stock 
Stock (stuk), H. [Also dial, stoitk; prob. < MLG. 
xtfikf, LG. xtitke, a heap or bundle, as of flax or 
turf. = G. stauclic, a bundle, as of flax ; of. MD. 
xtyek; a chest, hamper.] A shock of corn, con- 
sisting, when of full size, of twelve sheaves. 
[Prov. Eng. and Scotch.] 
But stooks are cowpet wi' the blast. 
Burns, Third Epistle to J. Lapraik. 
Stool:, twelve sheaves of corn stuck upright, their upper 
ends inclining towards each other like a high pitched 
roof. Myrcs Instructinnsfor Parish Priests (E. E. T. S.), 
[Notes, p. 79. 
stook (stuk), v. [< stool; .] I. trans. To set 
up, as sheaves of grain, in stocks or shocks. 
[Prov. Eng. and Scotch.] 
Still shearing, and clearing, 
The tither stocked raw |row]. 
Bum*, To the Ouidwife of Wauchope House. 
II. intrans. To set up grain in stocks.- 
Those that binde and stooke nre likewise to have 8d. a 
day, for bindinge and xtookinge of winter corne is a man's 
labor. Best's Farming Book (1641), p. 43. (E. Peacock.) 
Stooker (stuk'er), H. [< stook + -er 1 .] One 
who sets up sheaves in stooks or shocks in the 
harvest-field. J. Wilson. 
Stool (stol), re. [< ME. stool, stole, stol, < AS. 
stol = OS. stol = OFries. stol = D. stoel = MLG. 
stol, LG. sM = OHG. stuol, stual, stol, MHG. 
stuol, G. xtuM = Icel. stall = Sw. Dan. stol = 
Goth, stols, a seat, chair; cf. OBulg. stolii = 
Buss, stolii = Lith. stalas, a table, = Gr. cTifljri, 
an upright slab (see stele 9 ) ; from the root of 
stall, stcll, ult. from the root of stand : gee stall 1 , 
stell, stand."] 1. A seat or chair; now, in par- 
ticular, a seat, whether high or low, consisting 
of a piece of wood mounted usually on three or 
four legs, and without a back, intended for one 
person; also, any support of like construction 
used as a rest for the feet, or for the knees when 
kneeling. 
I may noujte stonde ne stoupe ne with-oute a stole knele. 
Piers Plowman (B), v. 394. 
By sitting on the stage, you may . . . have a good stool 
for sixpence. Dekker, Gull's Hornbook, p. 141. 
Oh ! who would cast and balance at a desk, 
Perch'd like a crow upon a three-legg'd stool? 
Tennyson, Audley Court. 
2f. The seat of a bishop ; a see. 
This bispryche [Salisbury] wes hwylen two bispriche ; 
theo other stol wes at Remmesbury, . . . the other at 
Schireburne. Old Eng. Misc. (ed. Morris), p. 145. 
3. Same as ducking-stool. 
I'll speed me to the pond, where the high stool 
On the long plank Imngs o'er the muddy pool, 
That stool, the dread of every scolding quean, 
Yet sure, a lover should not die so mean. 
Gay, Shepherd's Week, Wednesday, I. 107. 
4. The seat used in easing the bowels ; hence, 
a fecal evacuation ; a discharge from the bow- 
els. 5t. A frame for tapestry-work. 
This woful lady lerned had in youthe 
So that she werken and enbrouden couthe, 
And weven in hir stole the radevore 
As hit of women hath be woned yore. 
Chaucer, Good Women, 1. 2352. 
6. The root or stump of a timber-tree, or of a 
bush, cane, grass, etc., which throws up shoots ; 
also, the cluster of shoots thus produced. 
What is become of the remains of these ancient vine- 
yards, as vines shoot strongly from the stoul, and are not 
easily eradicated ? Archseologia, III. 91. (Dames.) 
