[Partly from the attrib. use of STUMP sb.2, but perh. partly an original adj. corresponding to or adopted from Du., LG. stomp.]
1. Worn down to a stump.
1624. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. ii. III. xv. (ed. 2), 115. Like an Asse, he [a schoolmaster] weares out his time for prouender, and can shew a stumpe rod,… an old torne gowne, an ensigne of his infelicity.
1855. [J. R. Leifchild], Cornwall, 7. He cracked his stump whip.
2. Obtuse in outline, not pointed.
1676. Lond. Gaz., No. 1135/4. At Yarmouth, the Fortune of Dunkirk,… carrying four Guns, and 38 Men, with a Stump [printed Stamp] Head, Decks flush, Broad Stern, [etc.].
3. Said of mutilated or malformed limbs. Stump foot: a club foot. Stump leg: a leg without a foot or with a club foot.
1563–83. Foxe, A. & M., 828/1. The goodman of ye house hauing a stumpe foote.
a. 1568. Ascham, Scholem., II. (Arb.), 127. Euen the best translation, is … but an euill imped wing to flie withall, or a heuie stompe leg of wood to go withall.
a. 1593. Marlowe, Ovid’s Elegies, II. xvii. 20. With his stumpe-foote he halts ill-fauouredly.
1678. Lond. Gaz., No. 1338/4. An iron grey Gelding Colt, a lame stump foot before, and two white feet behind.
1731. Gentl. Mag., I. 401. To apprehend several Vagrants with stump Hands, sore Arms, Legs and Faces.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), I. 453. He did not skate with a stump leg,… but put out a broad foot with which he could have a good flat tread.
1898. Syd. Soc. Lex., Stump-foot. Same as Club-foot.
4. Comb., as stump-fingered, -footed, -legged, -nosed, -rooted, -tailed adjs. Also stump-foot [= Du. stompvoet], a stump-footed person; also adj. = stump-footed; stump-nose S. Africa (after Du. stompneus], a fish common near Cape Town; stump-tail, a stump-tailed dog; also Austr. a stump-tailed lizard (Trachysaurus).
1905. D. Smith, Days of His Flesh, xlvi. 462. In the early Church Mark … was styled Mark the *Stump-fingered.
1593. Tell-trothe’s N. Y. Gift (1876), 13. Ioane *Stoomp-foot and Tom Totty.
1602. Invent., in C. Wise, Rockingham Castle & Watsons (1891), 206. Item one baie stumpefoote mare iijli.
1612. J. Taylor (Water P.), Sculler, E 1. The net the stumpfoot Blackesmith made, Wherein fell Mars and Venus was betraid.
1602. Breton, Wonders Worth Hearing (Grosart), 8/1. So was he faced like an olde Ape, *stumpe footed, and wry legged.
1691. Wood, Life (O.H.S.), III. 366. Solomon Nash…. Stumpfooted.
1629. Gaule, Holy Madn., 324. Buckle-hamm’d, *Stump-legg’d. Ibid. (1652), Magastrom., 186. The spindle-legd are fearful;… stump-legg’d, servile.
1878. T. J. Lucas, Camp Life & Sport in S. Afr., ii. 30. The harbour [near Cape Town] abounds in fish, amongst which *‘Stump-nose,’ ‘Seventy-four,’… and other strangely named but well flavoured fish are pre-eminent.
1895. Jrnl. Cutan. & Genito-Urin. Dis., Nov., 466. Perhaps the old Peruvians were *stump-nosed.
1905. T. W. Sanders, Vegetables, 170. The Shorthorn or *stump-rooted kinds [of carrot] will succeed on any light shallow soil.
1868. Sir J. Richardson, etc. Mus. Nat. Hist., II. 20. The curious-looking creatures called *Stump-tails (Trachydosaurus) natives of Australia.
1902. W. H. Hudson, in Longman’s Mag., Oct., 514. Old Badger … the best stump-tail he ever had to help him.
1860. P. P. Carpenter, in Rep. Smithsonian Instit. 1859, 202. The *stump-tailed cats of the Isle of Man.
c. 1875. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., IV. 296. The Stump-tailed Lizard.
1893. Lydekker, Roy. Nat. Hist., I. 117. The brown stump-tailed monkey (Macacus arctoides).
