Forms: 4–6 stompe, 5 Sc. stowmpe, 5–7 stumpe, 6 stoomp, 6–7 stumppe, 6– stump. [First in 14th c.; a. or cogn. w. MLG. stump masc., stumpe fem., (M)Du. stomp masc., subst. use of MLG. stump, (M)Du. stomp adj., mutilated, blunt, dull; corresp. to OHG. (MHG., mod.G.) stumpf adj. and sb. masc.; the late ON. stump-r masc., MSw. stumper (mod.Sw. stump), Da. stump adj. and sb., are prob. from LG.
The senses of the word, in Eng. and other Teut. langs., show close parallelism with those of STUB sb. and its cognates, but etymological connection is difficult to establish. On the other hand, there is no morphological objection to the view that the Teut. root *stump- is an ablaut-variant of *stamp- (see STAMP v.), but this is not supported by any striking similarity of sense.]
1. The part remaining of an amputated or broken-off limb or portion of the body.
To fight to the stumps: app. an allusion to quot. c. 1600 below; cf. 3 b.
a. 1375. Joseph Arim., 681. Þan Ioseph … bad þat mon knele, þe arm helede a-ȝeyn hol to þe stompe.
c. 1430. Syr Tryam., 1561. He [Tryamour] smote Burlond of þe the kneys…. Burlonde on hys stompus stode.
c. 1440. Sir Eglam., 739. Syr Egyllamowre… Halfe the tonge [of the dragon] he stroke away, That fende began to ȝelle! And with the stompe that hym was levyd, He stroke the knyght in the hedd A depe wounde and a felle.
c. 1450. Mirk’s Festial, 223. Boþe hys hondys wern puld of by þe elboues,., and he wyth hys stompes stode soo.
1541. Act 33 Hen. VIII., c. 12 § 3. The … chief Surgeon … shalbe redye … to seare the stumpe when the hande is striken of.
1590. Tarltons Newes out of Purgatorie, 22. He threatned to cut out hir tongue: it is no matter for that knaue quoth shee yet shall the stumpe call thee pricklowse.
1597. A. M., trans. Guillemeau’s Fr. Chirurg., 37 b. [In an amputation] it is allwayes better to make the stumpe short, then longe.
c. 1600. Chevy Chase (later version), l. in Child, Ballads, III. 313. For Witherington needs must I wayle as one in dolefull dumpes, For when his leggs were smitten of, he fought vpon his stumpes.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 80. The nauell therefore is the stumpe of the vmbilicall vesselles, by which the Infant was nourished in the wombe.
1653. T. Brugis, Vade Mecum (ed. 2), 143. They are very necessary … to cauterize the end or stump of a bone after dismembring.
1672. Wiseman, Treat. Wounds, II. v. 30. Here your work is with a good Razor or Knife presently to plain the Stump, and pull up the Flesh, that you may saw off the end of the Bone as even as may be.
1766. H. Walpole, Lett. to G. Montagu, 3 March. The stumps that beggars thrust into coaches to excite charity and miscarriages.
1822. Shelley, Chas. 1st, iii. 40. And hands, which now write only their own shame, With bleeding stumps might sign our blood away.
1853. Ld. J. Russell, in Life & Lett. 4th Earl Clarendon (1913), II. xiii. 23. I feel sure that they [sc. the English people] would fight to the stumps for the honour of England.
1898. Syd. Soc. Lex., Stump of Eyeball, the remainder of the globe after the excision of whole or part of the eyeball.
1905. Brit. Med. Jrnl., 1 July, 15. The root of the appendix was … then amputated, the stump being buried by a purse-string suture of catgut.
b. A rudimentary limb or member, or one that has the appearance of being mutilated.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 232. This beast … hath in the place of armes, two great stumpes wherwith he swymmeth.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 54. A woman that had no hands but stumpes in stead thereof.
1635. Swan, Spec. Mundi, viii. § 2 (1643), 413. Out of their [sc. bees’] short feet or stumps, there grow forth as it were two fingers.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 32. The Sycomore-Locust…. I could, near her shoulders, see the stumps of her growing wings.
1719. N. Blundell, Diary (1895), 158. I saw Matthew Buckinger who was born without Hands or Feet, I saw him writ very well with his Stumps.
