Word.ws English Dictionary

take the stump

take the stump verb: to make a series of political speeches, especially to promote a particular cause.

Verb

take the stump (third-person singular simple present takes the stump, present participle taking the stump, simple past took the stump, past participle taken the stump)

  1. (US) To make a series of political speeches, especially to promote a particular cause.
    • Still calling himself a Whig, Lincoln took the stump in behalf of anti-Nebraska candidates for the legislature, hoping that victory would forge a legislative majority to elect him to the U. S. Senate.1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry for Freedom, Oxford, published 2003, page 127

Forms of take the stump

third-person singular presenttakes the stump
present participletaking the stump
pasttook the stump
past participletaken the stump

Questions about take the stump

What does take the stump mean?
Take the stump means to make a series of political speeches, especially to promote a particular cause.
What part of speech is take the stump?
Take the stump is a verb.
What is the past tense of take the stump?
The past tense of take the stump is took the stump.

Words near take the stump in the dictionary

  1. take the shilling
  2. take the shine out of
  3. take the stage
  4. take the stand
  5. take the studs
  6. take the stump
  7. take the sun
  8. take the time
  9. take the trouble
  10. take the veil
  11. take the waters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take the stump (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.

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