stool
Americannoun
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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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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:
On certain days, there will be blood, hearing and taste tests to take, stool samples to analyze.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
Testing kits require tiny stool samples which doctors check for blood, helping to detect bowel cancer early.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
It’s Friday afternoon in North Hollywood and Ziggy Marley is perched on a stool inside his newly built Rebel Lion Studio, tucked in one of the neighborhood’s creative enclaves.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
In other cases, people don’t have reliable housing to get a stool test mailed to.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 4, 2026
At supper that evening, Pa brought in the milking stool for John to sit on.
From "Worth" by A. LaFaye
Images from inside the bar after the fire was put out showed blackened tables and stools covered in debris, with bottles still left out.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 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
Only three families have owned the unpretentious diner with its black bar stools, scuffed tile floors and enough nostalgia to fill Shasta Lake.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2026
We used to have to use bar stools from anywhere that we went.
From BBC ● Jan. 28, 2026
We ate matching meals, perched on the stools in their kitchen.
From "We Are Okay" by Nina LaCour
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 Kipling, Rudyard
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
The wheat had stooled well, and a couple of showers early in May had relieved the drought that threatens before the thunder-storms of June and July set in.
From The Bail Jumper by Stead, Robert J. C.
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 Gibson, Charles Dana
He gazed round the stooled and tabled eaters, tightening the wings of his nose.
From Ulysses by Joyce, James
“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
Recently successful rooting of twigs on young seedlings by airlayering has been reported from Spain, and from France comes the report that stooling of young seedlings is highly successful.
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
Man's most serious physiological fault is the toleration of constipation; or even of semi-constipation induced by the twenty-four-hour habit of stooling.
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 Jamison, Alcinous B. (Alcinous Burton)
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 Widtsoe, John Andreas
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 Jamison, Alcinous B. (Alcinous Burton)
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.