1861. P. P. Carpenter, in Rep. Smithsonian Instit. 1860, 205. The eyes are on stumps at the base of the tentacles.
c. Jocularly used for: A leg. Chiefly in to stir one’s stumps, to walk or dance briskly, † to do one’s duty zealously.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xxx. 109. There I stode on my stumpe I stakerd that stownde.
1535. Layton in Lett. Suppress. Monast. (Camden), 76. His hore … bestyrrede hir stumpis towardes hir startyng hoilles.
1559. Mirr. Mag., Jack Cade, xx. But hope of money made him stur his stumpes, and to assault me valiauntly and bolde.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., I. (1877), 147. Their pipers pipeing, drommers thundring, their stumps dauncing, their bels iyngling.
1596. Colse, Penelope (1880), 164. I doubt not but poore shepheards will stirre their stumps after my minstrelsie.
1603. B. Jonson, Ent. Althrope (1604), 11. Come on Clownes, forsake your dumps, And bestir your Hobnaild stumps.
1619. H. Hutton, Follies Anat., B 4 b. Making his stumppes supporters to vpholde This masse of guttes.
1682. N. O., Boileau’s Le Lutrin, ii. 16. Up starts amazed John, bestirs his Stump.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Bustle about, to be very Stirring, or bestir one’s Stumps.
a. 1728. W. Starrat, Epist. to A. Ramsay, 7. [I] Right tozylie was set to ease my Stumps.
1785. Burns, Jolly Beggars, v. I’d clatter on my stumps at the sound of a drum.
1832. Marryat, N. Forster, x. Come this way, my hearty—stir your stumps.
1837. Lytton, E. Maltrav., IV. vi. Come, why don’t you stir your stumps? I suppose I must wait on myself.
d. A wooden leg.
1679. J. Yonge, Currus Triumph., 18. It being difficult … to use an artificial stump or supplemental Leg, till the Ulcer be cicatrized.
1740. Somerville, Hobbinol, I. 145. His [a one-legged fiddler’s] single Eye Twinkles with Joy, his active Stump beats Time.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., 5 May. At the same time [he] set his wooden stump upon my gouty toe.
2. The portion of the trunk of a felled tree that remains fixed in the ground; also, a standing tree-trunk from which the upper part and the branches have been cut or broken off. Cf. STUB sb.1
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 481/1. Stumpe, of a tree hewyn don, surcus.
1546. Supplic. Poore Commons (E.E.T.S.), 92. The old stompes of these fruitles trees.
1558. Warde, trans. Alexis’ Secr., 29 b. Take Polipodium (whiche is an herbe, like vnto Ferne) growyng vpon the stumpe or stocke of a Chestnut tree.
1638. Junius, Paint. Ancients, 68. Thick woods, graced between the stumpes with a pure and grasse-greene soile.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. 156. There are so many Stumps in the River, that it is very dangerous passing in the night.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 41. On the top of a withered Stump perching a Chamelion.
1717. Berkeley, Tour Italy, Wks. 1871, IV. 567. Hills on left almost naked, having only the stumps of trees.
1764. Dodsley, Leasowes, in Shenstone’s Wks. (1777), II. 291. A number of these extempore benches (two stumps with a transverse board).
1781. Cowper, Conversat., 51. So wither’d stumps disgrace the sylvan scene, No longer fruitful, and no longer green.
1800. Wordsw., Hart-leap Well, 125. You see these lifeless stumps of aspen wood— Some say that they are beeches, others elms.
1836. [Mrs. Traill], Backw. Canada, 41. It would have broken my heart to have to work among the stumps, and never see … a well-ploughed field.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xxvii. 213. Adjacent to my theodolite was a stump of pine.
1902. S. E. White, Blazed Trail, xix. After you will come the backwoods farmer to pull up the stumps; and after him the big farmer and the cities.
transf. 1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., I. 23. The stumps of ruined Churches lately destroyed by Diocletian grew up into beautiful Buildings.
1899. Baring-Gould, Bk. West, I. vii. 101. The main castle tower was … pulled down and left as a stump.
fig. 1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 226. Philautus although the stumpes of loue so sticked in his mind…: yet [etc.].
