subs. (old).—1. In pl. = legs. As verb = to walk: spec. stiffly, heavily, or noisily; whence TO STIR ONE’S STUMPS = to bestir oneself, to increase one’s speed.
c. 1609. WEBSTER, Appius and Virginia, ii. 3. I can bestir my STUMPS as soon as another, if fit occasion be offered.
1617. BRATHWAITE, Law of Drinking, 70. His long practice of the pot has exempt him from being prest a souldier: hee has quite lost the use of his STUMPS, how should he then possibly keepe his march?
1633. JONSON, A Tale of a Tub, iii. 1.
| How should we bustle forward? Give some counsel | |
| How to BESTIR OUR STUMPS in these cross ways. |
1640. BRATHWAITE, The Two Lancashire Lovers, xxxiii. 262. This makes him STIRRE HIS STUMPS, and to answer her Letter with such speedy cheerefulnesse, as Mellida can expect no lesse then all successe to her desires.
1663. BUTLER, Hudibras, I. ii. 926.
| For getting up on STUMP and huckle, | |
| He with the foe began to buckle. |
1675. COTTON, Burlesque upon Burlesque: or, The Scoffer Scofft (1725), 243. Those fat STUMPS thou walk’st upon.
1705. WARD, Hudibras Redivivus, I. ii. 17. I had not long, on City Stones, Bestirr’d MY STUMPS and Marrowbones.
1774. BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 5.
| Then cease your canting sobs and groans, | |
| And STIR YOUR STUMPS to save your bones. |
1798. T. MORTON, Secrets Worth Knowing, i. 1. Sally. A parcel of lazy chaps, I dare say—but I’ll make them STIR THEIR STUMPS.
1809. MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 344. The reader may guess whether I did not STIR MY STUMPS.
1818. SCOTT, The Heart of Mid-lothian, xii. He rose from his seat, STUMPED across the room.
1835. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 1 S. xxvi. I guess our great nation may be STUMPED to produce more eleganter liquor than this here. It’s the dandy, that’s a fact.
1841. BULWER-LYTTON, Night and Morning, ii. 2. STUMP IT, my cove; that’s a Bowstreet runner.
1857. T. HUGHES, Tom Brown’s School-days, i. 4. The guard picks him off the coach top, and sets him on his legs, and they STUMP off into the bar.
1860. Funny Fellow, 7 May, 1. Hallo, my kiddy, STIR YOUR STUMPS.… Make haste, young chip, my boots to shine.
1891. H. B. MARRIOTT-WATSON, The Web of the Spider, xiii. I’ll go bail we wouldn’t ha’ got another half-mile on our STUMPS.
2. (old).—Money: generic; also STUMPY (GROSE). Hence as verb (or TO STUMP UP) = to pay; STUMPED (or PUT TO ONE’S STUMPS) = poor, hard-up, put to shift (GROSE); TO PAY ON THE STUMP = to disburse readily and promptly.
1821. P. EGAN, Real Life in London, I. 142. She shall STUMP UP the rubbish before I leave her.
1836. DICKENS, Sketches by Boz, ‘Walkins Tottle.’ Why don’t you ask your old governor to STUMP UP? Ibid., ‘First Cabdriver.’ Reduced to despair, they ransomed themselves by the payment of sixpence a-head, or, to adopt his own figurative expression in all its native beauty, ‘till they was rig’larly done over, and forked out the STUMPY.’
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘The Lay of the Old Woman Clothed in Grey.’ (Save its synonyms, ‘Spanish,’ ‘Blunt,’ ‘STUMPY,’ and ‘Rhino’), II. 47. [He] … was STUMPED and hard up.
| Ibid., 48 (The Merchant of Venice). | |
| In short, my dear Tony, My trusty old crony, | |
| Do STUMP UP three thousand once more as a loan. |
183[?]. HOOD, A Tale of a Trumpet.
| But common prudence would bid you STUMP IT, | |
| For not to enlarge, | |
| It’s the regular charge | |
| At a Fancy Fair for a penny trumpet. |
1835. HOOK, Gilbert Gurney, III. ii. ‘Don’t you know our history?—haven’t you heard, my dear fellow, we are STUMPED!’ ‘STUMPED,’ said I, almost unconsciously repeating the quaint, but woefully-expressive word. ‘Positively STUMPED,’ said Daly;—‘don’t speak loud—I thought, of course, you had heard of it. Blinkinsop has bolted.’
