adjective
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short and thickset like a stump; stubby
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abounding in or full of stumps
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of stumpy
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Kerewin is a memorable heroine, a chain-smoking, stumpy, frizzy-haired genius of a woman who can outfight, outfish and outwit anyone.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
He reached into Hideg’s stash of percussion instruments and kept rhythm on cowbell and a set of stumpy sticks called claves.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2023
In Barcelona, somewhere along the tracks where my mom's train would be chugging along, I discovered a log creature with a face and four stumpy legs.
From Salon ● Dec. 25, 2021
And I navigated my new reality with some self-deprecation, describing myself with words like one-legged, stumpy and wobbly to circle around the truth: I was disabled.
From New York Times ● Jul. 13, 2020
Doli, short and stumpy, almost as broad as he was tall, wore a rust-colored leather jacket and stout, knee-high boots.
From "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander
Some of the bones belonged to the already-discovered Steropodon galmani, a shorter, stumpier and toothier ancestor of the platypus.
From BBC ● May 27, 2024
While this tower leans in one direction, its stumpier partner tilts in another, forming what the developer optimistically calls “a dance of sleek giants”.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 9, 2019
In addition, Aeronautical Engineer Mark Drela designed an extra-thin wing that provides 30% more aerodynamic lift than stumpier conventional wings.
From Time Magazine Archive
One of the two would climb to the top of the totem pole this week, but the pole seemed stumpier than usual.
From Time Magazine Archive
As a matter of fact, the body in a comparatively short time grows a new tail, which, however, is much shorter and stumpier than the old one.
From Boy Scouts Handbook The First Edition, 1911 by Boy Scouts of America
But now they were skirting one of the longest and stumpiest stone walls in feudal England, and all of a sudden it parted in twin turrets joined by triple gates.
From The Crime Doctor by Ernest William Hornung
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
