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toadstool

[tohd-stool]
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noun
  1. any of various mushrooms having a stalk with an umbrellalike cap, especially the agarics.
  2. a poisonous mushroom, as distinguished from an edible one.
  3. any of various other fleshy fungi, as the puffballs and coral fungi.
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Origin of toadstool

First recorded in 1350–1400, toadstool is from the Middle English word tadstol. See toad, stool
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for toadstool

Historical Examples

  • For you know that wherever a Brownie sits, a toadstool must spring up for him to sit on.

    Woodland Tales

    Ernest Seton-Thompson

  • I thought maybe it had growed up from the soil like a toadstool.

  • The one that made a bad spring was obliged to take his stand upon a toadstool.

    The Quest

    Frederik van Eeden

  • The cricket who missed his leap had to stand on a toadstool.

    Little Johannes

    Frederik van Eeden

  • If he dies, it is a toadstool; if he lives, it is a mushroom!

British Dictionary definitions for toadstool

toadstool

noun
  1. (not in technical use) any basidiomycetous fungus with a capped spore-producing body that is not edibleCompare mushroom (def. 1a)
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Word Origin

C14: from toad + stool
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

Word Origin and History for toadstool

n.

late 14c., apparently just what it looks like: a fanciful name from Middle English tadde "toad" (see toad) + stole "stool" (see stool). Toads themselves were regarded as highly poisonous, and this word is popularly restricted to inedible or poisonous fungi, as opposed to mushrooms (e.g. toad-cheese, a poisonous fungi).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper