d, dy’d at top, was stunted, So th’ next Parson stubb’d and burnt it.
1791. R. Mylne, 2nd Rep. Thames Navig., 10. Some Thorn-Bushes should be stubbed out of the Bank.
1865. Trollope, Belton Est., iii. 32. The roots want stubbing up horribly.
1889. Jessopp, Coming of Friars, v. 238. He was found to have stubbed up a hedge which had been the boundary of the land.
b. fig. Now rare.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 77. He schal stubbyn þe vp, londe & roote, & cachyn þe out of þi dwellyng-place.
1571. Campion, Hist. Irel., ix. (1633), 28. That these strangers would endeavor either to stub out that unruly generation, or to nurture them.
1651. Firmin, Serious Quest., B 1. This Opinion will stub up all the Ordinances.
1662. Jesuits’ Reasons Unreas. (1675), 128. Unless such Tenets be stubbed out of the heads … of your Preachers.
1876. Farrar, Marlb. Serm., xviii. 172. Beware that there be not—hidden deep under the soil of your heart—any sins and tendencies,… any vanities or lusts, which you have not as it were stubbed up.
† 2. To dig out (gravel). Obs.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 265. But now schal I telle ȝow of þe howe or a pek-ex wherwyth ȝe muste stubbe out þe grauel.
3. To cut down (a tree, etc.) close to the root.
1594. Nashe, Unfort. Trav., G 3 b. His horse was trapt in the earthie stringes of tree rootes, which though theyr increase was stubbed downe to the grounde, yet were they not vtterly deaded.
1750. W. Ellis, Mod. Husb., V. i. 86 (E.D.S.). Turneps may be houghed ill if the hougher stubs them, as we call it, i.e. if he houghs them so shallow as to only cut off the heads, and leave the roots in the ground.
1811. T. Davis, Agric. Wilts, I. x. 88. Young trees must be planted, part of which may be preserved for timber, and the remainder left to be stubbed off for underwood.
4. To remove the stubs from (land). Also, to clear (land) of trees, furze, etc., by uprooting. Chiefly with up.
1464. Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.), 455. [He] schal stobe me klen serten kloses wethe in Powenses.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T., 29 b. Hee … pluckt downe Barnes and Storehouses, stubd vp Orchards and Vineyardes.
a. 1650. Boate, Ireland’s Nat. Hist. (1860), 85. That land … produced nothing but moss, heath, and short low furze: which herbs are fired upon the ground and the ground stubbed, before it be plowed the first time.
1762. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, V. vii. We shall have a terrible piece of work of it in stubbing the Ox-moor.
1772. Ann. Reg., Chron., 75/2. Paterson stubbed up ten acres of furze or whin ground.
1847. C. G. Addison, Law of Contracts, II. i. (1883), 244. He must not convert arable land into pasture … or stub up a wood to make it pasture.
1864. Tennyson, North. Farmer, Old Style, vii. An’ I ’a stubb’d Thornaby waäste.
1889. B. Björnson, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 424/1. To the sœter generally belongs a large fenced-in field, well stubbed, on which the manure from the cattle is spread.
5. To remove the stub-feathers from (a fowl).
1875. Parish, Sussex Gloss., Stub, to pluck chicken clean after their feathers have been pulled off.
1901. Dundee Advertiser, 3 May, 7. The fowl is at once plucked and ‘stubbed,’… The plucking is done by men … and the stubbing, or the removal of the undeveloped feathers, by women.
6. To reduce to a stub or stump.
† a. To wear down (a quill pen). Obs.
1577. Grange, Golden Aphrod., D ij. Yet wold their inke be dried vp, their paper spent, their pennes stubbed.
1589. Nashe, Anat. Absurd., A iiij. What should I spend my yncke, waste my paper, stub my penne, in painting forth theyr vgly imperfections.
† b. To deprive of (a horn). In quot. fig. Obs.
1658. Harrington, Prerog. Pop. Govt., I. xii. 128. A Dilemma,… being a kind of argument that should not be stubb’d of one horne, but have each of equall length and danger.
c. To shorten and thicken by hammering.
1869. Sandberg, trans. Styffe’s Iron & Steel, 11. The author ‘upset’ or stubbed the bars at the ends.
7. To cause (a horse) to be wounded with a stub. Also refl. of the horse.
1686. Lond. Gaz., No. 2126/4. Lost…, a brown bay Gelding,… the near Leg behind stubb’d with Leaping. Ibid. (1702), No. 3850/4. Stolen or strayed…, a dun Nag…, was stub’d on the Fetlock Joint of one of the fore Legs.
1865. M. Lemon, Loved at Last, I. vi. 140. Pray keep on, sir, my horse has stubbed himself, I fancy.
1875. Parish, Sussex Gloss., s.v., To stub a horse is to lame him by letting him tread on stubs of underwood in a cover.
8. ? To crush, pulverize (marl, etc. for spreading over land, road-material); to fill up the ruts in (a road) with crushed stones, etc. Also to stub in: to crush (road-metal) into the ruts.
1765. Museum Rust., III. 287. If with stone of the farmers, a load of thirty bushels will do three rods, which costs one shilling and a halfpenny stubbing and picking.
1795. Vancouver, Agric. Essex, 141. The blue and white chalky clay … should be stubbed and left exposed to the action of the air, sometime before it is carried out, and spread upon the land.
1800. Little Cornard (Suff.) Highway Acc. (MS.). Pd Robt. Sparrow for Stubbing the road from Parmers to Rowls pond, 0. 14. 5.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 165. The stones … are … dropped into the ruts, far better than a man can stub them in.
9. (See quot. 1848.) Chiefly U.S.
1848. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., 339. ‘To stub one’s toe,’ is to strike it against anything in walking or running; an expression often used by boys and others who go barefoot.
c. 1850. ‘Dow Jr.,’ in Jerdan, Yankee Hum. (1853), 58. When I stubbed my toes.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 114. You are rather liable to what Captain Eversfield graphically describes as ‘stub your toe’ against lava-like rock.
1906. Alice Werner, Natives Brit. Central Africa, vi. 140. The formation of a virulent ulcer every time a person stubbed a toe or barked a shin.
b. U. S. colloq. intr. ‘To walk along striking the toes against obstructions; go heedlessly; as, the boy stubs along to school’ (Funk’s Stand. Dict.).
10. trans. To cover with stubs.
1878. W. C. Smith, Hilda, 61. Last of a great pine forest that stubs the heath with its roots For miles.
11. intr. Of a tree: To send out branches from the ‘stub’ when cut down.
1791. Trans. Soc. Arts, IX. 20. The Spanish Chestnut … possesses a peculiar faculty of branching, provincially called stubbing, from the roots after being cut down.
