stump

plural stumps

1. The remains of something that has been cut off; especially the remains of a tree, the remains of a limb.

   Synonyms: stub

2. governmentThe place or occasion at which a campaign takes place; the husting.

   But like most artists, he leans left. In 2017, he said he supported then-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, despite not endorsing him at the stump.

   2026 September 16, Mark Savage, BBC

3. figurativelyA place or occasion at which a person harangues or otherwise addresses a group in a manner suggesting political oration.

   Paul Muniment had taken hold of Hyacinth, and said, 'I'll trouble you to stay, you little desperado. I'll be blowed if I ever expected to see you on the stump!'

   1886, Henry James, The Princess Casamassima, London: Macmillan and Co.

4. ball gamesOne of three small wooden posts which together with the bails make the wicket and that the fielding team attempt to hit with the ball.
5. drawingAn artists’ drawing tool made of rolled paper used to smudge or blend marks made with charcoal, Conté crayon, pencil or other drawing media.
6. A wooden or concrete pole used to support a house.
7. humorousslangA leg.

   to stir one's stumps

8. A pin in a tumbler lock which forms an obstruction to throwing the bolt except when the gates of the tumblers are properly arranged, as by the key.
9. A pin or projection in a lock to form a guide for a movable piece.

present singular third person stumps · participle present stumping · participle past stumped · past stumped · first person past singular stumped · archaic present second person singular stumpest · past second person singular stumped · archaic past second person singular stumpedst · present singular third person stumps · archaic present singular third person stumpeth · past singular third person stumped · past plural stumped · past subjunctive stumped · participle present stumping · participle past stumped

1. informaltransitiveTo stop, confuse, or puzzle.
2. informalintransitiveTo baffle; to make unable to find an answer to a question or problem.

   This last question has me stumped.

3. intransitiveTo campaign.

   He’s been stumping for that reform for months.

   Synonyms: campaign

4. UScolloquialtransitiveTo travel over (a state, a district, etc.) giving speeches for electioneering purposes.

   Freedom was in the air this spring, when millionaire philosopher Ivan Kramberger stumped the countryside on a platform of Slovenian independence and social welfare.

   1990 August, Kenneth C. Danforth, “Yugoslavia: A House Much Divided”, in National Geographic, volume 178, number 2, page 120

5. transitiveball gamesTo get a batsman out stumped.
6. transitiveball gamesTo bowl down the stumps of (a wicket).

   A herd of boys with clamour bowled, / And stumped the wicket.

   1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Prologue”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC

7. intransitiveTo walk heavily or clumsily, plod, trudge.

   Mrs Dibble made for the kitchen, stumping violently with her crutches and heaving her bulk along with the obvious determination to submerge her wrongs by resorting to the gin-bottle.

   1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 150

8. transitiveTo reduce to a stump; to truncate or cut off a part of.
9. transitiveTo strike unexpectedly; to stub, as the toe against something fixed.

plural Stumps

1. A surname.