Forms: α. 3–7 stuble, 4 stubil(l, 4, 6 stubbil(l, 4–5 stobil(l, -yl(l, stobul(l, 4–6 stob(b)le, 4–7 stubbel(l, 5 -ull, -yll(e, 5–6 stubel(l, 4, 6– stubble; Sc. 6 stibill, stible, 8, 9 stibble. β. 3 stouple, 5 stopple. [a. OF. stuble, estuble, esteuble (also esteule etc., see Godefr.; mod.F. dial. éteuble, étouble, éteule), = Pr. estobla, It. stoppia:—popular L. *stupla = late L. stupula, class. L. stipula: see STIPULA.
The popular L. *stupla was adopted in continental WGer.: hence OHG. stupfala (MHG., mod.G. dial. stupfel), (M)LG. stoppel (whence mod.G. stoppel fem.), MDu. stoppele fem. (mod.Du. stoppel masc.). It is possible that the word may have coalesced with a native word of similar meaning from the root of STUB sb.]
1. Each of the stumps or lower ends of grain-stalks left in the ground after reaping. Now only in pl.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 4578. He smot of is heued as liȝtliche as it were a scouple [v.rr. a stouple, a lute stouple].
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XI. vi. (1495), 393. Pestylence wastyth and dystroyeth stobles.
1569. G. B., in Farr, S. P. Eliz. (1845), II. 388. In euerie place are stubbles and prickes, That stayes the feeble feete.
1577. Extracts Burgh Rec. Glasgow (1876), 63. That nane pull stibillis furtht of ony landis about the toun.
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 319. Its Work is to plough up Stubbles, particularly in wet Weather.
1735. Somerville, Chase, II. 58. The gay Pack In the rough bristly Stubbles range unblam’d.
1836. Emerson, Nat., iii. Wks. (Bohn), II. 146. Every withered stem and stubble rimed with frost.
1884. H. Seebohm, Hist. Brit. Birds, II. 455. At this season the Partridge delights to ‘jug’ in the grass-fields, repairing to the turnips and the stubbles to feed.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 817. The crops of warts which attack the gums and palates of sheep feeding upon stubbles.
2. collect. sing. The stumps or lower parts of the stalks of wheat or other grain left in the ground by the sickle or reaping-machine.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter xlix. 4. Þan may þe cafe drede, and stubil.
1388. Wyclif, Gen. xli. 23. And othere seuene … camen forth of the stobil.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. clvii. (1495), 707. Stipula stobble is properly that strawe wyth leues and hosen that is lefte in the felde after that repers haue repen the corn with hokys and gadred it home.
1425. in Rep. MSS. Ld. Middleton (1911), 108. If any man tye his horse in any stubbull.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb. (1882), 35. In somme places they wyll shere theyr cornes hyghe, to the entente to mowe theyr stubble, eyther to thacke or to bren.
1615. Chapman, Odyss., XIV. 304. But I suppose, that you … Know by the stubble, what the Corne hath bene.
1720. Swift, Progr. Peetry, 1. The Farmer’s Goose, who in the Stubble, Has fed without Restraint, or Trouble.
1765. A. Dickson, Treat. Agric. (ed. 2), 166. The stubble, or the roots, which the plough pushes before it, are sometimes intangled betwixt the coulter and sheath.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xli. The sight of those fields of stubble and turnips, now his own, gave him many secret joys.
1887. Spectator, 13 Aug., 1075/2. The most we can hope is to keep it [the Hessian fly] down by carefully destroying the stubble of infested wheat and barley.
b. In various fig. or allusive contexts.
Often with allusion to 1 Cor. iii. 12.
a. 1591. H. Smith, 2nd Serm. Song Simeon (1602), D 5. But sinners are stubble, and their sentence is, Burne them.
1607. Shaks., Cor., II. i. 274. This … suggested … Will be his fire To kindle their dry Stubble.
1624. Bedell, Lett., vii. 110. The stubble and errors of the Doctors.
1625. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., II. vii. 128. This argument … is wittily spunne out by … Sr Humfry Gilbert, whose ability seemes to haue made a haruest out of the stubble.
1728. Pope, Dunc., i. 254. No merit now the dear Nonjuror claims, Moliere’s old stubble in a moment flames.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa, VII. 5. Depend upon it, Mr. Belford … that one day you will be convinced, that what you call friendship, is chaff and stubble.
1773. Burke, Sp. on Bill for Relief of Dissenters, Wks. X. 23. Fortunately her [the Church of England’s] walls, bulwarks, and bastions, are constructed of other materials than of stubble and straw.
1846. J. C. Hare, Mission Comf. (1850), 156. The very stubble of our old sins may run into our eyes and blind us.
1859. Tennyson, Elaine, 731. So ran the tale like fire about the court, Fire in dry stubble a nine-days’ wonder flared.
c. transf. A rough surface or short growth likened to the ‘stubble’ of grain, esp. the short bristly growth on a man’s unshaven face.
a. 1596. Sir T. More, IV. iii. 56. Thou was wunt to blame My kissing when my beard was in the stubble.
a. 1660. Prince d’Amour, etc. 128. The grim stubble eke On the Judges cheek.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, iii. His mouth and chin [were] bristly with the stubble of a coarse hard beard.
1873. Hamerton, Intell. Life, VIII. ii. (1876), 291. On his chin, a black stubble of two days growth.
d. In sugar-planting, the sugar-cane in the field after the first year.
