stub

¹

[stuhb]

noun

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.

verb (used with object)

stubbed, stubbing 

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

[stuhb]

adjective

1. stocky; squat.

stub

/ 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

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

• stubber noun

Word History and Origins

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of stub¹

Old English stubb; related to Old Norse stubbi, Middle Dutch stubbe, Greek stupos stem, stump

Example Sentences

Chelsea's Cole Palmer will be absent for another week because he fractured his toe when he stubbed it on a door on Wednesday night.

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Penelope bit her pencil stub and frowned, for she had decided to tackle the Russia/England problem herself.

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Penelope wrote it all down on the back of an empty feedbag, using a pencil stub she found lying in the barn.

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Penelope tried to kick a warning under the table, but her foot hit the admiral’s cane instead and gave a nasty stub to her toe.

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He took a scrap of paper and a pencil stub out of one of his pockets and jotted some quick notes.

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