1583. Melbancke, Philotimus, R ij b. You say you cannot boote me, yet do stumps of old loue stick in your stomacke.
¶ The lofty and massive church tower of Boston, Lincs. (a conspicuous sea-mark), has long been known as ‘Boston Stump,’ perh. as having no spire. This designation is mentioned in E. J. Wilson, Gloss. Gothic Archit. (1823), 21.
b. The base of a growing tree. To buy (timber) on the stump; before felling. Cf. STUB sb. 1 b, c.
1901. S. E. White, Blazed Trail, xiv. You originally paid in cash for all that timber on the stump just ten thousand dollars. Ibid., xxxiv. There ought to be about eight or ten million [feet of timber] … worth in the stump anywhere from sixteen to twenty thousand dollars.
1902. Daily Chron., 31 Dec., 6/3. Twenty-four hours from stump to saw-mill is a regular thing now in some of the eastern mills.
3. Something (e.g., a pencil, quill pen, cigar) that has been reduced by wear or consumption to a small part of its original length; a fag-end. STUB sb. 9.
1516. Will of R. Peke. And then the stumpe to be put in on tapere with more stuffe in ytt.
1660. R. Wild, Iter Bor., 4. I … had gnaw’d my Goose-quill to the very stump.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 9, ¶ 1. The Youth with broomy Stumps began to trace The Kennel Edge, where Wheels had worn the Place.
1809. Sir G. Jackson, Diaries & Lett. (1873), I. 16. A knife to improve the sorry stump that does duty for one [a pen].
1829. G. Head, Forest Scenes N. Amer., 49. A black stump of a tobacco-pipe was in his mouth.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, v. An inkstand with no ink and the stump of one pen.
1865. Le Fanu, Guy Deverell, iv. I. 53. When he threw his last stump [sc. of a cigar] out of the window they were driving through Penlake Forest.
1911. Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson, xiv. 218. ‘Yes, my Lord,’ said the boy, producing a stump of pencil.
1913. J. G. Frazer, Golden Bough (ed. 3), Scapegoat iii. 163. The fires are fed with stumps of old brooms.
fig. 1647. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., I. lix. 176. He is contented with the stump of the Crown.
b. Phrase, (To wear) to the stumps. Chiefly fig.
Very common in 16–18th c.; now rare or Obs.
a. 1555. in Foxe, A. & M. (1563), 1313/2. Though our soule priestes sing til they be bleare eyed, say tyl they haue worne theyr tongues to ye stumpes, neither their singings nor their sayings shall bryng vs out of hel.
1602. T. Fitzherbert, Apol., 37. God wil … throw into the fyre, those rods of his wrath, when he hath worne them to the stumps.
1614. Day, Festivals, x. (1615), 287. I have endeavoured to carke and care for them all, have spent my whole life, and worne my selfe to the very stumps.
1660. Gauden, Slight Healings, 63. The first reduceth a Nation to its stumps, and makes it a cripple a long time.
1679. Hist. Jetzer, 10. When they had almost quite worn out their patience to the stumps.
c. 1680. Beveridge, Serm. (1729), II. 525. Thou may’st pray ’till thy tongue be worn to the stumps.
1716. M. Davies, Athen. Brit., I. 148. Erasmus plainly shews, that Archbishop Lee had driven him to his Stumps.
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., ii. § 17. This man of pleasure, when, after a wretched scene of vanity and woe, his animal nature is worn to the stumps.
c. The part of a broken tooth left in the gum.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 30. Thy mone pynnes bene lyche old yvory, Here are stumpes feble and her are none.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XI. xxxvii. I. 338. He had a brother also who never cast his foreteeth, and therefore he wore them before, to the very stumps.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., I. iii. 49. Your Colts tooth is not cast yet? L. San. No my Lord, Nor shall not while I haue a stumpe.
1653. T. Brugis, Vade Mecum (ed. 2), 144. A punch to force out a stump of a hollow tooth.
1777. St. James’s Chron., 26–28 June, 2/1. [Dentist’s Advt.] Advice 1l. 1s. Taking out a Tooth or Stump, 1l. 1s.
1801. G. Colman, Poor Gentl., IV. i. 57. My cousin Crushjaw, of Case-horton; who lugs out a stump with perfect pleasure to the patient.
1877. Encycl. Brit., VII. 99/1. The removal of roots and stumps as a preparatory step in the fitting of artificial teeth.
d. The part of a broken-off branch that remains attached to the trunk.
