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:
Participants receive a screening kit at home and are asked to provide a stool sample.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026
A portion of the raw stool is transferred into a centrifuge, where it’s spun to concentrate the parasites and make them easier for scientists to spot under a microscope.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
A person has to feel sick enough to seek medical care and their healthcare provider must test for a food-borne illness by obtaining a a stool sample.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
You can’t grow it in the same way in the lab, and there’s just not enough of it in the stool to make it easy to study.
From Slate ● Jul. 17, 2026
As he set the stool down on the platform, he looked at me and then at Rowdy.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
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
The nearly 200 people gathered on this January evening just past 9 p.m. stand on stools and chairs in the back and loll on the sidewalk on their elbows in the front.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 9, 2026
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 ● Feb. 27, 2026
Ernie and Genie took their places on the stools.
From "As Brave As You" by Jason Reynolds
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
Do you recall that evening when you stooled against the column where the decrees are posted?
From The Eleven Comedies, Volume 2 by Aristophanes
He gazed round the stooled and tabled eaters, tightening the wings of his nose.
From Ulysses by James Joyce
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
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
“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
Man needs to form the habit of stooling as frequently as birds, fowls, and quadrupeds—at least as many times in twenty-four hours as he partakes of food.
From Intestinal Ills Chronic Constipation, Indigestion, Autogenetic Poisons, Diarrhea, Piles, Etc. Also Auto-Infection, Auto-Intoxication, Anemia, Emaciation, Etc. Due to Proctitis and Colitis by Alcinous B. (Alcinous Burton) Jamison
The partially constricted and irritable sphincter muscles become excited during the act of stooling and react on the anal grip or contraction, making it more intense.
From Intestinal Ills Chronic Constipation, Indigestion, Autogenetic Poisons, Diarrhea, Piles, Etc. Also Auto-Infection, Auto-Intoxication, Anemia, Emaciation, Etc. Due to Proctitis and Colitis by Alcinous B. (Alcinous Burton) Jamison
When plants are crowded, stooling cannot occur to any marked degree, and the crop is rendered helpless in attempts to adapt itself to surrounding conditions.
From Dry-Farming : a System of Agriculture for Countries under a Low Rainfall by John Andreas Widtsoe
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
Definitions 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.
