The Collaborative International Dictionary
Stump \Stump\, n. [OE. stumpe, stompe; akin to D. stomp, G. stumpf, Icel. stumpr, Dan. & Sw. stump, and perhaps also to E. stamp.]
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.
pl. The legs; as, to stir one's stumps. [Slang]
(Cricket) 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.
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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.]
on the stump campaigning for public office; running for election to office.
Wiktionary
n. (context cricket English) The stump on the off side of the batsman's wicket.
Usage examples of "off stump".
From the finger's hacked-off stump, threads of tendon and shreds of skin waved gently, while the slim fingernail pointed unerringly toward the north.
He threw down the empty weapon and ran for the nearest cover, the burned-off stump of a fern that had been three hundred feet tall.
He had scored fourteen runs off the present over, and now the last ball came down, pitched rather short and outside the off stump: he gave it an almighty blow, but he had misjudged the rise, and instead of skimming over the fielders' heads the ball rose in a most surprising way, like a mortar bomb or a rocket, vanishing almost entirely.
Coming down, I was sheltered by the broken-off stump of a lightning-struck tree.
It pitched well up outside the off stump, and Babbington played back.
He hunted around until he located a cut-off stump that would do service as a chair.
The ragged, hacked-off stump of its neck streamed blood that seemed to dribble off into nowhere.