stub

¹ American  

[stuhb] / stʌb /

noun

• stubs
  plural

1. a short projecting part.

2. a short remaining piece, as of a pencil, candle, or cigar.

3. (in a checkbook, receipt book, etc.) the inner end of each leaf, for keeping a record of the content of the part filled out and torn away.

4. the returned portion of a ticket.

5. the end of a fallen tree, shrub, or plant left fixed in the ground; stump.

6. something having a short, blunt shape, especially a short-pointed, blunt pen.

7. stub nail.

8. something having the look of incomplete or stunted growth, as a horn of an animal.

9. Bridge. a part-score.

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verb (used with object)

• stubs,
  present (3rd person singular)
• stubbed,
  past participle,  past
• stubbing
  present participle

1. to strike accidentally against a projecting object.

   I stubbed my toe against the step.

2. to extinguish the burning end of (a cigarette or cigar) by crushing it against a solid object (often followed byout ).

   He stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray.

3. to clear of stubs, as land.

4. to dig up by the roots; grub up (roots).

stub ² American  

[stuhb] / stʌb /

adjective

1. stocky; squat.

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stub British  

/ stʌb /

noun

1. a short piece remaining after something has been cut, removed, etc

   a cigar stub

2. the residual piece or section of a receipt, ticket, cheque, etc

3. the part of a cheque, postal order, receipt, etc, detached and retained as a record of the transaction Also called (in Britain) counterfoil

4. any short projection or blunted end

5. the stump of a tree or plant

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verb

1. to strike (one's toe, foot, etc) painfully against a hard surface

2. (usually foll by out) to extinguish (a cigarette or cigar) by pressing the end against a surface

3. to clear (land) of stubs

4. to dig up (the roots) of (a tree or bush)

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• stubber
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• stubs
  plural

Participles

• stubbing
  present
• stubbed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• stub
  simple
• stubs
  simple
• have stubbed
  perfect
• has stubbed
  perfect
• am stubbing
  progressive
• are stubbing
  progressive
• is stubbing
  progressive
• have been stubbing
  perfect progressive
• has been stubbing
  perfect progressive

Past

• stubbed
  simple
• had stubbed
  perfect
• was stubbing
  progressive
• were stubbing
  progressive
• had been stubbing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will stub
  simple
• will have stubbed
  perfect
• will be stubbing
  progressive
• will have been stubbing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of stub¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English noun stubb(e), Old English stybb, stubb, stebb “tree stump”; cognate with Middle Low German, Middle Dutch stubbe, Old Norse stubbi; akin to Old Norse stūfr “stump”; the verb is derivative of the noun

Origin of stub²

First recorded in 1705–15; special use of stub ¹

Explanation

The small remainder of something is a stub. If you sharpen your favorite pencil obsessively, soon you'll be left with just a stub. Anything that's leftover or unusually short can be a stub, from the ticket stub you're handed in the theater to your dog's little stub of a tail. As a verb, stub most often means "strike painfully against something," and it's toes that you most often stub: "Put your shoes on before you run around in the yard, or you'll stub your toe again!"

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stub stubs stubbed stubbing

Now I stub my toe, I’m limping for three weeks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026

For many people, a year-end pay stub will have all the numbers a tax professional needs to determine which pay is eligible for the tax break, Steber said.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 14, 2026

The following month, after a member of the congregation took up the position of treasurer, it was discovered the cheque stub for the £10,000 transaction bore the name Northern Ireland Organs Limited.

From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2024

For example, personal information on a ticket stub could be replaced with illegible letters, or a private building exchanged for a fake building or other landscape features.

From Science Daily ● May 29, 2024

With a stub pen she was bringing her books up to date, a fine old double entry ledger.

From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck

Instead, I found an option to upload pay stubs manually.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026

If one AI company stubs its toe, investors can expect other AI companies to say “ow.”

From Barron's ● Jun. 4, 2026

They’ll also have to include documentation of all household bills and expenses, showing how much they do or don’t contribute personally, as well as financial documents such as bank statements and any pay stubs.

From Salon ● Apr. 29, 2026

There are pay stubs where rap sheets used to be, text threads that start with the question “You good?” at 3:17 a.m., and apartment keys handed over when a kid can’t go home.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2025

Its spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jet body, it had a long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes.

From "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by J.K. Rowling

Acute pain acts as a warning signal, starting when injured tissue, such as a stubbed toe, sends messages through the spinal cord to the brain.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 27, 2026

And the expressive Garfield can convey water-eyed empathy so deftly that you know Tobias would be laid low if Almut so much as stubbed her toe on the leg of a coffee table.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2024

Simon Bennett, a 65-year-old semi-retired writer from Pontefract, shrugs off a suspected case of trench foot as if he had stubbed his toe.

From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2024

But now, it’s as if the room is on fire: The threat of a stubbed toe still exists, but moving slowly and cautiously risks even greater peril.

From New York Times ● Sep. 22, 2022

He stubbed his toe on a pile of PVC piping, which went rolling across the floor.

From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste

Footwear stocks keep stubbing their toe, and a sustained recovery remains elusive.

From Barron's ● May 1, 2026

After busting a big toe by stubbing it on her coffee table, Burke never goes barefoot.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 30, 2022

During an era where patience can be in short supply at the FBS-level, Pitt has stuck with Narduzzi while he’s fielded teams that have flirted with a major breakthrough while also stubbing their toes repeatedly.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 22, 2021

You can barely walk without stubbing your toe on one.

From New York Times ● Aug. 11, 2018

He looks over at Magic Eye, who is stubbing his cigar on the sole of his boot.

From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez