Synonyms of stumped

stumped

verb

past tense of stump

1

as in shuffled

to move heavily or clumsily

the seemingly endless parade finally ended, and the drummers and tuba players stumped wearily to their buses

Synonyms & Similar Words

• shuffled
• stumbled
• stomped
• barged
• floundered
• weaved
• stamped
• lurched
• trudged
• clumped
• sloughed
• lumped
• hauled
• dragged
• shambled
• tramped
• scuffled
• scuffed
• pounded
• plodded
• lumbered
• staggered
• slogged
• galumphed
• flogged
• flopped
• tromped
• swayed
• blundered
• reeled
• waddled
• tottered
• wobbled
• doddered
• careened
• teetered

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• slid
• whisked
• glided
• floated
• hung
• drifted
• hovered
• waltzed
• coasted
• breezed
• poised
• wafted

2

as in challenged

to invite (someone) to take part in a contest or to perform a feat

when my grandfather was a kid, he and his friends would stump one another to dive into the local swimming hole

Synonyms & Similar Words

• challenged
• dared
• confronted
• defied
• faced
• braved
• bearded
• brazened
• outfaced
• outbraved
• breasted

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of stumped

There are the requisite yard signs, campaign volunteers and meet-and-greet events in converted barns like the one where Jackson stumped on a crisp Wednesday morning in Chatsworth this week. — Patricia Murphy, AJC.com, 22 Oct. 2026

Speculating on how a magic trick was done that stumped me in a bar 17 years ago. — Emily Temple, Literary Hub, 20 Oct. 2026

Both lawmakers stumped for El-Sayed during the Senate primary. — Nicholas Wu, semafor.com, 15 Oct. 2026

Ocasio-Cortez has stumped in upstate New York, while Ossoff has joined forces with gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms and other Democrats running for office in the Peach State. — Molly Parks, The Washington Examiner, 5 Oct. 2026

My dad found the blog of a man who claimed to cure his Stage 4 lung cancer with a regimen of fenbendazole, a miraculous recovery that stumped his oncologists. — Trisha Thadani Kirsten Potter Tanya Pérez Devin Murphy, New York Times, 4 Oct. 2026

Vance stumped in Florida, putting the Republican Party's highest-ranking officials in areas where GOP candidates once expected to have glide paths to victory but are now facing tougher races. — Michelle L. Price, Arkansas Online, 2 Oct. 2026

Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon observed in quantum physics that even stumped the great Albert Einstein. — Ameya Paleja, Interesting Engineering, 15 Sep. 2026

OpenAI on Tuesday said its artificial intelligence technology has cracked one of the Millennium Problems –– seven famously difficult and unsolved questions in mathematics that have stumped even the world’s brightest minds. — Karina Tsui, CNN Money, 9 Sep. 2026