1707. Mortimer, Husb. (1721), II. 83. If the Bough is large … cut it off at some distance from the Tree…; but by no means leave any Stumps to stand out at any distance, because they cannot be covered by the Bark, ’till the Diameter of the Tree grows beyond it, and in the mean time the Stump will be continually rotting.
e. A docked tail.
1544. Betham, Precepts War, I. lxxxiii. E iv b. The weake man that laboured to plucke awaye [the horse’s tail] heere by heere, made all bare to ye stompe.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. xi. 39. The knotty string Of his huge taile he quite a sunder cleft; Five ioynts thereof he hewd, and but the stump him left.
1770. Cumberland, West Indian, II. ix. To hang the false tails on the miserable stumps of the old crawling cattle.
1885. Rider Haggard, K. Solomon’s Mines, iii. Still it does look odd to trek along behind twenty stumps [of oxen], where there ought to be tails.
f. Naut. The lower portion of a mast when the upper part has been broken off or shot away. Also = stump mast (see 18).
1725. N. Bailey, Fam. Colloq. Erasm. (1733), 187. I bethought my self of the Stump of the Mast.
1743. Bulkeley & Cummins, Voy. S. Seas, 10. Fitted a Capp on the Stump of the Mizen-Mast.
1745. P. Thomas, Jrnl. Anson’s Voy., 44. We got down our Stumps, which are generally set up in bad Weather instead of Top gallant Masts.
1773. Gentl. Mag., XLIII. 321. A terrible storm arose, which obliged the Dolphin … to strike her top gallant-masts, and lie to in her stumps.
1800. in Nicolas, Disp. Nelson (1845), IV. 219, note. Half past 6, shot away the main and mizen-masts: saw a man nail the French ensign to the stump of the mizen-mast.
g. dial. The remains of a hay-stack, most of which has been cut away. (Eng. Dial. Dict.)
1785. Jackson’s Oxf. Jrnl., 15 Jan., 1/4. Two Hundred Tons of fine Old and New Hay, in several Ricks, Cocks, and Stumps.
1785. [see STADDLE sb. 8].
1868. Gloss. Sussex Wds., in Hurst’s Horsham (1899).
h. The remaining portion of a leaf cut out of a volume; the counterfoil of a cheque. Cf. STUB sb. 10, STOCK sb.1 42.
1887. Ellis & Scrutton, Catal., Feb., 5. It is conclusively shewn that the text is quite perfect, and that the eighth leaf of Sig. G. was a blank, of which there is still the stump remaining in this copy.
i. Stump and rump adv. phrase: (Of destruction, removal, etc.) totally, completely. (See also RUMP sb.1 4.) Cf. STOUT AND ROUT. dial.
1825. Brockett, N. C. Gloss., Stump and rump, entirely.
1828. Carr, Craven Gloss., s.v., I’s ruined stump and rump.
1901. R. Buchanan, Poems, 140 (E.D.D.). Geordie swallowed them ‘stump an’ rump.’
4. Applied to a person: A blockhead (cf. STOCK sb.1 1 c, STUB sb. 2); a man of short stumpy figure (cf. STUB sb. 7 d). † Sometimes as a term of contemptuous address: also stumps.
1601. B. Jonson, Poetaster, I. ii. Come, bee not ashamed of thy vertues, old stumpe.
1605. Tryall Chev., II. i. in Bullen, Old Pl. (1884), III. 289. Stumps, I challenge thee for this indignity.
1825. Brockett, N. C. Gloss., Stump, a heavy, thick-headed fellow.
1829. Lytton, Disowned, ii. Come, Stump, my cull, make yourself wings.
a. 1835. Hogg, Tales & Sk. (1837), VI. 352. He then sought out the common executioner, but he was a greatly, drumbly, drunken stump, and could tell him nothing.
1875. J. Grant, One of Six Hundred, xxv. 201. Binnacle, the skipper, was a short, thick-set little stump of a fellow.
† 5. A broken-off end of something. Also a splinter (cf. STUB sb. 5). Obs.
c. 1400. Laud Troy Bk., 12539. He bare him thorow the scheld ymyddes, Thorow his plates In-to his brest; Opon the grounde ful stille he rest, For In his body lefft the stompe.
1625. T. Godwin, Rom. Antiq., 202. There came a fierce Lyon vnto him, moaning and grieuing, because of a stumpe of a tree which stucke fast in his foot.
