Meanings
plural stump speeches
- USgovernmentA standard speech by a politician running for office.
“You're hungry and you want a burrito,” [Jeff] Jarvis exclaimed during one of his frequent stump speeches.
2014, Astra Taylor, The People's Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN1 more example
A week ago, two or three events a day was the norm for each candidate. They have shortened their stump speeches and are spending less time greeting supporters.
2008 November 3, John M. Broder, Julie Bosman, “In States Once Reliably Red, Palin and Biden Tighten Their Stump Speeches”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
Origin
From a bucolic image of a politician touring little settlements with his boilerplate speech which he delivers standing atop the stump of a chopped-down tree.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
stump speech. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stump%20speech
“stump speech.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stump%20speech. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “stump speech,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stump%20speech.
Source: stump speech on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.