the remaining bottom part of a tree after it's been cut down, or to confuse someone completely
From Middle Dutch 'stomp,' originally meaning a short, thick piece of wood. The verb sense (to confuse) developed because something 'stumpy' or blocked your path like a tree stump blocks passage.
Tree stumps are incredibly tough—they're so hard to remove that in the 1800s, entire armies of 'stump pullers' were hired to clear land for farming, and it took days of work with horses and machinery!
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