up the stump

alternative up a stump

1. informalAt a loss, puzzled, in a bind.

   He said old Dr. Blank had been attending to him all day, but was “up the stump” and wanted me to help.

   1907, The American Journal of Clinical Medicine, volume 14, page 662

   2 more examples

   Science is up the stump. She can't find out why green sorghum should be so quickly fatal to cattle, says an exchange.

   1900, Queensland Agricultural Journal, volume 7, page 216

   Just today I gave his history class a few questions to answer and hand in, but when it came time to answering the last two he was up the stump.

   2001, Suzanne L. Bunkers, Diaries of Girls and Women: A Midwestern American Sampler, University of Wisconsin Press, →ISBN, page 218

   Synonyms: in trouble, up a stump

2. CanadainformalPregnant.

   You're up the stump, Edith Fulton. You're going to have a baby.

   1989, David Helwig, A Postcard from Rome, Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 100

   2 more examples

   Met him at a dance, a skinny little French-Canadian who shot her a line of bull and put her up the stump before waving goodbye from the troop train.

   1976, Richard B. Wright, Farthings Fortune's, Macmillan of Canada, →ISBN, page 266

   "I'm real glad that you told me. When your mom and I got married, it was because she was up the stump, you know that, huh?"

   1987, Anne Cameron, Stubby Amberchuk & The Holy Grail, Harbour Publishing, →ISBN, page 75

   Synonyms: in trouble, up the duff