6. The stalk of a plant (esp. cabbage) when the leaves are removed.
1819. Scott, Leg. Montrose, viii. Where no forage could be procured for his horse, unless he could eat the stumps of old heather.
1879. Sala, in Daily Tel., 28 June, 5/5. 28 June. Market of my youth was a very unlovely spot, indeed, presenting little beyond a prospect of empty baskets and cabbage stumps.
1882. Garden, 18 March, 188/1. When the Cauliflowers or Cabbages were all cut, the stumps were cleared off.
1897. J. Hocking, Birthright, iii. Others pelting me [in the pillory] with cabbage stumps and turnips.
1913. D. Bray, Life-Hist. Brāhūī, v. 99. Three nights running must he take a draught of water in which the plant charmãing has been well boiled, leaves and stumps and all.
† b. pl. Stubble. Obs.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 107/2. Stramentum,… the strawe, stubble, or stumppes remaining in the grounde after the corne is rept.
c. pl. Hair cut close to the skin: cf. STUB sb. 4 c. Also, remains of feathers on a plucked fowl.
1584. B. R., trans. Herodotus, II. 78 b. The Ægyptians at the deceasse of their friends suffer their hayre to growe, beeing at other times accustomed to powle & cut it to ye stumps.
1726. Swift, Gulliver, II. i. He said … that the Stumps of my Beard were ten times stronger than the Bristles of a Boar.
1845. Eliza Acton, Mod. Cookery, 261. To roast a Fowl. Strip off the feathers, and carefully pick every stump or plug from the skin.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 855. It [i.e., the ringworm patch] is studded with stumps of broken hairs.
1905. Brit. Med. Jrnl., 1 July, 15. The scalp is carefully examined to see that no stumps are left.
7. A post, a short pillar not supporting anything.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 12 Nov. 1644. In a little obscure place … is the Pillar or Stump at which they relate our Bl. Saviour was scourged.
1796. W. H. Marshall, Rur. Econ. Midl. (ed. 2), II. 389. Stump; post; as ‘gate stump’—stumps and rails.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 319. These short posts, or stumps, as they may be called, are formed of pieces of young larch-trees or oak branches, from which the bark has been taken.
1907. Westm. Gaz., 27 Aug., 10/2. The pillar yesterday was fulfilling the prosaic, but useful, functions of a clothes stump.
b. Coal-mining. (See quots.)
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Stump, Penn[sylvania]. A small pillar of coal, left at the foot of a breast to protect the gangway.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, 245. Stump, the block of solid coal at the entrance to a breast, having a narrow roadway on either side.
† c. A peak, summit. (Burlesque.) Obs.
1664. [J. Scudamore], Homer à la Mode, 57. She [Thetis] spies Saturnius with sawcer eyes, On one oth’ highest stumps alone, (For on that hill [Olympus] is many a one). [Cf. Iliad, I. 499.]
† 8. A stake. To pull up one’s stumps: to break up camp, start again on the march (cf. STAKE sb. 1 e). Obs.
1530. Palsgr., 277/2. Stumpe a shorte stake, estoc.
1647. Sprigg, Anglia Rediv., II. i. 61. They marched that day but to Crookhorn,… but here Intelligence came that made them pull up their stumps, (as weary as they were).
9. Cricket. Each of the three (formerly two) upright sticks which, with the bails laid on the top of them, form a wicket. To draw (the) stumps: to pull up the stumps, as a sign of the discontinuance of play or of the termination of a match or game.
1735. in Waghorn, Cricket-Scores (1899), 11. The stumps were immediately pitched.
17[?]. Laws of Cricket (1744), The Stumps must be 22 Inches long.
1744. J. Love, Cricket, III. (1754), 20. The Bail, and mangled Stumps bestrew the field.
1777. in Waghorn, Cricket-Scores (1899), p. x. [June 4, the first match] to be played with three stumps, to shorten the game.
1833. Nyren, Yng. Cricketer’s Tutor (1902), 16. The stumps must stand twenty-seven inches above the ground.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., vii. The ball flew … straight and swift towards the centre stump of the wicket.
1862. Baily’s Mag., Oct., 200. At half past six the stumps were drawn.
1868. Field, 4 July, 11/1. When the stumps and the match also were drawn, four wickets were down for 96 runs.
b. pl. = stump-cricket (see 18).
