Stumble. See Truckle-bed.
Stumer, subs. (common).—Generic for sham: spec. a worthless cheque.
1897. Marshall, Pomes, 8. 'The Merry Stumer' . . . stumer tricks . . . stumer stake . . . stumer note . . . stumer cheque.
1902. Sp. Times, 1 Feb., 3. 1. He had borrowed a few hundred franks from her, and had given her as security a stumer in the shape of an unfinished history of Corsica.
Stump, subs. (old).—1. In pl. =
legs. As verb = to walk: spec.
stiffly, heavily, or noisily; whence
to stir one's stumps = to bestir
oneself, to increase one's speed.
c. 1609. Webster, Appius and Virginia, ii. 3. I can bestir my stumps as soon as another, if fit occasion be offered.
1617. Braithwaite, Law of Drinking, 70. His long practice of the pot has exempt him from being prest a souldier: hee has quite lost the use of his stumps, how should he then possibly keepe his march?
1633. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, iii. 1. How should we bustle forward? Give some counsel How to bestir our stumps in these cross ways.
1640. Two Lancashire Lovers, 262. This makes him stirre his stumps, and to answer her letter with such speedy cheerefulnesse, as Mellida can expect no lesse then all successe to her desires.
1663. Butler, Hudibras, 1. ii. 926. Getting up on stump and huckle, He with the foe began to buckle.
1675. Cotton, Burl. on Burl. (1770), 247. Those fat stumps thou walkst upon.
1705. Ward, Hud. Rediv., 1. ii. 17. I had not long, on City Stones, Bestirr'd my Stumps and Marrowbones.
1774. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 5. Then cease your canting sobs and groans, And stir your stumps to save your bones.
1798. Morton, Secrets Worth Knowing, i. 1. A parcel of lazy chaps, I dare say—but I'll make them stir their stumps.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 344. The reader may guess whether I did not stir my stumps.
1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, xii. He rose from his seat, stumped across the room.
1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S. xxvi. I guess our great nation may be stumped to produce more eleganter liquor than this here. It's the dandy, that's a fact.
1841. Lytton, Night and Morning, ii. 2. Stump it, my cove; that's a Bow-street runner.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown's Schooldays, i. 4. The guard picks him off the coach top, and sets him on his legs, and they stump off into the bar.
1860. Funny Fellow, 7 May, 1. Hallo, my kiddy, stir your stumps. . . . Make haste, young chip, my boots to shine.
1891. Marriott-Watson, Web of Spider, xiii. I'll go bail we wouldn't ha' got another half-mile on our stumps.
2. (old).—Money: generic; also stumpy (Grose). Hence as verb (or TO STUMP UP) = to pay; STUMPED (or PUT TO ONE'S stumps) = poor, hard-up, put to shift (Grose); to pay on the stump = to disburse readily and promptly.
1821. Egan, Real Life, 1. 142. She shall stump up the rubbish before I leave her.
1836. Dickens, Sk. by Boz, ' Walkins Tottle.' Why don't you ask your old governor to stump up? Ibid., 'First Cabdriver.' Reduced to despair, they ransomed themselves by the payment of sixpence a head, or, to adopt his own figurative expression . . . forked out the STUMPY.
1837. Barham, Ingolds. Leg. 'Old Woman in Grey.' (Save its synonyms, 'Spanish,' 'Blunt,' 'Stumpy,' and 'Rhino'), 11. 47. [He] . . . was stumped and hard up. Ibid., 48. My trusty old crony, do stump up three thousand once more as a loan.
183[?]. Hood, Tale of a Trumpet. But common prudence would bid you stump it, For not to enlarge, It's the regular charge At a Fancy Fair for a penny trumpet.
