[f. STUMP v.1 + -ING1.]
1. The action of the verb. a. The action of treading heavily, as with a wooden leg.
1805. Wordsw., Waggoner, II. 60. What thumping—stumping—overhead!
1862. Borrow, Wild Wales, xi. (1901), 63. Both heard the stumping.
1905. A. T. Sheppard, Red Cravat, III. vi. 293. The tap of his cane, the stumping of his thick-soled boots.
b. Cricket.
1849. Laws of Cricket, in ‘Bat,’ Cricket Man. (1850), 57. The wicket-keeper shall not take the ball for the purpose of stumping until it has passed the wicket.
1895. Westm. Gaz., 4 May 5/2. This total of 1,397 wickets is made up of 611 clean bowlings, 698 catches, 37 stumpings, 48 leg-befores, and 3 hit wickets.
c. The action of delivering stump speeches.
1865. Sat. Rev., 18 Feb., 184/2. The babes and sucklings out of whose mouths political wisdom is to come seem to be commencing their ‘stumping’ in good time.
attrib. and Comb. 1884. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 6 Sept. In Windham county, the special stumping-ground of the Springfield Republican, the total Independent vote will not reach one hundred.
1884. Manch. Exam., 27 Aug., 5/2. The Leader of the Opposition would hardly go to Oban on a stumping expedition.
2. concr. (See quot.)
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, 245. Stumping, a kind of pillar and stall plan of getting coal.