The male prisoners, who were besom-makers, had been 
seen cutting sticks in Sweethope Dene ... a few days be- 
fore, and these sticks, having been compared with some 
stools in that secluded wood from which cuttings had been 
made, were found to correspond. 
North-Country Lore and Legend, II. 254. 
7. The mother plant from which young plants 
are propagated by the process of layering. 
Lindley. 8. Naut. : (a) A small channel in the 
side of a vessel for the deadeyes of the back- 
stays. (6f) An ornamental block placed over 
the stem to support a poop-lantern. 9. A mov- 
able pole or perch to which a pigeon is fastened 
as a lure or decoy for wild birds. See the 
extract under stool-pigeon, 1. Hence 10. A 
stool-pigeon; also, a decoy-duck. 
The decoys, or stools, as they are called, are always set to 
windward of the blind. . . . The stools should be set in a 
crescent-shaped circle [about fifty of them] with the heads 
of the decoys pointing to the wind. Shore Birds, p. 44. 
11. Material spread on the bottom for oygter- 
spat to cling to ; set, either natural or artificial. 
See cultch, Back-stool, a kind of low easy-chair. 
Folding stool. See /oWk Office stool, a high stool 
made for use by persons writing at a high desk, such as are 
used by bookkeepers and clerks. Stool of a window, 
or window-stool, in arch., the flat piece on which the 
sash shuts down, corresponding to the sill of a door. 
Stool of repentance, in Scotland, an elevated seat in a 
church on which persons were formerly made to sit to 
receive public rebuke as a punishment for fornication or 
adultery. Compare cutty-stool. 
5965 
What ! d'ye think the lads wi' the kilts will care for yer 
synods, and yer presbyteries, and yer Imttock-mail, and 
yer stool o' repentance! Scott, Waverlcy, xxx. 
To fall between two stools, to lose, or be disappointed 
in, both of two things between which one is hesitating. 
No one would have thought that . . . Lily was aware 
. . . that she was like to /all to the ground between tico 
stools having two lovers, neither of whom could serve 
her turn. TroUope, Ust Chronicle of Barset, xxxv. 
(See also camp-start, footstool, night-stool, piano-stool.) 
stool (stol), r. [< xtwl, .] I. intrnim. 1. To 
throw up shoots from the root, as a grass or a 
grain-plant; form a stool. See stool, n., 6. 
I worked very hard in the copse of young ash with my 
bill-hook and a shearing knife, cutting out the saplings 
where they stooled too close together 
It. D. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, xxxviii. 
2. To decoy duck or other fowl by meann of 
stools. [U. S.] 
For wet stooling, the wooden ones [decoys] are prefer- 
able, as the tin ones soon rust and become worthless. 
Shore Birds, p. 45. 
3. To be decoyed ; respond to a decoy. [U.S.] 
They [widgeons] stool well to any shoal-water duck de- 
coys, and answer their call. Sportsman's Gazetteer, p. 200. 
4. To evacuate the bowels. 
II. trans. To plow ; cultivate. [Prov. Eng.] 
To stool turfs, to set turfs two and two, one against 
the other, to be dried by the wind. Halliuell. [Prov. 
Eng.] 
Stool-ball (stol'bal), . An outdoor game of 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, gen- 
erally played by women alone, but sometimes 
in company with men. See second quota- 
tion. 
Daugh. Will you go with me 7 
Wooer. What shall we do there, wench ? 
Daugh. Why, play at stool-ball. 
Fletcher (and another), Two Noble Kinsmen, v. 2. 
Stool-Ball. Thisgame, so often mentioned in old writers, 
is still played in almost every village in Sussex, and is 
for ladies and girls exactly what cricket is to men. Two 
pieces of board 18 inches by 12 are fixed to two sticks 
from 3 to 4 feet high, according to the age of the players. 
