I. ˈstül noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English stol, stool, seat, chair, stool, from Old English stōl; akin to Old High German stuol chair, seat, Old Norse stōll chair, seat, Gothic stols chair, throne, Old Slavic stolŭ seat, throne, Old English standan to stand — more at stand
1.
a. : a device for sitting usually consisting of a single wooden or upholstered seat without back or arms supported by three or four props or legs or by a central pedestal on which it may revolve
b. : a low bench or portable support used for stepping, kneeling, or resting the feet : footstool
c. : a base, standard, or small raised platform for supporting something : stand
2. : a seat used as a symbol of office, authority, or precedence: as
a. : a bishop's seat ; also : a bishop's see
b. : the seat of a western African chief or head of a lineage that is symbolic of his authority and of the line of continuity between his ancestors and their descendants ; also : chieftaincy , kingship
3.
a. : a seat used in evacuating the bowels or in urinating : commode , water closet
b. : the act of defecation
violent straining at stool — H.C.Hopps
c. : a discharge of fecal matter
4.
a. : a tree stump or group of stumps with a common rootstock especially when associated with suckers or watersprouts
b. : a plant crown from which parts (as shoots, stalks, or layers) grow out or are produced
strong stools can be layered year after year
c. : a shoot or growth from a stool : tiller
d. : a stand of plants with developing stems or shoots
a good stool of timber
5.
a. : the flat piece corresponding to the sill of a door against which a window shuts
b. : the narrow shelf fitted on the inside against the actual sill
6.
a. : a small channel on the side of a ship for the deadeyes of the backstays
b. : a foundation of plates or angles for any auxiliary machinery, piping, or shafting of a ship
7.
a. : a real or artificial bird used as a decoy
b. : a group of such decoys
setting out the stool upwind from the blind
8. : cultch 1a
9. : stool pigeon
among customs informers have been professional stools — Horace Sutton
•
- fall between two stools
II. verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
intransitive verb
1. archaic : to evacuate the bowels : defecate
2. : to form a stool : throw out shoots after the manner of a stool : tiller
3. of wildfowl : to respond to the lure of a stool
big flights stooling into the decoys — Cameron Hawley
4. slang : to act as a stool pigeon
once you're out of town you're fairly safe unless somebody stools on you — C.R.Cooper
stooled on a bank job … and got me four years — Raymond Chandler
transitive verb
: to lure (wildfowl) by means of decoys