Also 7 stompe, 5–6, 9 dial. stomp. [f. STUMP sb.1]
† 1. intr. To stumble over a tree-stump or other obstacle. Also, to walk stumblingly (in quot. fig.). Obs.
c. 1250. Owl & Night., 1392. Ne beoþ heo nouht alle forlore þat stumpeþ at þe fleysses more. Ibid., 1424. If mayde luueþ derneliche, heo stumpeþ & falþ icundeliche.
1430–40. Lydg., Bochas, IX. xxxviii. (1554), 217 b. Though I goe not vpright, but stomp and halt for lack of eloquence.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 78. If an oxe be wrinched and strayned in his sinnewes, in trauell or labour, by stumping on any roote or hard sharpe thing.
2. To walk clumsily, heavily, or noisily, as if one had a wooden leg.
1600. Lane, Tom Tel-troth’s Message, 327. Some [dames] in their pantophels too stately stompe [r.w. pompe].
1673. R. Head, Canting Acad., 65. He … nimbly hops or stumps to a Coach side.
a. 1726. Vanbrugh, Journ. Lond., I. i. (1728), 6. Here’s John Moody arriv’d already; he’s stumping about the Streets in his dirty Boots, and [etc.].
1756. Connoisseur, No. 103, ¶ 4. The maid-servants are continually stumping below in clogs or pattens.
1840. Hood, Miss Kilmansegg, 1187. As the Giant of Castle Otranto might stump To a lower room from an upper.
1844. W. Barnes, Poems Rur. Life, 355. Stumpy or Stump, to walk with short firm steps as a short stout person.
1856. Kane, Arctic Expl., I. xxxi. 431. Poor Wilson, just able to stump about after his late attack of scurvy.
1857. Reade, Course of True Love, Cloud & Sunshine, iii. 204. The farmer stumped in, and sat down with some appearance of fatigue.
1874. Punch, 11 April, 155/1. ‘He [a horse] seems,’ I say, ‘to rather stump on his near fore-leg.’
b. slang. ‘To go on foot’ (Slang Dict., 1859); also stump it (in quot. 1841 to be off, decamp).
1841. Lytton, Night & Morning, II. ii. Stump it, my cove; that’s a Bow Street runner.
1909. A. N. Lyons, Sixpenny Pieces, xxii. 161. To the divil with cabs. Oi must stump ut. Stump ut on me ten old toes.
c. To knock on the floor in walking. nonce use.
1872. Browning, Ring & Bk., IX. 12. Stumping with his staff, Up comes an usher.
d. trans.
1890. W. Clark Russell, Ocean Trag., I. vi. 117. Pendulously stumping the quarter-deck.
3. trans. To reduce to a stump; to truncate, mutilate; also, † to stunt, dwarf.
1596. Nashe, Saffron-Walden, Wks. 1910, III. 99. Whose pen … still splits and stumpes it selfe against olde yron.
1658. Bromhall, Treat. Spectres, I. 148. He appeared a man that was stumped, or had his members cut off.
1658. Evelyn, Fr. Gard. (1675), 166. It will stump your [Asparagus] plant.
1752. Scotland’s Glory, 24. That idol dagon prelacy We might have stumped tightly.
1829. Examiner, 595/1. The only prudent course of the people of the United States is forthwith to cut off their legs, and stump themselves into concentration.
1872. Mrs. A. Gatty, Bk. Sun-dials, Introd. p. xx. In the reign of Elizabeth the mortuary crosses were cut down, or stumped, in our churchyards.
1877. E. C. P. Hull, Coffee Planting, 93. These [coffee] plants … require, before being planted out on the estate, to be ‘stumped,’ i.e. cut down to within some six inches above the roots.
4. To stub; to dig up by the roots. colonial.
1790. Phil. Trans., LXXX. 356. After which the [sugar] canes should be stumped out with care, and the stools burnt as soon as possible.
1828. P. Cunningham, N. S. Wales (ed. 2), II. 62. You may hear people even now … relate their tales of … felling and stumping trees on spots where our best houses stand.
1897. Outing, May, 137/2. I’ve stumped every tree and root out’r that clearing.
5. To remove the stumps from (land). Also absol.
1796. C. Marshall, Gardening, iii. (1813), 34. The walks should be stumpt, keeping the tops of the stumps very level.
1828. P. Cunningham, N. S. Wales (ed. 2), II. 164. In stumping land,… dry wood is piled over the stump, which … is set fire to.
1834. Tait’s Mag., I. 418/1. Very good land, sir; and I was to pay a hundred pounds for it, for you know it was cleared but not stumped.
1915. W. P. Livingstone, Mary Slessor, V. ii. 269. She had as many as two hundred and fifty people engaged in cutting bush, levelling, and stumping.
6. ? To remove the stub feathers from (fowls): = STUB v. 5.
