call it stumps

English

Etymology

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

Phrase

call 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.
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