1903. A. Westcott, Life B. F. Westcott, I. vi. 322. My father … himself occasionally joined us in a game of ‘stumps.’
† 10. The main portion of anything; the stock.
1634. T. Johnson, Parey’s Wks., XXIII. xii. 883. A. Sheweth the stump or stock of the woodden leg.
† b. ? The ‘body’ of a coat. Sc. Obs.
1506. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., III. 313. For vj elne smal cammes to lyne the doublatis bodyis and stumpes of the cotis … ix s.
11. Lock-making. (See quot. 1856.) Cf. STUB sb. 8.
1808. in Abridgm. Specif. Patents Locks, etc. (1873), 17. Which moves the stump on the same tumbler from a stump fixed under, or a groove cut in the bolt.
1852. Tomlinson’s Cycl. Usef. Arts (1867), II. 95/1. b is the bolt into which is riveted the stump s.
1856. G. Price, Treat. Fire & Thief-proof Deposit., Locks & Keys, 259. The ‘stump’ of the bolt is that stud which projects at right angles from the face of the bolt, and which passes in and out of the ‘slots’ through the gating in the levers, or combinations, or other moveable obstructions contained in the lock.
12. Applied to animals of stumpy form or with a stumpy tail. a. dial. The stoat.
1854. N. & Q., Ser. I. IX. 385/1. A gamekeeper … told me that there are three kinds of the weasel tribe in the woods: the weasel, the stoat or stump, and the mousehunt. Ibid., X. 120/2. Hampshire Provincial Words…. Stump, a stoat.
b. The name of a shell-fish: see quot.
1875. Mellis, St. Helena, 203. Scyllarus latus, Latr.—A large shell-fish, called ‘The Stump.’
13. A stump bedstead: see 18.
1875. Carpentry & Join., 84. The details are almost identical, whether the form is the old-fashioned and well-nigh obsolete four-poster or the half-tester or stump.
14. Originally U.S. a. In early use, the stump (sense 2) of a large felled tree used as a stand or platform for a speaker. b. Hence, ‘a place or an occasion of political oratory’ (Cent. Dict.). To go on the stump, to take the stump: to go about the country making political speeches, whether as a candidate or as the advocate of a cause.
In the U.S. the word ‘does not necessarily convey a derogatory implication’ (Cent. Dict.). In Britain, though now common, it is still felt to be somewhat undignified.
a. 1775. Broadside (by a Boston Tory), Upon a stump he placed himself Great Washington did he.
1808. J. Quincy, Sp., 7 Dec., in Deb. Congress (1853), 766. This species of party insinuation was a mighty engine … on an election day, played off from the top of a stump, or the top of a hogshead, while the gin circulated.
1839. Mrs. Kirkland, New Home, xliii. 287. He … mounted a stump, which had fortunately been left standing … and then and there gave ‘reasons for my ratting.’
1842. Congr. Globe, 29 Jan., 183/1. A stump orator in the West…, who, when he got down from the stump, said [etc.].
b. 1816. Debates in Congress (1854), 1169. I [a Virginian member] think his [a South Carolinian’s] arguments are better calculated for what is called on this side of the river stump, than for this Committee.
1831. M. Carey, New Olive Branch, 17. Declaimers in the forum, or on stumps, or in newspapers.
1838. L. Bacon, in Ess. Chr. Minist. (1841), 84/2. All artifice and trick—all the devices of the stage and of the stump.
1866. Lowell, President on the Stump, Pr. Wks. 1890, V. 264. Mr. Johnson is the first of our Presidents who has descended to the stump.
1868. J. Bright, Addresses (1879), 76. We have seen the archbishops and bishops … doing what is described in America when they say a man has taken to the ‘stump.’
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., lvi. II. 382. It is more by the stump than in any other way that an American statesman speaks to the people.
1892. Daily News, 19 Dec., 2/3. If politicians took it up—‘put the gold dollar on the stump,’ as it is expressed—the trouble would be grievous.
1903. Sat. Rev., 7 Feb., 172. A Front Bencher goes on the stump in the provinces.
15. Coffee-planting (India). See quot.
1877. E. C. P. Hull, Coffee Planting, 274. This disease is there known as stump, from its being due to decay of the stump of a particular forest-tree peculiar to the district.
16. slang. See quot. Cf. STUMPY sb. 2.
