call it stumps

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English

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Etymology

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Figurative use of the cricket expression stumps (the close of play when the stumps are pulled out of the ground by the umpires).

Verb

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call it stumps (third-person singular simple present calls it stumps, present participle calling it stumps, simple past and past participle called it stumps)

  1. To decide to end an activity; to call it a day.
    • 2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 130:
      Eventually I decided to call it stumps and the last thing he said to me as I retired to his spare room was, `So you're not going to Inskip are you?' I answered that no, he was right, I wouldn't go and he tottered off happy.