from French: something twisted, from Old French tortiller to twist
stump in British English
(stʌmp)
noun
1.
the base part of a tree trunk left standing after the tree has been felled or has fallen
2.
the part of something, such as a tooth, limb, or blade, that remains after a larger part has been removed
3. informal, facetious
a. (often plural)
a leg
b. stir one's stumps
4. cricket
any of three upright wooden sticks that, with two bails laid across them, form a wicket (the stumps)
5. Also called: tortillon
a short sharply-pointed stick of cork or rolled paper or leather, used in drawing and shading
6.
a heavy tread or the sound of heavy footsteps
7.
a platform used by an orator when addressing a meeting
8. (often plural) Australian
a pile used to support a house
9. draw stumps
10. on the stump
verb
11. (transitive)
to stop, confuse, or puzzle
12. (intransitive)
to plod or trudge heavily
13. (transitive) cricket
(of a fielder, esp a wicketkeeper) to dismiss (a batsman) by breaking the wicket with the ball or with the ball in the hand while he or sheis out of the crease
14. mainly US and Canadian
to campaign or canvass (an area), esp by political speech-making
15. (transitive)
to reduce to a stump; lop
16. (transitive)
to clear (land) of stumps
Derived forms
stumper (ˈstumper)
noun
Word origin
C14: from Middle Low German stump; related to Dutch stomp, German Stumpf; see stamp