stool

views updated Jun 08 2018

stool / stoōl/ • n. 1. a seat without a back or arms, typically resting on three or four legs or on a single pedestal. ∎  a support on which to stand in order to reach high objects. ∎ short for footstool.2. a piece of feces.3. a root or stump of a tree or plant from which shoots spring.4. a decoy bird in hunting.• v. [intr.] (of a plant) throw up shoots from the root. ∎  [tr.] cut back (a plant) to or near ground level in order to induce new growth.PHRASES: at stool Med. when defecating.

stool

views updated Jun 27 2018

stool
A. wooden seat for one person OE.;

B. base, support, stand XIV;

C. seat enclosing a chamber utensil XV; evacuation of the bowels XVI;

D. (figure of) a bird secured to a stool or perch, serving as a decoy XIX. OE. stōl = OS. stōl (Du. stoel), OHG. stuol (G. stuhl), ON. stóll, Goth. stōls throne :- Gmc. *stōlaz, f. *stō- *stā- STAND + -LE1, the basic sense being ‘stand’, ‘station’; cf. OSl. stolŪ throne, seat, Gr. stḗlē pillar.

stool

views updated May 23 2018

stool fall between two stools fail to be or take one of two satisfactory alternatives; with allusion to the proverb between two stools one falls to the ground.
stool of repentance traditionally in the Presbyterian Church, on which a person sat to do formal penance before the rest of the congregation.
stool pigeon a police informer, a person acting as a decoy, so named from the original use in wildfowling of a pigeon fixed to a stool as a decoy.

stool

views updated May 23 2018

stool
1. A tree stump that is capable of producing new shoots
.
2. The permanent base of a coppiced tree.

stool

views updated Jun 11 2018

stool
1. A tree stump that is capable of producing new shoots.

2. The permanent base of a coppiced tree.

stool

views updated May 17 2018

stool (stool) n. faeces discharged from the anus.