These sticks are stuck in the ground sloping a little back* 
wards, and from 10 to 15 yards apart. The players take 
sides, generally eight to ten each. . . . The bowler pitches 
the ball at the board, which in fact is the wicket If he 
hits it the player is out. The same is the case if the ball 
is caught ; and the running out, stumping, &c., are ex- 
actly like cricket. N. and Q., 3d ser., XI. 457. 
Stool-end (stol'end), n. In mining, a part of 
rock left unworked for the purpose of support- 
ing the rest. 
stool-pigeon (stol'pij'on), n. 1. A pigeon fast- 
ened to a stool, and used as a decoy. 
The Stool-Pigeon, also, as familiar to English ears as to 
ours, exists here and even in the Eastern States still 
in both its primary signification and its figurative exten- 
sion. In the former it means the pigeon, with its eyes 
stitched up, fastened on a stool, which can be moved up 
and down by the hidden fowler, an action which causes 
the bird to flutter anxiously. This attracts the passing 
flocks of wild pigeons, which alight and are caugnt by a 
net, which may be sprung over them. 
De Vere, Americanisms, p. 210. 
Hence 2. A person employed as a decoy: as, 
a stool-pigeon for a gambling-house: such a 
fellow is generally a "rook" who pretends to 
be a "pigeon." See pigeon, 2, and rook 1 , 3. 
Stoom (stom), n. and v. Same as stum. 
stoop 1 (stop), v. [Formerly and still dial. 
stoup; < ME. stoupen, stowpen, stupen, < AS. stu- 
pian = MD. stuypen = Icel. stupa (very rare), 
stoop, = Norw. stupa, fall, drop, = Sw. stupa, 
dial, stjupa, fall, drop, tr. lower, incline, tilt; 
akin to steep 1 : see steep 1 , and cf . steep 2 . The 
reg. mod. form from AS. stupian is stoup (pron. 
stoup), as in dialectal use. The retention of 
or reversion to the orig. AS. vowel-sound b 
occurs also in room ((. AS. rum) (and in wound 
(as pron. wond), < AS. wand).] I. intrans. 1. To 
bend; bow; incline; especially, of persons, to 
lower the body by bending forward and down- 
ward. 
He hit on his helme with a heuy sword, 
That greuit hym full gretly, gert hym to stoupe. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 7256. 
The grass stoops not, she treads on it so light 
Shak., Venus and Adonis, 1. 1028. 
How sweetly does this fellow take his dowst ! 
Stoops like a camel ! 
Fletcher (and another 1 !), Nice Valour, iv. 1. 
2. To be bent or inclined from the perpendicu- 
lar; specifically, to carry the head and shoul- 
ders habitually bowed forward from the up- 
right line of the rest of the body. 
A good leg will fall ; a straight back will stoop; a black 
beard will turn white. Shak., Hen. V., v. 2. 168. 
Tall trees stooping or soaring in the most picturesque 
variety. George Eliot, Felix Holt, xxiii. 
3. To come down; descend. 
stoop 
The cloud may xloop from heaven and take the shitji- . 
With fold to fold, of mountain or of cape. 
Tennyson, Prinocu, vi. (song). 
4. Specifically, to swoop upon pn-.v or .|uarry. 
as a hawk; pomn-<>. 
As I am a gentleman, 
I '11 meet next corking, :ind hrin^ a hazard with nit* 
That xtiMtps as free as lightning. 
Tn ink-is {:), Alhuniazar, ill. 5. 
Here stands my dove ; *lftp at her if you dare. 
/;. Jfin*m, Alchemist, v. :i. 
5. To condescend ; deign: especially express- 
ing a lowering of the moral self, and generally 
followed by an infinitive or the preposition to. 
Is Religion a beggarly and contemptible thing, that it 
doth not become the greatness of >our mimls in xfttnp to 
take any notice of it? Sltlliiiyiln'f, Sermons, 1. v. 
Frederic, indeed, stooped for a time even to use the 
language of adulation. Macaulay, Frederic the Great. 
6. To yield; submit; succumb. 
Thus hath the Field and the Church stouped to Mahomet. 
