stool

American  

[stool] / stul /

noun

1. a single seat on legs or a pedestal and without arms or a back.

2. a short, low support on which to stand, step, kneel, or rest the feet while sitting.

3. Horticulture. the stump, base, or root of a plant from which propagative organs are produced, as shoots for layering.

4. the base of a plant that annually produces new stems or shoots.

5. a cluster of shoots or stems springing up from such a base or from any root, or a single shoot or layer.

6. a bird fastened to a pole or perch and used as a decoy.

7. an artificial duck or other bird, usually made from wood, used as a decoy by hunters.

8. a privy.

9. the fecal matter evacuated at each movement of the bowels.

10. the sill of a window.

11. a bishop's seat considered as symbolic of his authority; see.

12. the sacred chair of certain African chiefs, symbolic of their kingship.

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verb (used without object)

1. to put forth shoots from the base or root, as a plant; form a stool.

2. Slang. to turn informer; serve as a stool pigeon.

idioms

1. fall between two stools, to fail, through hesitation or indecision, to select either of two alternatives.

stool British  

/ stuːl /

noun

1. a backless seat or footrest consisting of a small flat piece of wood, etc, resting on three or four legs, a pedestal, etc

2. a rootstock or base of a plant, usually a woody plant, from which shoots, etc, are produced

3. a cluster of shoots growing from such a base

4. a decoy used in hunting

5. waste matter evacuated from the bowels

6. a lavatory seat

7. (in W Africa, esp Ghana) a chief's throne

8. 1. to fail through vacillation between two alternatives

   2. to be in an unsatisfactory situation through not belonging to either of two categories or groups

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verb

1. (of a plant) to send up shoots from the base of the stem, rootstock, etc

2. to lure wildfowl with a decoy

stool More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing stool

• fall between the cracks (two stools)

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Other Word Forms

• stoollike adjective

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

In Brooklyn’s waterfront Red Hook neighborhood, Billy Durney, of Red Hook Tavern, always holds a four-top and a pair of bar stools for locals who can call ahead to claim a spot.

From The Wall Street Journal

However, the laboratory teams analyzing blood and stool samples were unaware of which group the samples came from.

From Science Daily

Squint was sitting on his stool at the cliffside above the Cold, Cold Ocean, facing the empty square on his easel, and there was an iceberg behind it, far in the distance.

From Literature

I looked closer and could see that the little stools were the same distance apart—about eight inches.

From Literature

“Sometimes I communicate from pulpits, sometimes from bar stools, sometimes from public parks,” he says.

From Salon