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# stump

«stump» in Mova's school dictionary: **the short part of a tree trunk left in the ground after…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a stump, stumps); verb (stump, stumps, stumped, stumping)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A stump is the short part of a tree trunk left in the ground after the tree is cut down. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stump/#m1)

2) A stump is the short part left of something worn or cut, like a pencil stump or the stump of a leg. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stump/#m2)

3) In cricket, the stumps are the three upright sticks that make the wicket. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stump/#m3)

4) To stump someone is to ask them something so hard they cannot answer. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stump/#m4)

5) To stump is to walk with heavy, stamping steps. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stump/#m5)

### sense in the lessons

In nature lessons, you can count the rings on a tree stump to find its age. In cricket (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland), the bowler tries to hit the stumps. In quizzes, a hard question stumps the class. Phrases: «tree stump», «be stumped», «stumped for words».

### examples

- We sat on an old tree stump to eat lunch. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stump/#x1)
- Count the rings on the stump to find the tree's age. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stump/#x2)
- The ball knocked over the stumps, and he was out. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stump/#x3)
- That riddle stumped everyone in the class. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stump/#x4)
- I'm stumped — I have no idea! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stump/#x5)
- He stumped up the stairs in a bad mood. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stump/#x6)
- My pencil is just a stump now. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stump/#x7)
- He came to the charred stumps. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stump/#x8)

### note

Countable noun; regular verb («stumped»). «Be stumped» means «not know the answer». In science, each ring on a stump usually shows one year of growth, so 30 rings means about 30 years old.

### In the corpora

- [A platypus has a broad flat tail, and a koala has only a tiny stump of a tail hidden in its fur.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/117-zoos-around-the-world-and-myths-put-right/9/)
- [Some old tree stumps stay alive for years because their roots are joined to nearby trees, which keep them fed with sugar.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/252-plants-deeper-do-trees-talk-fungi-warning-smells-and-giant-clones/17/)
- [At first it's fun: twigs crackle, logs trip him, fungus on stumps looks like funny faces.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/33-willows-ch3-part1-winter-and-the-way-to-the-wood/8/)
- [That was never done by a branch or a stump.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/36-willows-ch3-part4-the-door-scraper/17/)
- [Counting the rings in a stump tells us roughly how old the tree was.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/76-trees-and-forests-through-the-year/6/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «stump» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/stump/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.