1
as in shuffles
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
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in dares
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
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of stumps
The Washington Post, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Feb. 2026
For more than two months, a helicopter has been hard at work removing dead trees and stumps from the reservoir using a special device.
—Olivia Young, CBS News, 15 Jan. 2026
During the day, the birds lie motionless on the ground, blending into piles of leaves and tree stumps to hide from predators.
—Marina Watts, PEOPLE, 9 Jan. 2026
Firefighters working the site of the Lachman Fire were ordered to leave the original burn scene despite tree stumps there being hot to the touch, according to a review of firefighter text messages by the Los Angeles Times last October.
—Greg Norman-Diamond, FOXNews.com, 7 Jan. 2026
In the forest, stumps become nurse logs that feed fungi and other key players in the biome.
—Erica Browne Grivas, Better Homes & Gardens, 27 Oct. 2025
This approach addresses the transparent bottle problem that stumps traditional systems.
—Tejasri Gururaj, Interesting Engineering, 4 Sep. 2025
Verb
This is because tendons that normally curl the toes downward (such as when cats knead your lap) pull on the amputation stumps so that the stumps rub on the ground, and no mechanism remains to oppose that action.
—The Washington Post, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Feb. 2026
For more than two months, a helicopter has been hard at work removing dead trees and stumps from the reservoir using a special device.
—Olivia Young, CBS News, 15 Jan. 2026
During the day, the birds lie motionless on the ground, blending into piles of leaves and tree stumps to hide from predators.
—Marina Watts, PEOPLE, 9 Jan. 2026
Firefighters working the site of the Lachman Fire were ordered to leave the original burn scene despite tree stumps there being hot to the touch, according to a review of firefighter text messages by the Los Angeles Times last October.
—Greg Norman-Diamond, FOXNews.com, 7 Jan. 2026
In the forest, stumps become nurse logs that feed fungi and other key players in the biome.
—Erica Browne Grivas, Better Homes & Gardens, 27 Oct. 2025
This approach addresses the transparent bottle problem that stumps traditional systems.
—Tejasri Gururaj, Interesting Engineering, 4 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for stumps
Verb
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Tristan returns home and greets James while Siegfried shuffles the woman out the window.—
Alice Burton,
Vulture,
12 Jan. 2026
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That is not unique — Major League Baseball’s offseason shuffles along at a deliberate pace, just as the Dodgers historically have liked.—
Katie Woo,
New York Times,
7 Jan. 2026
Verb
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And each dares to honor the humanity in characters often reduced to predators and prey by one faction, shrill social justice warriors and brave free thinkers by another.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
5 Mar. 2026
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Is anything more engaging than a good murder mystery—one that dares you to guess who did it, and why?—
Boris Kachka,
The Atlantic,
13 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Each ingredient is diligently vetted and each product is exhaustively tested (including a microbial analysis) for heavy metals, pesticides, solvent residues, environmental contaminants, and common allergens including gluten.—
Brianna Peters,
Vogue,
6 Mar. 2026
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The trash may be full of sticky residues, sweet liquids, and food scraps that wasps like.—
Karen Brewer Grossman,
Southern Living,
5 Mar. 2026
Verb
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As skyscrapers towered over them, their cheers, chants and stomps wove through downtown Dallas.—
Jessica Ma,
Dallas Morning News,
18 Feb. 2026
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Idris the Valentine’s cow stomps in the footsteps of Squishmallows’ viral strawberry cow and the subsequent bestselling blueberry cow.—
Jacquelyn Smith,
Parents,
30 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Redirecting food from corporate supply chains to food banks challenges the outdated image many people still have of hunger relief.—
Patty Oconnor,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
9 Mar. 2026
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The 1995 film version of this exchange between Charlotte and Lizzy, in which the former is portrayed cooly by the unflappable Lucy Scott, challenges the audience’s ability to empathize with Charlotte’s pragmatism, and seems to encourage us to side with Elizabeth’s dismay.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
9 Mar. 2026
Verb
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In 1972, Hannes (Enzo Brumm), a gangly farm boy adrift in a hedonistic haze of hormones and counterculture, stumbles upon a revelation through his contact with a love interest’s geranium.—
Christian Zilko,
IndieWire,
4 Mar. 2026
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The woman continues to scream as Jones stumbles in the street and Charles asks him multiple more times to drop the knife.—
Kellie Love,
Hartford Courant,
3 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Like generations of potential treatments before it, KRSA-028 is designed to break down a protein called amyloid that clumps up in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients.—
Allison DeAngelis,
STAT,
18 Feb. 2026
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However, sometimes the abnormal IgA (the antibody that clumps up and causes problems) does run in families.—
Brandi Jones,
Health,
15 Jan. 2026
Noun
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There, in the face of cultural homogenization, artificial intelligence, and corporate overhaul, the vestiges of the Blank Generation remain, and their stories, now immortalized as myth, continue to propel New York’s creative engine.—
Taran Dugal,
New Yorker,
4 Mar. 2026
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After last year’s massive layoffs, several divisions inside Paramount Skydance (such as the cable outlets and the last vestiges of Showtime) have been cut to the bone.—
Cynthia Littleton,
Variety,
27 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Stumps.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/stumps. Accessed 14 Mar. 2026.
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