1823. Egan, Grose’s Dict. Vulgar T., Stump, money.
17. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 2) stump-country, extracting, -extractor, fence, -hole, land; stump-dotted adj.; stump-like adj. and adv.; stump-wise adv.; (sense 3 c) stump-extractor, -puller; (sense 14) stump campaign, orator, oratory, oratress, speaker, speaking, speech.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., X. I. 132. The famous struggle of Mr. Douglas and Mr. Lincoln for the Illinois senatorship in 1858 was conducted in a *stump campaign.
1896. Home Missionary (N.Y.), July, 129. Vast tracts of *‘stump country’ [in Michigan] are as truly virgin soil as if the region had just been discovered.
1902. S. E. White, Blazed Trail, v. Sometimes he would look across the broad *stump-dotted plain to the distant forest.
1883. M. P. Bale, Saw-Mills, 295. Capstans are also used for *stump extracting.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2432/2. *Stump-extractor 1. (Agriculture). A tool or machine for pulling the stumps of trees…. 2. A dentist’s instrument.
1883. M. P. Bale, Saw-Mills, 294. There are many other varieties of stump extractors amongst those used in America.
1845. S. Judd, Margaret, I. xvi. The stile by which they crossed the *stump-fence into the herb-garden.
1897. Daily News, 10 Sept., 8/3. The stump fence … consists of the gnarled roots of trees originally grubbed up from the land.
1828. P. Cunningham, N. S. Wales (ed. 3), II. 166. It is long before grasses grow upon the places out of which stumps have been burnt…. But it is astonishing to observe what a height of richness wheat will attain on these spots, every *stump-hole being easily reckoned in a field of wheat from this great luxuriance alone.
1889. Hardwicke’s Sci.-Gossip, XXV. 132. This tree attains a height of about six feet, and its branches spring from the gnarled top of the thick, *slump-like stem.
1813. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), IV. 203. In the debates of Congress, of State legislatures, of *stump-orators.
1887. Spectator, 19 March, 391/1. The shallowness and flippancy of stump-orators.
1847. Webster, *Stump oratory.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm. (1858), 496. Without any unnecessary display of stump-oratory.
1880. McCarthy, Own Times, IV. 380. Mr. Disraeli himself had taken to going round the country, doing what would be called in America stump oratory.
1852. Hawthorne, Blithedale Rom., vi. 53–4. She was made … for a *stump-oratress.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl. 870/1. *Stump pullers are of the lever and claw style, or [etc.].
1848. Lett. fr. Washington, in N. Y. Herald, 21 June (Bartlett). The Hon. W. R. Thompson,… one of the most popular *stump speakers of the day, addressed a large meeting of Whigs from the stoop of Barnum’s Hotel, Baltimore.
1864. Lowell, Lincoln, Pr. Wks. 1890, V. 187. All that was known of him was that he was a good stump-speaker.
1842. H. Mann, Boston Orat., 4 July, 46. The custom so prevalent at the West and South, of *stump-speaking, as it is significantly but uncouthly called, had its origin in the voters’ incapacity to read.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., cxi. III. 604. They shine in stump speaking, properly so called—that is, in speaking which rouses an audience but ought not to be reported.
1839. Proffit, in Congr. Globe, 31 Dec., 72/2. He could make … a better *stump speech himself.
1885. Manch. Exam., 16 May, 6/1. Mr. Redmond rose and insisted on delivering a stump speech on the sentiments of the Irish and English people regarding royalty.
1884. Phillipps-Wolley, Trottings of Tenderfoot, 208. If a constitution was to grow up strong, it didn’t want forcing with a lot of *stump-spouter’s rubbish.
1719. London & Wise, Compl. Gard., xix. 129. In those vigorous Trees, we must leave upon them … some Branches cut *Stump-wise.
18. Special comb.: stump bed, bedstead, a bedstead without posts; stump-bred a. Hunting = stub-bred; stump cricket = SNOB sb.2; stump embroidery = stump work; stump-end, (a) the end of the stump of a tail; (b) the remnant of a check-book containing the ‘stumps’ or counterfoils; stump foremast (see stump mast); stump joint (see quot.); stump-jump, -jumping adjs. Austral., designating a kind of plow by which land can be plowed without clearing it of the stumps; stump-machine U.S., a machine for extracting tree-stumps; stump mast (see quot.); stump mortise = stub mortise (W., 1911); † stump nail = stub-nail; † stump pie, a kind of meat-pie; stump-shot = stub-short, -shot (see STUB sb. 11); stump-spire Arch. (see quot.); stump-tenon = stub-tenon (W., 1911); stump topgallant mast (see stump mast); stump tracery Arch. (see quot.); stump tree U.S. (see quot. 1892); stump-work, a peculiar kind of raised embroidery practised in the 15–17th c. (see quot.).
