stumped

[stuhmpt]

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.

verb

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

Other Word Forms

• unstumped adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of stumped¹

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

Even with the increasing challenges of accessing public records, Leatherbury and Pillifant were stumped by the governor’s decision to release thousands of pages only to black them out fully.

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Agar could have been stumped on six off Swann, but got the benefit of a hairline decision.

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The president thinks outside the box, dispensing with the strategy of experts who have been stumped in the region for decades.

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The onscreen version of Keaton is stumped when Alvy Singer brings her a copy of the philosophical tome “Death and Western Thought.”

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I understand that credit score is based on use of available credit, but I’m stumped as to why it’s so volatile.

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