draw stumps
To cease doing something, at least for the day.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“We have worked long enough, so let's draw stumps for today.”
“I am tired of painting this wall, so I draw stumps for the evening.”
“You should draw stumps now before you get too frustrated with your homework.”
“After twelve hours of intense negotiations, the team finally decided to draw stumps and resume the discussion tomorrow morning.”
“The sun is going down and we can no longer see the garden tools, so it is probably time to draw stumps.”
“Even though the project is not finished, the manager told the tired crew to draw stumps and go home to their families.”
“Recognizing that their collective fatigue had rendered further progress impossible, the researchers chose to draw stumps and reconvene once they were properly rested.”
The idiom derives from the game of cricket, where a day’s play is terminated by the umpire drawing the stumps out of the ground. The physical removal of the equipment signals the official conclusion of the match, or its suspension for the evening, as the game cannot proceed once the wicket has been dismantled.
- 01
call it stumps
To decide to end an activity; to call it a day.
- 02
draw a blank
To be unable to recall a required piece of information.
- 03
draw a line
To delimit a boundary or border.
- 04
draw a long bow
To lie; to exaggerate.
- 05
draw a straight furrow
To live correctly or ethically, without deviating from the right line of duty.
- 06
draw even
To attain the same level as a competitor.
- 07
draw fire
To create a distraction that allows one's friends, co-workers, or other associates to gain an advantage over the distracted party.
- 08
draw in
To attract.
Last updated August 10, 2026