stool
Americannoun
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stools
plural
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a single seat on legs or a pedestal and without arms or a back.
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a short, low support on which to stand, step, kneel, or rest the feet while sitting.
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Horticulture. the stump, base, or root of a plant from which propagative organs are produced, as shoots for layering.
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the base of a plant that annually produces new stems or shoots.
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a cluster of shoots or stems springing up from such a base or from any root, or a single shoot or layer.
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a bird fastened to a pole or perch and used as a decoy.
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an artificial duck or other bird, usually made from wood, used as a decoy by hunters.
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a privy.
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the fecal matter evacuated at each movement of the bowels.
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the sill of a window.
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a bishop's seat considered as symbolic of his authority; see.
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the sacred chair of certain African chiefs, symbolic of their kingship.
verb (used without object)
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stools,
present (3rd person singular)
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stooled,
past participle, past
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stooling
present participle
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to put forth shoots from the base or root, as a plant; form a stool.
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Slang. to turn informer; serve as a stool pigeon.
idioms
noun
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a backless seat or footrest consisting of a small flat piece of wood, etc, resting on three or four legs, a pedestal, etc
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a rootstock or base of a plant, usually a woody plant, from which shoots, etc, are produced
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a cluster of shoots growing from such a base
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a decoy used in hunting
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waste matter evacuated from the bowels
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a lavatory seat
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(in W Africa, esp Ghana) a chief's throne
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to fail through vacillation between two alternatives
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to be in an unsatisfactory situation through not belonging to either of two categories or groups
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verb
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(of a plant) to send up shoots from the base of the stem, rootstock, etc
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to lure wildfowl with a decoy
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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stoolsimple
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stoolssimple
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have stooledperfect
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has stooledperfect
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am stoolingprogressive
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are stoolingprogressive
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is stoolingprogressive
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have been stoolingperfect progressive
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has been stoolingperfect progressive
Past
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stooledsimple
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had stooledperfect
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was stoolingprogressive
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were stoolingprogressive
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had been stoolingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of stool
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English stōl; cognate with German Stuhl, Old Norse stōll, Gothic stols “chair”; all are from unattested Germanic stō- (from Indo-European root of stand ) + -l- suffix (unattested); akin to Old Church Slavonic stolŭ “throne”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Architects Barry Simpson and Charles Hosford made a folding stool that could serve as a seat, stepstool or side table.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
For one of the study groups, the researchers also examined stool samples to see whether differences in brain aging were connected to changes in the gut.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 4, 2026
Under a black coat, the petite and poised Navarrette sits on a stool.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026
When we found blood in our cat Gumdrop’s stool earlier this year, my boyfriend, Ean, and I rushed him to the vet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026
John scrambled off his stool, knocking the crate down.
From "Worth" by A. LaFaye
She tried to toilet-train her son when he was three but he had problems with withholding stools.
From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026
We sit shiva, a formal seven days of grief in which mourners stay at home, wear torn clothing, cover mirrors, sit on low stools and silently feel their loss.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Constipation, diarrhea, unusually narrow stools, or a lasting change in normal bowel habits may indicate an underlying problem.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026
Looking inside the bar, an AFP reporter saw a row of stools and bottles of beer still on tables covered with white dust.
From Barron's ● Jul. 12, 2026
On two stools, with elbows propped on the countertop, were the Golden Hours, looking sad as sad could be, their bowls piled high with no fewer than eight unmelting scoops each.
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
Such corners have either to be filleted or "stooled" in stripping plate work, and neither method often is practicable.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 1157, March 5, 1898 by Various
Do you recall that evening when you stooled against the column where the decrees are posted?
From The Eleven Comedies, Volume 2 by Aristophanes
They stood back and took stock of the neglected growth, tapped an elbow of hedge-oak here, a mossed beech-stub there, swayed a stooled ash back and forth, and looked at each other.
From A Diversity of Creatures by Rudyard Kipling
He gazed round the stooled and tabled eaters, tightening the wings of his nose.
From Ulysses by James Joyce
Now," said Molly breathlessly, as the last madly protesting bird had been stooled, "let's get into the blind as soon as we can, Mr. Marche.
From Blue-Bird Weather by Charles Dana Gibson
“Even if they’re not stooling out and getting dehydrated and having trouble with fluids, I worry if they’re getting enough nutrition that they’re going to grow like they should,” he said.
From New York Times ● May 17, 2022
In the case of wheat and other grains, thin seeding also gives a plant a better chance for stooling, which is Nature's method of adapting the plant to the prevailing moisture and fertility conditions.
From Dry-Farming : a System of Agriculture for Countries under a Low Rainfall by John Andreas Widtsoe
When it begins to thicken up by stooling out, then, and not till then, will you be warranted in setting the mower so that it will cut closely.
From Amateur Gardencraft A Book for the Home-Maker and Garden Lover by Eben E. (Eben Eugene) Rexford
This may have been partly the result of stooling but we have little doubt that judgment was exercised in planting, sowing less seed on the lighter soils where less moisture was available.
From Farmers of Forty Centuries; Or, Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea, and Japan by F. H. (Franklin Hiram) King
In the stooling method the young plants are cut off a short distance above the ground level.
From Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 44th Annual Meeting Rochester, N.Y. August 31 and September 1, 1953 by Northern Nut Growers Association
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