Purchas, Pilgrimage, p. 242. 
1 will make thee stoop, thou abject. 
B. Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour, v. 3. 
II. trans. 1. To bend downward ; bow. 
Myself . . . 
Have stoop'd my neck under your injuries. 
Shak., Rich. II., iii. 1. 19. 
She stooped her by the runnel's side. 
Scott, Mai in ion. vi. 30. 
2. To incline; tilt: as, to stoop a cask. Halli- 
well. [Prov. Eng.] 3. To bring or take down ; 
lower, as a flag or a sail. 
Nor, with that Consul join'd, Vespasian could prevail 
In thirty several fights, nor make them stoop their sail. 
Drayton, Polyolbion, vili. 212. 
4. To put down ; abase ; submit ; subject. 
I will stoop and humble my intents 
To your well-practised wise directions. 
Shak., 2 Hen. IV., v. 2. 120. 
5. To cast down ; prostrate ; overthrow ; over- 
come. 
You have found my spirit ; try it now, and teach me 
To stoop whole kingdoms. 
Fletcher, Humorous Lieutenant, i. 1. 
6t. To swoop or pounce down upon. 
The hawk that first stooped my pheasant is killed by the 
spaniel that first sprang all of our side. 
Webster and Dekker, Northward Hoe, v. 1. 
7. To steep ; macerate. [Prov. Eng.] 
stoop 1 (stop), n. [< stoop 1 , .] 1. The act of 
stooping or bending down ; hence, a habitual 
bend of the back or shoulders: as, to walk with 
a stoop. 
Now observe the stoops, 
The bondings, and the falls. 
B. Jonson, Sejanus, i. 1. 
His clumsy figure, which a great stoop In his shoulders, 
and a ludicrous habit he had of thrusting his head for- 
ward, by no means redeemed. 
Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, 11. 
2. The darting down of a bird on its prey; a 
swoop ; a pounce. 
Once a kite, hovering over the garden, made a stoop at 
me. Surtft, Gulliver's Travels, H. 5. 
Hence 3f. That which stoops or swoops; a 
hawk. [Rare.] 
You glorious martyrs, you illustrious stoops, 
That once were cloister'd in your fleshly coops. 
Quartet, Emblems, T. 10. 
4. A descent from superiority, dignity, or 
power; a condescension, concession, or sub- 
mission : as, a politic stoop. 
Can any loyal subject see 
With patience such a stoop from sovereignty? 
Dry den. 
To give the stoop) , to stoop ; submit; yield. 
that a king should give the stoop to such as these. 
Bp. Hacket, Abp. Williams, it 188. (Dames.) 
stoop 2 , Stoup 2 (stop, stoup), n. [< ME. stop, 
stope, appar. a var. (due to confusion with the 
related ME. stoppe, < AS. stoppa : see stop 2 ) of 
'stepe, "steap, < AS. stedp, a cup, = MD. stoop, 
a cup, vessel, D. stoop, a measure of about two 
quarts, = MLG. stop, a cup, vessel, also a mea- 
sure, LG. stoop, a measure, = OHG. stouf, stouph, 
MHG. stouf, G. stauf, a cup, = Icel. staup, a cup, 
= Sw. stop (< D. or LG.), a measure of about 
three pints; also in dim. form, MHG. stubechin, 
G. stiibchen, a gallon, measure ; prob. ult. iden- 
tical with Icel. staup, a lump (orig. meaning 
something cast), hence a vessel of metal, etc., 
from the verb represented by Icel. steypa = 
Sw. stopa = Dan. stobe, cast (metals), pour out 
(liquids), E. steep : see steep 2 . The spelling 
stoup is partly Sc., and in tne Sc. pron. stoup 
is prob. of Icel. origin.] 1 . A drinking-vessel ; 
a beaker; a flagon; a tankard; a pitcher. 
Fetch me a stoupe of liquor. 
Shak. (folio 1023), Hamlet v. 1. 68. 
