to call it stumps
- idiom
- UK
:
dar por terminado
- Heavy rain forced the match officials to call it stumps earlier than planned.
Examples
-
After working late into the night, the team decided to call it stumps and continue in the morning.
-
Let's call it stumps for now and pick this up next week.
-
Let's call it stumps for today!
-
After three hours, we finally called it stumps.
-
After working late into the night, the team decided to call it stumps and continue in the morning.
-
Heavy rain forced the match officials to call it stumps earlier than planned.
-
Let's call it stumps for now and pick this up next week.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To stop something or make it finish
226
3.0
Finish an activity or task
190
2.0
To complete an activity or task
42
3.1
To stop working for the rest of the day
34
3.9
To stop doing something because you cannot continue or feel you have done enough
31
2.5
To complete the last part of a task
17
3.7
Bring an activity or meeting to an end
5
4.1
To show that something is finished
Finish something completely so no more work is needed
Antonyms
How Final
- Informal
34
3.9
- UK
- Informal
42
3.1
346
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
call + it + stumps
The noun 'stumps' here refers to a cricket term for the wicket and the end of play, a cultural/sport-specific sense that is not inferable from the literal meanings of 'call' + 'it' + 'stumps'. Because the connection depends on background knowledge of the sport and idiomatic usage rather than transparent composition, a B1 learner who only knows the constituents would not reliably derive the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Call it stumps may come from old cricket games. When the game ended for the day, officials would literally take down the wooden stumps, so to 'call it stumps' came to mean 'to stop' or 'to finish'.