1841. Penny Cycl., XXI. 45/2. Under a *stump bed, immediately beneath, was a dog-kennel.
1823. J. Simpson, Ricardo the Outlaw, I. 235. She was delighted beyond expression, having never yet known a luxury beyond a stump bedstead, and a flock bed.
1841. J. T. J. Hewlett, Peter Priggins, I. i. 29. In one corner was a stump-bedstead, with a kind of dimity canopy.
1897. *Stump-bred [see stub-bred STUB sb. 11].
1888. A. Lang, in Steel & Lyttelton, Cricket (Badm.), i. 1. There is a sport known at some schools as *‘stump-cricket,’… which is a degenerate shape of the game.
1907. C. B. Fry, in Daily Chron., 10 Oct., 4/4. The old and the renovated game of ‘Le Bon Diable’ … bears the same relation to Diabolo-Tennis as stump-cricket does to proper cricket.
1904. Mrs. Head, in Burlington Mag., IV. 173/1. Side by side with *stump-embroidery flourished two varieties of flat and semi-flat work.
1768. Phil. Trans., LX. 122. Tails … sewed together at the *stump-ends.
1894. ‘J. S. Winter,’ Red Coats, 42. There were several stump-ends of old cheque-books there.
1897. Kipling, Captains Courageous, i. 20. Harvey heard a chuckle from Dan, who was pretending to be busy by the *stump-foremast.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl. 870/1. *Stump joint, the form of joint used in the folding carpenter’s rule. The ends or stumps of the parts when in line, abut against each other.
1896. Waybrook Implement Co., Advt. (Morris). This wonderful result [of the harvest] must in the main, be put down to the *Stump-jump Plough.
1898. Morris, Austral Eng., 443. Stump-jump Plough.
1898. M. Davitt, Life & Progr. Australia, xiii. 64. The most useful implement to the hardy settlers up here is the *stump-jumping plough.
1900. Borough News, 11 Aug., 3/1. I’m breaking up that ten-acre field of *stump land.
1907. Black Cat, June, 21. Once outside the limits of the stump-land, Mehetabel made the best of her speed to the Knoll.
1868. B. J. Lossing, The Hudson, 54. One of the *stump-machines stood in a field near the road.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Stump-mast, a lower mast without tops. Common in those steam-vessels which never depend wholly upon sails.
1704. in Bagford Ballads (1876), 64. The Lad … quickly fell to vomiting strange things, As bits of Glass, *stump Nails and crooked Pins.
1695. J. H., Family Dict., s.v., *Stump-Pye to Season: Take Veal or Mutton, mince it raw, [etc.].
1812. J. Smyth, Pract. Customs (1821), 293. No other allowance is to be made, in taking the length of plank, for the *stump-shot, or split end.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXII. 356/2. If no better [name] can be found, we would suggest that of *Stump-spire for one whose height does not exceed two diameters at its base. Ibid., 357/2.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xx. 59. The ship, with her *stump top-gallant masts and rusty sides.
1835. R. Willis, Archit. Mid. Ages, vi. 61. The After Gothic of Germany … has tracery in which the ribs are made to pass through each other, and are then abruptly cut off. This may be called *Stump Tracery.
1891. in Century Dict. (citing Fallows), *Stump tree.
1892. Newhall, Trees N. E. Amer., 190. Kentucky Coffee Tree, Stump Tree (Gymnocladus disicus,… G. Canadensis). Ibid., 192. The fewness and abruptness of its large branches give to it in the winter a dead and stumpy look.
1904. Mrs. Head, in Burlington Mag., IV. 173/1. English *stump-work has … a definite individuality…. Lace, brocade, satin,… peacock’s feathers and human hair were all blended together by the finest and most elaborate of embroidery stitches, and raised on ‘stumps’ of wood, or wool pads, in the most fantastic of designs.
