stump

Meanings

Noun

• The remains of something that has been cut off; especially the remains of a tree, the remains of a limb.
• The place or occasion at which a campaign takes place; the husting.
• A place or occasion at which a person harangues or otherwise addresses a group in a manner suggesting political oration.
• One of three small wooden posts which together with the bails make the wicket and that the fielding team attempt to hit with the ball.
• An artists’ drawing tool made of rolled paper used to smudge or blend marks made with charcoal, Conté crayon, pencil or other drawing media.
• A wooden or concrete pole used to support a house.
• A leg.
• 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.
• A pin or projection in a lock to form a guide for a movable piece.

Verb

• To stop, confuse, or puzzle.
• To baffle; to make unable to find an answer to a question or problem.
• To campaign.
• To travel over (a state, a district, etc.) giving speeches for electioneering purposes.
• To get a batsman out stumped.
• To bowl down the stumps of (a wicket).
• To walk heavily or clumsily, plod, trudge.
• To reduce to a stump; to truncate or cut off a part of.
• To strike unexpectedly; to stub, as the toe against something fixed.

Origin

• From Middle English stumpe, stompe, from or akin to Middle Low German stump ("stump"), from Proto-Germanic *stumpaz ("stump, blunt, part cut off"). Cognate with Middle Dutch stomp ("stump"), Old High German stumph ("stump") (German Stumpf), Old Norse stumpr ("stump"). More at stop.