stubble
/ˈstʌb.əl/
stubble noun: short, coarse hair, especially on a man’s face.
Noun
stubble (usually uncountable, plural stubbles)
- Short, coarse hair, especially on a man’s face.
- Synonyms:
- five o'clock shadow
- The short stalks left in a field after crops have been harvested.
- Lord (ſayth he) Put them as a wheele and a ſtoble before the face of the wynde. For as the ſtoble, whyle the wynde bloweth wauereth and flyethe aboue in the ayre, nowe hygh nowe lowe, but anone as the wynde paſſeth it falleth adowne to the erthe and lyeth there ſtylle.1536 October 26 (date written; Gregorian calendar), “[The Eyght Commandement] Cap[ut] VII”, in Diues and Pauper, London: […] Tho[mas] Bertheleti […], published 1536, →OCLC, folio 313, recto
Verb
stubble (third-person singular simple present stubbles, present participle stubbling, simple past and past participle stubbled)
- To produce a crop in a field of stubble that remains after a preceding crop is removed, either by sowing a second crop or by allowing shoots to sprout from the roots of the stubble.
- Here a system ( if it may be called a system ) of stubbling prevails — wheat succeeding wheat for a series of years, and without any material diminution of the yield.1851, United States. Department of Agriculture, Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for the Year: 1850, page 371
- In 1919 the stubbled crop was heavier than either that fallowed or plowed.1922, John Selden Cole, Alanson Lola Hallsted, Methods of Winter-wheat Production at the Fort Hays Branch Station, page 22
stubble meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Malayalam
stubble in Hindi
- short stalks left in a field after harvest
- खूंटी khoontee
stubble in Tamil
- அரிதாள் கட்டை, மோட்டு, செடுத்தூர், தூற்றுக்கட்டை, பயிர்த்தூர், அரும்புத்தாடி
stubble in Bengali
- খড়কুটো, খোঁচা খোঁচা দাড়ি
stubble in Malayalam
- ധാന്യം കൊയ്തശേഷം അവശേഷിക്കുന്ന കുറ്റി, കുറ്റി, കുറ്റിത്താടി
More languagesFewer languages
- stubble in Kannada
- ಕೋಲಿ, ಬಸೆ, ಕೂಳೆ, ಕೂಣಿ
- stubble in Pashto
- دروزه druza
- stubble in Arabic
- شُعَيْرَات اللِّحْيَة šuʕayrāt al-liḥya, قَشّ qašš
- stubble in Persian
- تهریش tah-riš
- stubble in Thai
- โคนหนวดเคราที่ไม่ได้โกน kohn nùat krao têe mâi dâai gohn
- stubble in Vietnamese
- râu thưa, rạ, tót, toóc
Examples of stubble in a sentence
- He hadn’t shaved in a while, and he could feel his stubble snag on the nylon.
- It does not cry for proof, what even one burning spark can accomplish in acrefuls of stubble.
- Standing under a gray washed sky, the blonde stubble fields around him, Mr.
Synonyms of stubble
Forms of stubble
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | stubbles |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | stubbles |
| present participle | stubbling |
| past participle | stubbled |
| past | stubbled |
Origin of stubble
From Middle English stuble, from Anglo-Norman stuble, estuble, from Old French estoble, esteule (whence Modern French éteule), from Latin stipula (“stalk, straw”). Cognate with Dutch stoppel, Central German Stoppel, Upper German Stupfel. Doublet of stipule.
Words formed from stubble
Phrases with stubble
Words that rhyme with stubble
Questions about stubble
- What does stubble mean?
- Stubble means short, coarse hair, especially on a man’s face.
- What is stubble in Hindi?
- Stubble in Hindi is खूंटी (khoontee). See Stubble meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is stubble?
- Stubble can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce stubble?
- Stubble is pronounced /ˈstʌb.əl/.
- What is the plural of stubble?
- The plural of stubble is stubbles.
Words near stubble in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: stubble (page history and authors); stubble (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stubble (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stubble (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stubble (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); دروزه (Pashto) (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-us-stubble.ogg.
Cite this entry: “stubble.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stubble. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.