1822. Lamb, Lett. to Miss Wordsworth, Xmas. She is to be seen in the market every morning,… cheapening fowls, which I observe the Cambridge poulterers are not sufficiently careful to stump.
7. local. To remove the ails from barley with a gridiron-shaped iron tool.
1787. Winter, Syst. Husb., 309–10. Barley should likewise be steeped the same as wheat, after being well shook in a sack by two men, (stumping will bruise it) to be cleared from ailes.
1890. Glouc. Gloss., Stump, to dress the beards from barley.
8. Cricket. Of the wicket-keeper: To put (a batsman) out by dislodging a bail (or knocking down a stump) with the ball held in the hand, at a moment when he is off his ground. Also with out.
1744. Report of Kent & All Eng. Match, in Nyren, Yng. Cricketer’s Tutor (1833), 111. Bryan 12 s Kips.
1787. Score of Match at Lord’s, in H. Bentley, Cricket Matches (1823), 20th June, Aylward 94 Run out 15 stumpt out.
1833. Nyren, Yng. Cricketer’s Tutor, 29. Should you miss the ball, a clever wicket-keeper will surely stump you out. Ibid., 39. The wicket-keeper … should remove a little backward from the wicket … because by his doing so the catches will be much more easy, and he may stump as well.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., vii. In short, when Dumkins was caught out, and Podder stumped out, All-Muggleton had notched some fifty-four.
1859. All Year Round, 23 July, 305/2. He caught two of the town off my first ‘over,’ stumped two in my second, and [etc.].
1884. Lillywhite’s Cricket Ann., 78. He caught three batsmen at the wicket and stumped one.
1897. Encycl. Sport, I. 247/1. (Cricket) Stump out, to get the batsman out under Law 23.
† 9. intr. (See quots.) Obs. rare–0.
1721. Bailey, To stump,… to brag or boast.
1735. Dyche & Pardon, Dict., Stump v.,… also to boast, brag, vaunt, or proudly value ones self upon some small Qualification, &c.
10. trans. = stump up, 17 b (a).
1841. Hood, Tale of Trumpet, 260. Common prudence would bid you stump it;… It’s the regular charge At a Fancy Fair for a penny trumpet.
b. intr. To pay up: = stump up, 17 b (b). Also with out.
1828. Carr, Craven Gloss., Stump, to pay ready money,… to pay down on the nail.
1844. J. T. Hewlett, Parsons & W., xlvii. I’ll stump handsome when we’re spliced.
1854. Lever, Dodd Family Abroad, xliv. 401. There is no salary at first, so that the Governor must ‘stump out handsome.’
11. trans. slang. To render penniless. Chiefly in passive, to be ‘stony broke.’
1828. Carr, Craven Gloss., Stump,… 2. to beggar.
1831. [R. Lower], Tom Cladpole, cxlviii.
| A pint o’ beer I ge to him, | |
| As from de cart I jump’d, | |
| Paid the last tuppence I had got, | |
| An den I was just stump’d. |
1836. T. Hook, G. Gurney, III. 43. Haven’t you heard, my dear fellow, we are stumped?
1900. ‘H. Lawson,’ Over Sliprails, 113. There always seemed to be a deep-rooted popular prejudice in favour of going away from home with a few pounds in one’s pocket and coming back stumped.
12. = stump up, 17 C.
1883. Mrs. E. Kennard, Right Sort, xvii. 206. I stumped a couple of horses last week, and an extra rest will do them all the good in the world.
13. (U.S. colloq.) To strike (the toe) unintentionally against a stone or something fixed: = STUB v. 9.
1828–32. Webster (and in later edd.).
1891. Century Dict.
14. (Orig. U.S.). To cause to be at a loss; to confront with an insuperable difficulty; to nonplus.
The primary reference was prob. to the obstruction caused by stumps in plowing imperfectly cleared land.
[1807: implied in STUMPER 5.]
1833. [Seba Smith], Lett. J. Downing, xii. (1835), 80. My Good Old Friend,—I’m stumped. I jest got a letter from the Gineral [etc.]. Ibid. (1834), xxxii. 218. This stumps me considerable.
1840. Haliburton, Clockm., Ser. III. xvi. (1848), 132. Bein’ stumpt is a sure mark of a fool. The only folks among us that’s ever nonplushed, is them just caught in the woods.
1842. Congr. Globe, 29 Jan., 183/1. He had been amazed—or, to use a Western phrase, he had been ‘stumped’ at the position occupied within these last few days by [etc.].
1843. Lowell, Lett., I. 81. I met an Ohio abolitionist, who told me of his stumping a clergyman in a very neat manner.
1852. C. B. Mansfield, Paraguay, etc. (1856), 72. I am … continually stumped in my speculations by the reflection, that there are 15,000,000 acres of waste land at home.
