Library / English Dictionary

STUMP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A platform raised above the surrounding level to give prominence to the person on it

Synonyms:

ambo; dais; podium; pulpit; rostrum; soapbox; stump

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("stump" is a kind of...):

platform (a raised horizontal surface)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(cricket) any of three upright wooden posts that form the wicket

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("stump" is a kind of...):

post (an upright consisting of a piece of timber or metal fixed firmly in an upright position)

Domain category:

cricket (a game played with a ball and bat by two teams of 11 players; teams take turns trying to score runs)

Holonyms ("stump" is a part of...):

grille; lattice; wicket (small opening (like a window in a door) through which business can be transacted)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The part of a limb or tooth that remains after the rest is removed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

Hypernyms ("stump" is a kind of...):

body part (any part of an organism such as an organ or extremity)

Holonyms ("stump" is a part of...):

tooth (hard bonelike structures in the jaws of vertebrates; used for biting and chewing or for attack and defense)

limb (one of the jointed appendages of an animal used for locomotion or grasping: arm; leg; wing; flipper)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The base part of a tree that remains standing after the tree has been felled

Synonyms:

stump; tree stump

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("stump" is a kind of...):

plant part; plant structure (any part of a plant or fungus)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "stump"):

stool ((forestry) the stump of a tree that has been felled or headed for the production of saplings)

Holonyms ("stump" is a part of...):

tree (a tall perennial woody plant having a main trunk and branches forming a distinct elevated crown; includes both gymnosperms and angiosperms)

Derivation:

stump (remove tree stumps from)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Remove tree stumps from

Example:

stump a field

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "stump" is one way to...):

clear (remove)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

stump (the base part of a tree that remains standing after the tree has been felled)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cause to be perplexed or confounded

Example:

This problem stumped her

Synonyms:

mix up; stump

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "stump" is one way to...):

amaze; baffle; beat; bewilder; dumbfound; flummox; get; gravel; mystify; nonplus; perplex; pose; puzzle; stick; stupefy; vex (be a mystery or bewildering to)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The performance is likely to stump Sue

Derivation:

stumper (a particularly difficult or baffling question or problem)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Travel through a district and make political speeches

Example:

the candidate stumped the Northeast

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "stump" is one way to...):

campaign; run (run, stand, or compete for an office or a position)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Walk heavily

Example:

The men stomped through the snow in their heavy boots

Synonyms:

stamp; stomp; stump

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "stump" is one way to...):

walk (use one's feet to advance; advance by steps)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

The children stump to the playground

Credits

 Context examples: 

Samples from four of the fatalities were sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after Liberian medical officials were stumped.

(Experts Link Fatal Mystery Illness in Liberia to Meningitis Bacteria, VOA)

I once prevailed on the barber to give me some of the suds or lather, out of which I picked forty or fifty of the strongest stumps of hair.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

His face was anxious, as was the face of my companion, who had stumped over to the rail and was gazing with a like intentness in the direction of the invisible danger.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

What with the steepness of the incline, the thick tree stumps, and the soft sand, he and his crutch were as helpless as a ship in stays.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I can find a cure for this, thought he; now I will milk my cow and quench my thirst: so he tied her to the stump of a tree, and held his leathern cap to milk into; but not a drop was to be had.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

As I stood at the door, on a sudden I beheld a stream of fire issue from an old and beautiful oak which stood about twenty yards from our house; and so soon as the dazzling light vanished, the oak had disappeared, and nothing remained but a blasted stump.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I HAD led this life about a month, when the man with the wooden leg began to stump about with a mop and a bucket of water, from which I inferred that preparations were making to receive Mr. Creakle and the boys.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

All at once, I saw two figures: one a little man who was stumping along eastward at a good walk, and the other a girl of maybe eight or ten who was running as hard as she was able down a cross street.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

She caught endless colds sitting on damp grass to book 'a delicious bit', composed of a stone, a stump, one mushroom, and a broken mullein stalk, or 'a heavenly mass of clouds', that looked like a choice display of featherbeds when done.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

First of all, under our directions, he undid the rope from the tree-stump and threw one end of it across to us.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)