a. [f. STUB sb. + -Y.]
1. Of the nature of a stub; short and thick or broad. a. of a root, plant, etc.
1572. Mascall, Plant. & Graff. (1592), 16. If ye breake of the olde stubbie roote and set them lower, they will last a long time the more.
1664. Evelyn, Sylva, iii. 11. Abating only the tap-roots, which is that down-right, and stubby part of the Roots (which all Trees rais’d of Seeds do universally produce).
1681. Grew, Musæum, I. ii. 30. [A rhinoceros horn.] At the base,… surrounded with a Garland of black and stubby Bristles.
1755. Johnson, Stubby, short and thick, short and strong.
1851. I. J. Mechi, 2nd Paper on Brit. Agric., 32. There are millions of stubby pollards.
1863. W. C. Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, vi. 180. The hackthorns … have low square tops, strong and very dense, with short stubby sharp thorns.
1881. Chicago Times, 16 April. Short, stubby buffalo grass, which shed off what little rain that did fall.
1904. Daily News, 8 July, 5. A well-grown, ‘stubby’ plant … sometimes has … 27 trusses of bloom all expanded at once.
b. Of a person, beast, a limb, etc.: Short and thick-set in figure.
1831. Trelawny, Adv. Younger Son, II. 216. Her fat stubby finger.
1841. J. T. J. Hewlett, P. Priggins, II. xiv. 318. A short stubby man.
1870. Thornbury, Tour rd. Eng., I. iv. 76. The poet … knocked his stubby little adversary down.
1891. Daily News, 2 July, 7/3. The lad is described as of medium height for his age, being a bit stubby.
1910. Spectator, 10 Dec., 1026/1. The she-bear’s short and stubby tail.
c. Of a thing: Short and thick or broad in make; also short and blunt as the result of wear.
1843. Holtzapffel, Turning, I. 447. A piece of cane the end of which is split into filaments to make a stubby brush.
1891. E. Dawson, Fountain of Youth, iv. 39. I have still … his calculation of the amount … written with a stubby pencil.
1898. Kipling, Fleet in Being, v. 48. From all three funnels of a high, stubby cruiser the smoke of a London factory insulted the clean air.
1899. De Vinne, Pract. Typogr. (1902), 30. The serif … in old-style lower-case letters … is a blunt spur or a stubby triangle.
1899. Conan Doyle, Duet, xx. 307. It was a worn, stubby old quill.
1905. J. B. Firth, Highw. & Byways Derbyshire, xxviii. 422. The mill is an old one … with a stubby chimney.
2. Abounding in or full of stubs. Chiefly of the hair or beard: Composed of short, stiff bristles.
1604. R. Cawdrey, Table Alph. (1613), Knarry, knotty, stubbie.
1847. Alb. Smith, Chr. Tadpole, i. He was short and awkward, with stubby light hair and a low forehead.
1887. W. P. Frith, Autobiog., II. viii. 147. An air of breeding and refinement … that the prison-dress and the stubby beard could not efface.
1887. Rider Haggard, Allan Quatermain, xxii. My grizzled stubby hair was turned snow-white.
3. Comb.: in parasynthetic adjs., as stubby-bearded, -chinned, -legged, -toed.
1898. Daily News, 1 Aug., 5/6. The *stubby-bearded weaver. Ibid. (1870), 5 Sept., 6/1. A slouching, undersized, *stubby-chinned ruffian.
1871. Furnivall, Capt. Cox’s Ball, etc. Introd. 76. *Stubby-legd Margery Mylkeducke.
1873. B. Harte, Fiddletown, 9. The gallant Colonel was impelled to … trip away as smartly as his *stubby-toed high-heeled boots would permit.
Hence Stubbiness.
1855. in Hyde Clarke, Dict. In recent Dicts.
