stub

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   strike one's toe accidentally against an object

   I stubbed my toe in the dark and now it's broken.

2. 2
   verb

   clear of weeds by uprooting them

   Stub a field.

3. 3
   verb

   extinguish by crushing

   Stub out your cigarette now.

From Middle English stubbe (“tree stump”), from Old English stybb, stubb (“tree stump”), from Proto-West Germanic *stubb, from Proto-Germanic *stubbaz (compare Middle Dutch stubbe, Old Norse stubbr, Faroese stubbi (“stub”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tew-; compare steep (“sharp slope”). Doublet of stob. Sense extended in Middle English to similarly shaped objects. Verb sense “strike one’s toe” is recorded 1848; “extinguish a cigarette” 1927.

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