1846. De Bow’s Commerc. Rev., II. 324. Fortunately the [sugar] cane is not an annual plant. Each year fresh shoots spring from the stubble which remains after cutting the crop.
3. The straw of grain-stalks, etc., gathered after the crop has been harvested.
1382. Wyclif, Josh. ii. 6. She made the men to stye vp into the soler of hir hows, and couerde hem with stuble of flaxe, that was there.
1483. Caxton, Golden Leg., 56/2. In no wyse gyue no more chaf to the peple for to make lome and claye but late them goo and gadre stopple.
1540–1. Elyot, Image Gov., 41. Beeyng bounden to a stake, with smoke made of greene stickes and wette stubbell, to be smouldred to death.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. LXXXIII. vii. Torment them, Lord, as tossed balls; As stubble scatt’red in the aire.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 133. Where they have lesse store of wood within land there they burne straw, furres, and other kinds of stubble.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), III. 91. One night as I lay on my bed of stubble.
1785. Burns, To a Mouse, vi. That wee-bit heap o’ leaves an’ stibble, Has cost thee monie a weary nibble.
1846. M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), I. 179. The walls … are formed of a mixture of stubble and clay.
4. A field that has been reaped, and not yet plowed again; a stubble-field. Chiefly in plural.
1792. A. Young, Trav. France, 435. Sheep … are in most of the provinces fed upon straw, and what they can pick up on wastes and stubbles.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, IV. 41. The valleys … were of the deepest and richest green, which contrasted deliciously with the yellow stubbles and cornfields.
1908. Outlook, 29 Aug., 279/1. The costly moors in the Highlands … must always be the privileged possession of the few, but the stubbles in September are available to the multitude.
5. attrib. and Comb. esp. attributive with the senses ‘consisting of or covered with stubble’ as stubble-beard (so -bearded adj.), -field, -land, etc., ‘grown on the stubble’ as stubble-clover, -crop, -turnip, etc., ‘used on the stubble’ as stubble-plow, -rake, etc.; objective, as stubble-loving adj.; stubble-butter Sc., butter made of the milk of cows fed on the stubble; stubble-fire, fire made of stubble and so lasting but a moment; stubble-rig Sc., (a) a stubble-field; (b) the reaper who takes the lead; stubble-time, the time just after harvest; stubble-turner (see quot. 1875). Also STUBBLE-GOOSE.
1714. E. Ward, Field-Spy, 26. With *Stubble-Beard, about a Fortnight’s growth.
1620. Melton, Astrolog., 36. A *stubble-bearded-Barister.
1856. J. Ballantine, Poems, 167. The best *stibble butter taks langest o’ churnin’.
1888. Glasgow Even. Times, 15 Oct., 2/5. advt., Stubble butter.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 329. Fatting-sheep may be suffered to feed freely on the *stubble-clover.
1881. Chicago Times, 11 June. The sugar districts in this state [i.e., Louisiana] report to the Planters’ association…: *Stubble crop good.
1614. Markham, Cheap & Good Husb., II. xvi. 124. After they [the geese] haue in the stubble fields, and during the time of haruest got into good flesh.
1786. Burns, To Mountain Daisy, iv. But thou … Adorns the histie stibble-field, Unseen, alane.
1835. Browning, Paracelsus, I. 42. Which, look through near, this way, and it appears A stubble-field or a cane-brake.
a. 1618. Sylvester, Cup Consol., 34. Whose brittle glosse and glory lasts and shines As *Stubble-Fire, and Dust before the Windes.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 159. In vain he burns, like fainty Stubble Fires.
1801. Farmer’s Mag., April, 176. No plough will choke in *stubble ground, if the crop is cut in a proper manner.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., I. iii. 35. Like a *stubble Land at Haruest home.
1598. Chapman, Hero & Leander, IV. 98. Who did of hollow bulrushes combine Snares for the *stubble-louing Grashopper.
1815. Scott, Field of Waterloo, iv. The bare extent of *stubble-plain Seems lately lighten’d of its grain.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Stubble-plow.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., II. 801. The stubble … being … raked together by means of a large horse *stubble-rake.
1785. Burns, Halloween, xvi. Our *Stibble-rig was Rab M‘Graen.
1780[?]. in Burns’s Wks. (Globe), 164/2. The stibble rig is easy plough’d, The fallow land is free.
1713. C’tess Winchilsea, Misc. Poems, 77. A lowly Cottage … Fenc’d by a *Stubble-roof, from Rain and Heat.
1577. B. Googe, trans. Heresbach’s Husb., I. 11 b. Husbandry necessaries … whereof the smaller sort be these … *Stubble Sithes.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, d ij. Ther be in a *stobull tyme Sordes of mallardes in the felde.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Stubble-turner, an attachment to a plow to turn over stubble and trash before the principal plow reaches it.
1819. Rees’ Cycl., XXXII. 3 K 1/1. By … the use of *stubble turnips when necessary, the ewe and lamb-stock may be well supported through the severity of the season.
1844. J. T. Hewlett, Parsons & W., xxviii. The system of *stubble-turniping after wheat has proved very successful.
1549. Latimer, 1st Serm. bef. Edw. VI. (Arb.), 29. They walk not directely and playnly, but delite in balkes, and *stubble way.
