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In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed... No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people. Preface to 1828 Dictionary
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STUMP, n. [G.]
STUMP, v.t.
The part of a tree or plant
remaining in the earth after the stem or trunk is cut off] the
stub.
The part of a limb or other body remaining
after a part is amputated or destroyed; a fixed or rooted remnant; a
stub; as, the stump of a leg, a finger, a tooth, or a
broom.
The legs; as, to stir one's
stumps.
[Slang] One of the three pointed
rods stuck in the ground to form a wicket and support the
bails.
A short, thick roll of leather or paper,
cut to a point, or any similar implement, used to rub down the lines
of a crayon or pencil drawing, in shading it, or for shading drawings
by producing tints and gradations from crayon, etc., in
powder.
A pin in a tumbler lock which forms an
obstruction to throwing the bolt, except when the gates of the
tumblers are properly arranged, as by the key; a fence; also, a pin or
projection in a lock to form a guide for a movable piece.
Leg stump (Cricket), the stump nearest to the batsman. -- Off stump (Cricket), the stump farthest from the batsman. -- Stump tracery (Arch.), a term used to describe late German Gothic tracery, in which the molded bar seems to pass through itself in its convolutions, and is then cut off short, so that a section of the molding is seen at the end of each similar stump. -- To go on the stump, or To take the stump, to engage in making public addresses for electioneering purposes; -- a phrase derived from the practice of using a stump for a speaker's platform in newly-settled districts. Hence also the phrases stump orator, stump speaker, stump speech, stump oratory, etc. [Colloq. U.S.] To cut off a part of] to
reduce to a stump; to lop.
Around the stumped top soft moss did grow. Dr. H. More. To strike, as the toes, against a stone or
something fixed; to stub.
[Colloq.] To challenge; also, to nonplus.
[Colloq.] To travel over, delivering speeches for
electioneering purposes; as, to stump a State, or a district.
See To go on the stump, under Stump,
[Colloq. U.S.] To put
(a batsman) out of play by knocking off the bail, or knocking down the
stumps of the wicket he is defending while he is off his allotted
ground; -- sometimes with out.
T. Hughes.
To walk clumsily, as
if on stumps.
To stump up, to pay cash. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell. | ||||||||