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

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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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stumped

Stair-climbing has stumped the robotics field for decades, as the activity requires continuous center-of-gravity shifts and visual information processing.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026

I recently finished an ice cream in Copenhagen and found myself stumped at the trash bins, wrapper in hand.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

Eventually, Abbas poked the pace of Josh Tongue to point before Razaullah was stumped off Lawrence from the final ball of the day to leave Pakistan 453 all out.

From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026

ChatGPT-style AI is revolutionizing the world of high-level math by quickly solving famous, long-unsolved problems that stumped experts for decades.

From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026

At first Bubber was stumped, and it was funny to watch his face while she talked the foreign language.

From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers

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