[f. STOOL sb. + BALL sb.
The ‘stool’ was the wicket (see STOOL sb. 2 d); perh. it was originally an ordinary stool.]
1. An old country game somewhat resembling cricket, played chiefly by young women or, as an Easter game, between young men and women for a ‘tansy’ (TANSY 3) as the stake. Still played (in modified forms) by women and children in some districts, esp. in Sussex. (Quite distinct from STOW-BALL.)
a. 1475. Myrc’s Par. Pr., 11, note. Hand ball, fott ball, stoil ball & all manner other games out cherchyard.
1564. in Shirburn Ball. (1907), 48. [At Midsummer sessions at Maldon, 1564, complaint was made against the constables that they had suffered] stole-ball [to be played on Sundays].
1567. Drant, Horace’s A. P., B iiij. The stoole ball, top, or camping ball if suche one should assaye As hath no mannour skill therin,… Theye all would … laughe at hym aloude.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, Sonn. (1622), 493. A time there is for all, my mother often sayes, When she with skirts tuckt very hie, with gyrles at stoolball playes.
1612. Two Noble K., V. ii. 101. Wooer. What shall we doe there, wench? Daugh. Why, play at stoole ball.
1615. Chapman, Odyss., VI. 139. Till which time (hauing din’d) Nausicae With other virgins, did at stool-ball play.
1648. Herrick, Hesper., Stool-ball (1915), 238. At Stool-ball, Lucia, let us play, For Sugar-cakes and Wine; Or for a Tansie let us pay, The loss or thine, or mine.
1677. Poor Robin’s Almanack, 19 April, Observ., Young men and maids Now very brisk, At Barley-break and Stool ball frisk.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 71, ¶ 2. Betty [was] a publick Dancer at May-poles, a Romp at Stool-Ball.
1715. N. Blundell, Diary (1895), 134. The Young Weomen treated ye Men with a Tandsey as they had lost to them at a Game at Stoole Balle.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., II. iii. § 11. 76. I have been informed, that a pastime called stool-ball, is practised to this day in the northern parts of England.
1898. Encycl. Sport, II. 412. Stool-ball…. The game … has of late years changed considerably…. Thus, while formerly the hand was used to strike the ball, a bat is now used…. The stools have been superseded by ‘targets,’ which are round boards … fastened to posts.
attrib. 1614. Breton, I would & I would not, lxxix. Pary-away, And for a Tanzey, goe to Stoole-Ball-play.
1615. Chapman, Odyss., VI. 165. Her meane was this (though thought a stool-ball chance).
2. A ball used in the game described above.
1690. Pagan Prince, xiv. 42. And when they see a Cannon Bullet coming toward ye … [they] will catch it like a Stool Ball, and throw it to the Devil.
1819. Scott, Ivanhoe, xxvi. Kind service cannot be chucked from hand to hand like a shuttlecock or stool-ball.
