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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

call it stumps en · VERB

Etymology

A figurative use of the cricket expression stumps (“the close of play when the stumps are pulled out of the ground by the umpires”).

Meanings

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To decide to end an activity; to call it a day.
    • Eventually I decided to call it stumps and the last thing he said to me as I retired to his spare room was, `So you're not going to Inskip are you?' I answered that no, he was right, I wouldn't go and he tottered off happy. 2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 130:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
calling it stumps Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
calls it stumps Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
called it stumps Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
called it stumps Tense=Past lexicographic