1854. ‘C. Bede,’ Verdant Green, II. xi. That beastly Euclid altogether stumps me.
1859. J. R. Green, Lett., I. (1901), 39. I stumped him on a question which I had got up among my odds and ends—the paper duties—drawbacks, and the like.
1871. ‘M. Legrand,’ Cambr. Freshm., 339. The papers I may do all right,… but the viva voce is safe to stump me.
1912. C. Johnston, Why World laughs, 10. ‘But may I ask why this gay apparel?’ The lady was stumped for an instant. Then she made reply.
b. ? To obstruct (progress).
1858. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt., II. lxvii. 5. The progress of sound knowledge … shall not be stumped to please lorn curates.
15. U.S. To challenge, ‘dare’ (a person) to do something.
1766. J. Adams, Diary, 8 Dec., Wks. 1850, II. 204. Keen, of Pembroke was warm, and stumped Soule, the moderator, to lay down the money and prevent a tax upon the poor.
1836. Haliburton, Clockm., Ser. I. xxvi. I guess our great nation may be stumped to produce more eleganter liquor than this here.
1853. Lowell, Moosehead Jrnl., Pr. Wks. 1890, I. 17. Our Uncle would … say, ‘Wahl, I stump the Devil himself to make that ere boot hurt my foot.’
1890. Amer. Jrnl. Psychol., Jan., 66. In some games … younger children are commanded, or older ones stumped or dared, to do dangerous things.
16. (Chiefly U.S.)
a. intr. To make stump speeches; to conduct electioneering by public speaking. Also to stump it.
a. 1838. R. M. Bird, Peter Pilgrim (1839), I. 86. I stumped through my district, and my fellow-citizens sent me to Congress!
1847. Webster, s.v., To stump it.
1859. C. Mackay, Life & Liberty Amer., I. 159. To stump, to address public meetings in the open air.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, ii. Power, Wks. (Bohn), II. 340. Stumping it through England for seven years made Cobden a consummate debater.
1874. Slang Dict., 313. Stump, to go about speechmaking on politics or other subjects.
1878. N. Amer. Rev., CXXVI. 275. Down in Carolina, stumping for Grant.
b. trans. To travel over (a district) making stump speeches; to canvass or address with stump oratory.
1856. N. Y. Hards & Softs, 5/1. The cry for the annexation of Texas was now taken up boldly, and Mr. Dickinson ‘stumped the State’ upon the issue.
1859. C. Mackay, Life & Liberty Amer., I. 159. To stump a State, to go on a tour of political agitation through a State.
1866. Lowell, Seward-Johnson Reaction, Pr. Wks. 1890, V. 291. Furnishing the President with a pretext for stumping the West in the interest of Congress.
1885. Manch. Exam., 6 July, 4/7. Those Tory orators who were stumping the country.
1892. Kipling & Balestier, Naulahka, 17. Sheriff was stumping the district and was seldom at home.
17. Stump up.
a. trans. To dig up by the roots.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, 60. Their imaginary dreame of Guilding crosse in theyr parish of S. Sauiours (now stumpt vp by the rootes).
1873. Tristram, Moab, xviii. 362. The trees have been all stumped up or pollarded.
1899. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., March, 94. When the old hedgerow is stubbed or stumped up.
b. slang. (a) trans. To pay down, ‘fork out’ (money). rare. (b) absol. or intr.
(a) 1833. T. Hook, Parson’s Dau., II. ii. All I know is, Paxton, Trail, Cockerell, and Co. Stumped me up the money.
1842. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Merch. Venice, 72. My trusty old crony, Do stump up three thousand once more as a loan.
1881. Blackmore, Christowell, xxi. Father has stumped up a five pound note.
1884. Bath Jrnl., 26 July, 7/3. On returning to the yard at night he has to stump up ten shillings more.
(b) 1835. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Mr. Watkins Tottle, ii. Why don’t you ask your old governor to stump up?
1857. ‘Ducange Anglicus,’ Vulgar Tongue, 21. Stump-up, pay your money or your share.
1862. Mrs. H. Wood, Channings, viii. ‘And it will be a very easy way of earning money.’ ‘Not so easy as making your mother stump up.’
1893. G. Allen, Scallywag, I. 30. The governor … fishes out his purse—stumps up liberally.
c. trans. To wear out, exhaust (a horse) by excessive strain.
1875. Reynardson, Down the Road, 118. After a bit the new ploughs and harrows got old and required repairs, his horses got stumped up and old and required to be made into new ones.
1900. Westm. Gaz., 12 June, 8/1. Year by year we see one or more of our best horses stumped up by the adamantine course.
d. In passive = sense 11 pass.
1854. Househ. Words, VIII. 75/2. To say that a man is without money, or in poverty, some persons remark that he is down on his luck, hard up, stumped up, [etc.].
