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Glite Dictionary
stamping ground

stamping ground

4.7
A place someone often visits or spends time in
  • noun
  • UK
translation icon : lugar habitual
  • Every summer, she returns to her favorite stamping ground at the beach.
  • my old stamping ground

Examples

  • It's his old stamping ground.

    Get Carter (1971)

  • This is his stamping ground.

    Virginia City (1940)

  • A little sleeping in, and it was time to visit the old stamping grounds.

    Blog text (30)

  • Grandpops, this is Lou; she's in biology and she's just come from a month on your old stamping ground, wasn't it?

    Fiction book (1994)

  • He often visits his old stamping ground to reminisce about his childhood.

  • The park became their regular stamping ground for weekend picnics.

Synonyms

hangout
vsstamping ground
  • Informal
45 3.6

A place people often go to spend time with friends

is a place someone visits regularly but not only for social meetings
haunt
vsstamping ground
27 4.3

A place a person or group visits often

is visited regularly and used for long stays rather than brief visits

How Familiar

stamping ground
  • UK
4.7
hangout
  • Informal
45 3.6

Surface Forms

stamping ground singular
stamping grounds plural

Morphology

stamp + ground

The constituents 'stamp' (to stomp) and 'ground' (place/earth) yield a plausible image of a place where one stomps, which can metaphorically extend to a habitual or familiar place — so there is a visible compositional link. However, the conventionalized sense 'a place someone visits regularly' is a figurative extension that is not fully predictable from the parts and may require prior exposure, so it is only partially transparent to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Stamping ground may come from the simple image of someone stamping the same patch of ground again and again to mark it as theirs. That's why it now means 'a place that someone visits regularly'.