Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

close-stool

American  
[klohz-stool, klohs-] / ˈkloʊzˌstul, ˈkloʊs- /

noun

  1. a stool having a seat with a hole, beneath which a chamber pot is placed.


close-stool British  
/ ˈkləʊsˌstuːl /

noun

  1. a wooden stool containing a covered chamber pot

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of close-stool

late Middle English word dating back to 1375–1425

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:

For that reason they told us she never visited a close-stool but by proxy.

From Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 5 by Peter Anthony Motteux

If you allow the occasional use of a close-stool, let it be locked up in the garret that they may not abuse it.

From The Academy Keeper Or Variety of useful Directions Concerning the Management of an Academy, The Terms, Diet, Lodging, Recreation, Discipline, and Instruction of Young Gentlemen. With the Proper Methods of addressing Parents and Guardians of all Ranks and Conditions by Anonymous

From this up rose Trimalchio, and went to the close-stool; we also being at liberty, without a tyrant over us fell to some table-talk.

From The Satyricon of Petronius Arbiter by William Burnaby

You will be scraped out of the painted cloth for this; your lion, that holds his poll-axe sitting on a close-stool, will be given to Ajax: he will be the ninth Worthy.

From Love's Labour's Lost by William Shakespeare

One day the king, being on his close-stool, showed Villon the arms of France, and said to him, Dost thou see what respect I have for thy French kings?

From Gargantua and Pantagruel, Illustrated, Book 4 by Peter Anthony Motteux

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Dictionary.com's Learning Companion

Go beyond just looking up words.
Remember them forever with VocabTrainer.

Start training