▪ I. stumpy, n.
(ˈstʌmpɪ)
[f. stump n.1 + -y.]
1. A spritsail barge.
| 1881 Standard 22 June 3/7 The Committee boat, having steamed up to the stumpies.., gave an opportunity of witnessing a very interesting contest. 1889 A. T. Pask Eyes Thames 32 A craft that is known on the river as a ‘stumpy’, i.e. a barge without a top-sail. |
2. slang. Money. Cf. stump n.1 16.
| 1828 Lights & Shades II. 7 He inquired whether I had any other dibbs, any more blunt or stumpy, any more money. 1835 Dickens Sk. Boz., Last Cab-driver, Till they was rig'larly done over, and forked out the stumpy. 1837 T. Hook Jack Brag ii, Send up the stumpy by to-night's post. 1844 J. T. J. Hewlett Parsons & W. xlii, I am short of ready stumpy. 1850 Kingsley Alton Locke ii, Down with the stumpy—a tizzy for a pot of half-and-half. 1859 Hotten's Slang Dict. 104 Stumpy, money. |
▪ II. stumpy, a.
(ˈstʌmpɪ)
[f. stump n.1 + -y.]
1. Like a stump; short and thick. Of grass, etc. Full of stumps or short hard stalks.
| 1600 Surflet Country Farm iv. ii. 633 The haie..is full of stumpie stalkes,..and nothing pleasing [etc.]. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. vii. (1681) 123 Once for all, the stumpy Graff will be found much Superior to the slender one, and make a much nobler and larger shoot. 1721 Mortimer Husb. (ed. 5) I. 157 They often burn the Stubble, it being so stumpy that they seldom plow it in. 1834 Beckford Italy II. 54 Festoons of luxuriant leaves and tendrils, not fastened to stiff poles and stumpy stakes as in France. 1836 T. Hook G. Gurney I. 198 A stout short-legged pony, with a thick neck and a stumpy tail. 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. iv. iv. (1872) I. 295 Nose smallish, inclining to be stumpy. 1862 H. H. Dixon Scott & Sebright iii. 138 He was a thick short horse, got us little stumpy mares, we've very few of them. 1890 D. C. Murray John Vale iv, The stumpy bamboo cane which Mr. Macfarlane carried. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VI. 572 The hairs turn white, hypertrophy, become stumpy and brittle, or fall out. 1916 Blackw. Mag. Apr. 469/2 You may see a boat, her high receding bows surmounted by a stumpy beak. |
| Comb. 1865 Tylor Early Hist. Man. xii. 355 Both stories accounting..for the fact that bears and hyenas are stumpy-tailed. 1871 B. Taylor Faust (1875) II. iii. 174 This pert throng Are only stumpy-winged and cackling..geese. |
b. of a human figure.
| 1822 Galt Provost xliii. (1868) 125 This Mr. Peevie was, in his person, a stumpy man. 1856 F. E. Paget Owlet of Owlst. 78 That short stumpy woman in the cloak is Miss Creepmouse. 1862 Thornbury Turner II. 324 Turner was a stumpy, ill-dressed man, with a red face. 1866 Mrs. Gaskell Wives & Dau. xl, I was always afraid she'd be short and stumpy. |
c. of a building.
| 1870 E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. II. 128 The stumpy towers of Ripon Minster. 1883 A. Dobson in Eng. Illustr. Mag. Nov. 76/2 The fine old Banqueting House..seems to overlook the stumpy Horse Guards much as a person with a pedigree might be supposed to survey a nouveau riche. 1896 Hare Story My Life I. ii. 57 Our high field, over which the stumpy spire of the church could be seen. |
d. Nat. Hist.
| 1858 Baird Cycl. Nat. Sci., Scarabæidæ, Their forms are very varied, but generally short and stumpy. 1863 P. P. Carpenter in Rep. Brit. Assoc. i. 643 Mytilus? var. glomeratus... Short, stumpy, solid, crowded. 1886 J. J. Quelch Coral-Reefs in Challenger Rep. XVI. iii. 66 Its thickened, short, stumpy and close branches and branchlets. 1896 Lydekker Roy. Nat. Hist. V. 20 Stumpy crocodile, a small and short-nosed crocodile (Osteolæmus tetraspis) from West Africa, in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone. |
2. Worn down to a stump.
| 1794 J. Williams Crying Epist. 15 Let them not force me to repair these slips: To fasten stumpy brooms upon my ships. 1840 Thackeray Shabby-genteel Story i, A stumpy pen, richly crusted with ink at the nib. 1883 R. Haldane Workshop Rec. Ser. ii. 254/1 Rub the old colour up with a stumpy brush. |
3. Of ground: Full of stumps. U.S.
| 1838 N. Hawthorne Amer. Note-Bks. (1883) 150 Climbing a rude, rough, rocky, stumpy, ferny height yesterday. 1879 J. Burroughs Locusts & Wild Honey 122 A little stumpy clearing. 1885 Harper's Mag. Mar. 536/2 Soil, whether..gravel, sand, stumpy, stony. 1897 Outing July 328/2 A few acres of stumpy pasture. |
Hence ˈstumpily, adv., ˈstumpiness.
| 1878 Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. (1879) II. 107 Such stumpiness of proportion was not viewed as essential to the style. 1887 Ruskin Præterita II. 331 A stumpily made..good-natured simpleton. |