up a stump
English
Prepositional phrase
- (informal) At a loss, puzzled, in a bind.
- 1984, Robert W. Creamer, Stengel: His Life and Times, Bison Books (1996), →ISBN, page 67:
- Manager Dahlen said that Callahan and Stengel were so evenly matched that he was "up a stump" trying to pick between them.
- 1996, Mendel Mokher Sefarim, Dan Miron, & Ken Frieden, Tales of Mendele the Book Peddler, Fishke the Lame and Benjamin the Third, Schocken Books (1996), →ISBN, page 243:
- Whereas your ordinary middle-ranking persons, they never had the least notion of what it was, so naturally they were up a stump every time they come across it, you see.
- 2009, Kent Freeland, A Street Called Darwin, iUniverse (2009), →ISBN, page 54:
- In fact, Darwin was unable to decide on a suitable present, telling his roommate that he was up a stump about what to get for his sister and new brother-in-law.
- 1984, Robert W. Creamer, Stengel: His Life and Times, Bison Books (1996), →ISBN, page 67:
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