"up a stump" meaning in English

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "up a stump",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "up a stump",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1892, Mark Twain, Meisterschaft: In Three Acts, act II, scene I, page 181",
          "text": "GEO. Why it's got to. Suppose we wandered out of it and took a chance at the language on our own responsibility, where the nation would we be? Up a stump, that's where. Our only safety is in sticking like wax to the text.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1984, Robert W. Creamer, Stengel: His Life and Times, Bison Books, published 1996, page 67",
          "text": "Manager Dahlen said that Callahan and Stengel were so evenly matched that he was \"up a stump\" trying to pick between them.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1996, Mendel Mokher Sefarim, Dan Miron, & Ken Frieden, Tales of Mendele the Book Peddler, Fishke the Lame and Benjamin the Third, Schocken Books, page 243",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Kent Freeland, A Street Called Darwin, iUniverse, page 54",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "At a loss, puzzled, in a bind."
      ],
      "id": "en-up_a_stump-en-prep_phrase-0FjwfeF3",
      "links": [
        [
          "At a loss",
          "at a loss"
        ],
        [
          "puzzled",
          "puzzled"
        ],
        [
          "in a bind",
          "in a bind"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) At a loss, puzzled, in a bind."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "up a stump"
}

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "up a stump",
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    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "up a stump",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English informal terms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English prepositional phrases",
        "English terms with quotations"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1892, Mark Twain, Meisterschaft: In Three Acts, act II, scene I, page 181",
          "text": "GEO. Why it's got to. Suppose we wandered out of it and took a chance at the language on our own responsibility, where the nation would we be? Up a stump, that's where. Our only safety is in sticking like wax to the text.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1984, Robert W. Creamer, Stengel: His Life and Times, Bison Books, published 1996, page 67",
          "text": "Manager Dahlen said that Callahan and Stengel were so evenly matched that he was \"up a stump\" trying to pick between them.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1996, Mendel Mokher Sefarim, Dan Miron, & Ken Frieden, Tales of Mendele the Book Peddler, Fishke the Lame and Benjamin the Third, Schocken Books, page 243",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Kent Freeland, A Street Called Darwin, iUniverse, page 54",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "At a loss, puzzled, in a bind."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "At a loss",
          "at a loss"
        ],
        [
          "puzzled",
          "puzzled"
        ],
        [
          "in a bind",
          "in a bind"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) At a loss, puzzled, in a bind."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "up a stump"
}