Idiom
call it stumps
Meaning
To decide to end an activity; to call it a day.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“We have worked for ten hours, so let us call it stumps.”
“I am tired of studying, so I will call it stumps now.”
“You should call it stumps if your back hurts from gardening.”
“After trying to fix the broken engine all afternoon, the team decided to call it stumps.”
“The rain started to fall heavily during our hike, so we decided to call it stumps and head back to the car.”
“Since the guests are starting to leave and the music has stopped, the hosts will call it stumps for the night.”
“After three hours of arguing about the new budget without reaching a decision, the board members finally called it stumps.”
“Recognizing that their efforts were yielding no further progress, the exhausted researchers finally called it stumps for the evening.”
Examples
simple
“We have worked for ten hours, so let us call it stumps.”
“I am tired of studying, so I will call it stumps now.”
“You should call it stumps if your back hurts from gardening.”
contextual
“After trying to fix the broken engine all afternoon, the team decided to call it stumps.”
“The rain started to fall heavily during our hike, so we decided to call it stumps and head back to the car.”
“Since the guests are starting to leave and the music has stopped, the hosts will call it stumps for the night.”
“After three hours of arguing about the new budget without reaching a decision, the board members finally called it stumps.”
complex
“Recognizing that their efforts were yielding no further progress, the exhausted researchers finally called it stumps for the evening.”
Origin
A figurative extension of the cricket expression stumps, which signifies the conclusion of a day's play when the umpires remove the wickets from the ground. The phrase draws its logic from the physical extraction of the equipment to indicate that no further activity is permitted.
Key words
Related idioms
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