1849. C. KINGSLEY, Alton Locke, ii. Down with the STUMPY; a tizzy for a pot of half-and-half.
1882. BLACKMORE, Christowell, I. xxiii. How much is the captain going to STUMP UP?
1897. MARSHALL, Pomes, 63. In the annals of the absolutely STUMPED.
3. (common).—A blockhead: see BUFFLE and CABBAGE-HEAD.
4. (venery).—The penis: see PRICK. Also CARNAL STUMP.
1694. MOTTEUX, Rabelais, v. xlv.
| I hope | |
| To see some brawny, juicy rump | |
| Well tickled with my CARNAL STUMP. |
Verb. (old).—1. To boast; to SWAGGER (q.v.). Hence STUMPER = a braggart (BAILEY and DYCHE).
1748. T. DYCHE, A New General English Dictionary, s.v. BOUNCE … to swagger, boast, crack, STUMP, or pretend to great matters.
2. (colloquial).—To challenge, defy, puzzle, or confound; and (in an absolute sense) to ruin. As subs. (American) = an attempt to puzzle or confound; STUMPER = a puzzler; UP A STUMP = confounded, UP A TREE (q.v.).
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘The Lay of the Old Woman Clothed in Grey.’
| To be all ‘abroad’—to be ‘STUMP’D’ not to know where | |
| To go—so disgraced As not to be ‘placed,’— | |
| Or, as Crocky would say to Jem Bland, ‘To be Nowhere.’ |
1838. J. C. NEAL, Charcoal Sketches. Instead of STUMPING his antagonist by launching out his cash, he shakes a portentous fist under his nose, and the affair is settled.
1844. W. T. THOMPSON, Major Jones’s Courtship, 135. Heavens and yeath! thinks I, what does all this mean?… I knowd I hadn’t done nothing to be put in prison for, and I never was so STUMPED.
1847. ROBB, Streaks of Squatter Life, 135. It [my note] wur a STUMPER to Sally, so she got Jess to explain it.
1853. REV. E. BRADLEY (‘Cuthbert Bede’), The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, II. xi. That beastly Euclid altogether STUMPS me…. Ibid. They say it ain’t a bad thing … to get your head shaved…. I think I shall try the dodge … when I’ve STUMPED the examiner I can wear my own … locks again.
1900. R. H. SAVAGE, Brought to Bay, ii. ‘And my father and mother?’ breathlessly demanded Julian. ‘There I’m STUMPED,’ carelessly answered Sir Aubrey.
3. (American).—To travel the country for the purpose of making partizan or personal speeches from stumps or other improvised platforms. Originally backwoods electioneering, and spec. on one’s own account: now general. Frequently, but not necessarily, in a derogatory sense. Also TO GO ON THE STUMP (or TO TAKE THE STUMP). Hence STUMPER (STUMP ORATOR or STUMP-SPEAKER) = (1) an electioneer; and (2) a bombastic SPOUTER (q.v.), with such derivatives as STUMP-ORATOR, STUMP-SPEECH, etc. [Worcester: ‘A cant phrase.’]
1843. B. R. HALL (‘Robert Carlton’) The New Purchase, I. 211. We had of course in the Purchase a passion for STUMP-SPEECHING. But recollect, we often mount the stump only figuratively: and very good STUMP-SPEECHES are delivered from a table, a chair, a whiskey-barrel, and the like. Sometimes we make the best STUMP SPEECHES on horse-back.
1848. New York Herald, 21 June, ‘Letter from Washington.’ The Hon. W. R. Thompson of Indiana, one of the most popular STUMP SPEAKERS of the day.
1841. E. G. PAIGE (‘Dow, Jr.’), Short Patent Sermons, I. 132 [BARTLETT]. When you see a politician extra full of patriotism, and stuffed with STUMP SPEECHES, you may take it for granted he wants office either for himself or for some particular friend.
1862. Punch, 5 April, 139, 1, ‘Tall Doin’s.’
| Though not clear which STUMP I ’LL TAKE, | |
| That STUMP shall be colossal, | |
| Whether I ’m Slavery’s advocate, | |
| Or Liberty’s Apostle. |
1872. Figaro, 30 Nov. Greeley’s too great a roarer, and depended too much ON THE STUMP.
1884. PHILLLPPS-WOLLEY, Trottings of a Tenderfoot, ch. ix. If a constitution was to grow up strong, it didn’t want forcing with a lot of STUMP-SPOUTER’S rubbish; and so on and so on.
1884. Punch, 11 Oct. ‘’Arry at a Political Picnic.’
| Fancy, old chump, | |
| Me doing the sawdusty reglar, and follering swells ON THE STUMP! |
STUMP AND RUMP, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Completely: cf. STOCK AND BLOCK; ROOT AND BRANCH; STICK AND STONE, etc.
