call it stumps

verb

To decide to end an activity; to call it a day.

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Meanings

verbcall it stumps (third-person singular simple present calls it stumps, present participle calling it stumps, simple past and past participle called it stumps)

present singular third person calls it stumps · participle present calling it stumps · participle past called it stumps · past called it stumps

  1. idiomaticinformalTo decide to end an activity; to call it a day.

    Eventually I decided to call it stumps and the last thing he said to me as I retired to his spare room was, `So you're not going to Inskip are you?' I answered that no, he was right, I wouldn't go and he tottered off happy.

    2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 130

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
call it a day

Origin

A figurative use of the cricket expression stumps (“the close of play when the stumps are pulled out of the ground by the umpires”).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

call it stumps. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/call%20it%20stumps

MLA

“call it stumps.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/call%20it%20stumps. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “call it stumps,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/call%20it%20stumps.

Source: call it stumps on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.