Word.ws English Dictionary

pull up stumps

pull up stumps verb: to cease doing something, at least for the day.

Verb (1)

pull up stumps (third-person singular simple present pulls up stumps, present participle pulling up stumps, simple past and past participle pulled up stumps)

  1. (figuratively) To cease doing something, at least for the day.

Verb (2)

pull up stumps (third-person singular simple present pulls up stumps, present participle pulling up stumps, simple past and past participle pulled up stumps)

  1. (US, figuratively) To relocate, emigrate, move one's home to some other place.

Synonyms of pull up stumps

Forms of pull up stumps

third-person singular presentpulls up stumps
present participlepulling up stumps
past participlepulled up stumps
pastpulled up stumps

Origin of pull up stumps

From the game of cricket, where a day's play is terminated by the umpire pulling up the stumps.

To cut off one's roots; or to pull up your house, (figurative) stumps & all.

Questions about pull up stumps

What does pull up stumps mean?
Pull up stumps means to cease doing something, at least for the day.
What part of speech is pull up stumps?
Pull up stumps is a verb.
What is the past tense of pull up stumps?
The past tense of pull up stumps is pulled up stumps.

Words near pull up stumps in the dictionary

  1. pull up a pew
  2. pull up on
  3. pull up one's socks
  4. pull up short
  5. pull up stakes
  6. pull up stumps
  7. pull up the drawbridge
  8. pull up the ladder
  9. pull up your pants
  10. pull'd
  11. pull-apart

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pull up stumps (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-pull up stumps.ogg.

Cite this entry: “pull up stumps.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pull_up_stumps. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.