Showing results for "stumped"

• past tense form of stump.
• past participle of stump.

stumped

American  

[stuhmpt] / stʌmpt /

adjective

1. completely at a loss; perplexed or nonplussed.

   The stumped officer could only stare at the strange object, trying to figure out what it might be.

2. reduced to a stump; truncated; lopped.

   Bowser was a small dog with a stumped tail.

   These hills are in fact the stumped remains of mountains millions of years old.

3. Chiefly Southern U.S. stubbed, as one’s toe.

   At the talk, someone in the audience joked, "A stumped toe is all I need as proof that matter is real!"

4. cleared of stumps.

   It was looking more and more impossible to get the recently cleared and stumped field ready for planting by April 26.

5. (of a crayon drawing, pencil rendering, etc.) toned or modified by means of a stump, a blunt-tipped tool made of tightly rolled paper, leather, etc..

   A stumped drawing by Willem de Kooning, almost rubbed out, inspired our interest in the process of reproduction.

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verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of stump.

Other Word Forms

• unstumped
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of stumped

First recorded in 1595–1605; 1840–45 stumped for def. 3; stump ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. ) for the adjective senses; stump ( def. ) + -ed ¹ ( def. ) for the verb sense

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stumped

Last month, OpenAI announced that its latest version of ChatGPT had solved a major math problem, one that had stumped experts for 80 years.

From Slate ● Jun. 22, 2026

Bharti Fulmali was stumped for a three-ball one and India failed to score a boundary for 21 balls as they reached 132-5 at the end of the 18th over.

From BBC ● Jun. 14, 2026

American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura was sitting at a chess board in Cyprus last week feeling absolutely stumped.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 6, 2026

But even they may be stumped when faced with the gargantuan challenge of coming up with a deserving story to encapsulate the unique feat of producing 500 episodes of television.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 24, 2026

Toward them especially she leaned a little, telling in three words the full story of the stumped life in the coffin behind her.

From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison