bleeding stump
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.36 in modern English
21
Scrabble Score
13
Letters
3
Syllables
12
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A deliberate disruptive or high-profile reduction in a public service, intended to demonstrate the impact of funding cuts and motivate opposition.
British usage
Example Sentences
- "Looking over my shoulder , I anticipate that Conservative Members of Parliament will drum that message home vehemently and try to spell out to parents that the "bleeding stump" syndrome does not exist if the local authority is efficient."
- "In the meantime, the financial crisis of the new hospital trusts at Guy's and Bradford Infirmary were used as the bleeding stump strategy to signal to the Government that the reforms were not likely to benefit the health service."
- "Second, cuts in education spending proved contentious, difficult to implement and were vulnerable to 'bleeding stump' opposition."
Etymology
Coined by Christopher Hood and Maurice Wright in 1981 in Big Government in Hard Times. The implication is that the public service is deliberately cutting off its own hand to make a dramatic point.
Usage
- British usage
Inflected Forms
bleeding stumps (plural)