stooge
Americannoun
-
stooges
plural
-
any underling, assistant, or accomplice.
-
an entertainer who feeds lines to the main comedian and usually serves as the butt of the jokes.
verb (used without object)
-
stooges,
present (3rd person singular)
-
stooged,
past participle, past
-
stooging
present participle
noun
-
an actor who feeds lines to a comedian or acts as his foil or butt
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slang someone who is taken advantage of by another
verb
-
slang to act as a stooge
-
slang (esp in the RAF) to fly or move about aimlessly
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
stoogesimple
-
stoogessimple
-
have stoogedperfect
-
has stoogedperfect
-
am stoogingprogressive
-
are stoogingprogressive
-
is stoogingprogressive
-
have been stoogingperfect progressive
-
has been stoogingperfect progressive
Past
-
stoogedsimple
-
had stoogedperfect
-
was stoogingprogressive
-
were stoogingprogressive
-
had been stoogingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of stooge
An Americanism dating back to 1910–15; origin uncertain
Explanation
A person who's fooled into doing all the hard or dirty work for someone else is a stooge. If you're the butt of someone's mean jokes, you're also a stooge. A slapstick comedian's sidekick — the one who gets a pie in his face or is hit in the head with a board — is a stooge. Now you know how the Three Stooges got their name! The word started out meaning "actor who assists a comedian," possibly derived from student, but it has evolved to be fairly derogatory. In crime, a stooge works for the mastermind: "She'll be arrested for selling the candy he stole, but she's just a stooge."
Vocabulary lists containing stooge
The Things They Carried
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Displacement
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Selection Vocabulary 3, Unit 2
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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:
"He was most funny as a talk-show stooge."
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2026
However, defence barrister Charles Sherrard KC alleged Mr Richards had not seen any headbutt and had instead made the claim because he was "Roy's mate" and "puppy", adding: "You have become Roy Keane's stooge."
From BBC ● May 31, 2024
So, what’s a stooge like me to do?
From Slate ● Mar. 11, 2024
Leonardo DiCaprio has won before, and voters may not consider his turn as a dimwitted stooge in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ his best work to date.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 17, 2023
Perhaps Maddie was more of a backseat driver than a stooge.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
Take, for instance, the three stooges of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026
An already tumultuous week, which has seen players resigning from the PGA Tour while being asked if they are "Saudi stooges" in uncomfortable news conferences, took a significant turn at 14:45 BST.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2022
But the music is anything but impersonal, and the album’s biggest hit, “Crossover,” is an indictment of sellouts and corporate stooges.
From New York Times ● Mar. 9, 2022
“The Dumb Waiter” lampoons the subservience to authoritarian power by focusing on the behavior of the stooges.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2021
The student body watched with glee as Leon’s stooges tried to scotch-tape the posters to the wall at the rear of the stage.
From "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier
Back in the U.S., he stooged for other entertainers, even held fans for Sally Rand.
From Time Magazine Archive
Anything else is just "stooging," which is flyers' slang for pooping around.
From Time Magazine Archive
Georgia drifted into a period of stooging for most of the top funny men: Hope, Durante, Frank Morgan, Milton Berle, Danny Kaye.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
