Forms: 1 stool, 1–2 stól, 3–4 stol, 4 stule, 4–7 stole (also 9 in sense 13), stoole, 5 stoll, 5–6 stolle, 6, 8 stoul, (6 stoule, -lle, stoale, stowle, stoel, north. stoile), 6–7 stowell, (stowll), 5– stool; Sc. 4–6 stule, 6 stuill, -yll, stwyll, stul(l, stwle, 7 stuile. [Com. Teut.; OE. stól masc. = OS. stôl (Du. stoel), OHG., MHG. stuol (mod.G. stuhl), ON. stóll (Sw., Da. stol), Goth. stōl-s throne:—OTeut. *stōlo-z, prob. f. root *stō- : sta- to STAND. Cf. OSl. stolŭ throne, seat.]
† 1. Any kind of seat for one person; often, a chair of authority, state or office; esp. a royal or episcopal throne. (Hence occas. = SEE sb.1 2 b.) Obs.
Porphyry stool: cf. porphyry chair, PORPHYRY 5 b.
c. 897. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past. C., lvi. 435. Swa micle swa se bið beforan ðe on ðæm stole [L. cathedra] sitt ðæm oðrum ðe ðær ymb stondað.
a. 1000. Cædmon’s Gen., 260 (Gr.). Wið þone hehstan heofnes wealdend, þe siteð on þam halʓan stole.
a. 1100. Gerefa, in Anglia (1886), IX. 264. Man sceal habban … sceamelas, stolas, læflas.
c. 1205. Lay., 12657. A þan daȝen at seint Pauwel wes þe ærchebiscop stol [c. 1275 stolle]. Ibid., 24287. Þe biscop stole [c. 1275 stol] wes at sein Aaron.
a. 1300[?]. Shires England, 13, in O. E. Misc. Þis bispryche wes hwylen two bispriche, þeo oþer stol wes at remmesbury.
c. 1320. Seuyn Sag., 1889. [The barber] set her on a stol,… And gan to smiten hire on the veyn, And sche bledde.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, II. 151. The Bruce … raid to Scone, for to be set In kingis stole, and to be king.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxxiii. (George), 541. On þe morne gert he grathit be a stule in place of Iugment.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, I. v. Suche persons as loven the first sittinges at feestes, the highest stoles in churches and in hal.
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour, xxiii. 33. Sethe y am come and must sitte, late me haue sum quyshon or a stole.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. xciii. [xciv.] 20. Wilt thou haue eny thinge to do with the stole of wickednesse [1611 Bible, throne of iniquitie; Luther dem schädlichen Stuhl].
1549. Allen, Jude’s Par. Rev. iv. 1. Gods stoole or seate in heauen sygnified the euerlastynge state and continuaunce of the power … of god.
1558–9. in J. W. Burgon, Life Gresham (1839), I. iv. 248. Before the stoole of estate salt an other mayde.
1648. Milton, Observ. Art. Peace, Wks. 1851, IV. 568. In vain were the Bishops … forbid to sit … in the House, if these men … be permitted more license on their Presbyterial Stools.
1677. W. Hughes, Man of Sin, II. xii. 227. How? Bring Paul to the Porph’ry Stool?
fig. phrases. 1565. T. Stapleton, Fortr. Faith, 27. If Scripture telleth vs it [i.e., the church] is at Wittenberg,… then the Ciuill Lutherans haue the church only: Caluin, Illyricus, Osiander, and all their adherents are put beside the stoole.
1579. W. Wilkinson, Confut. Familye of Loue, B i b. Right discerning … commeth … by them that are set in the right place of iudgement by the Lord himselfe, and not by those that sitt on their owne stoole.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xxviii. He is an old man, and a minister of state…. You had more need to think of making up to Miss Lucy Ashton the disgrace … than of interfering with a man too old to fight, and on too high a stool for your hand to reach him.
† b. A church pew Obs.
1570. Minute-bk. Archdeaconry of Essex, 5 b (MS.). He refusyth to syt in the stole where the church wardens do place him.
1616. Min. Archdeaconry of Colchester, fol. 27 (MS.). A couple that came to be married, which, by … custome, should have sitten in the stoole aforesayd.
† c. ? A seat by a grave or tomb. Obs.
1463. Bury Wills (Camden), 15. No stoon to be steryd of my graue, but a pet to be maad vnder the ground sille ther my lady Schardeloue was wont to sitte, the stoolys removyd, and the body put in.
1526. Cartular. S. Nicholai Aberd. (New Spalding Club), I. 155. Our collectour … shall ȝeirlie sett ane honest stuill apoun ye said Jhonis sepultur decorit with bakin and arress as wss is.
1537. Reg. Aberd. (Maitl. Club), I. 414. Tway schillingis to þe sacristene for þe settyng of þe stwyll at his graif.
1539. in Abstr. Protocols Town Clerks Glasgow (1897), IV. 119. That the said vicar … warne the sacrista minor of revestry to cuyr ane stuyll honestlie and fynd twa wax preckattis byrneand … aboue the lair of Jhonn Painter.
† d. A seat for an offender. See CUCKING-STOOL, CUTTY-STOOL, PINING-stool, stool of REPENTANCE.
c. 1308. [see CUCKING-STOOL].
1562. Maitland Club Misc., III. 327. In ye essemble of ye congregacion to syt vpon ye penitent stul tym of ye seruice.
1714. Gay, Sheph. Week, III. 105. Where the high stool On the long plank hangs o’er the muddy pool, That stool, the dread of every scolding quean.
17[?]. W. Forbes, Dominie Depos’d, I. xxiv. Sae shall they never mount the stool, Whereon the lassies greet an’ howl. Ibid., II. xxvii. Ye’ve play’d the fool, Anither now your post maun bruik, An’ you the stool.
e. West Africa. (See quots.)
1819. Bowdich, Mission to Ashantee, 231. Saï Tootoo … was presented with the stool, or made King. Ibid., 236. This monarch … raised his favourite captains to the vacant stools, uniting three or four in one. Ibid., footnote, ‘To succeed to the stool,’… is the common expression for succeeding to a property even in private life. The same stool, or seat descends through many generations.
1909. D. Moore, We Two in West Africa, 146, note. On the ‘Coast’ … the chief of a tribe is said to be on the ‘stool’ of that tribe…. The word ‘stool’ is nearly always used instead of ‘tribe.’
2. A wooden seat (for one person) without arms or a back; a piece of furniture consisting in its simplest form of a piece of wood for a seat set upon legs, usually three or four in number, to raise it from the ground.
The OE. instances belong properly to the general sense 1. Often with qualifying word indicating its form or use, as round, three-legged, camp-, music-stool and the like.
[c. 725. Corpus Gloss. (Hessels), T 309. Tripes, stool.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 76. Ʒewyrc þonne stol of þrim treowum niþan ðyrele site on bydene.]
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 224. The kinges fol Sat be the fyr upon a stol.
c. 1425. Cast. Persev., 2599, in Macro Plays, 154. Worldis wele is lyke a iij-foted stole, it faylyt a man at hys most nede.
1434–. [see JOINT-STOOL].
c. 1520. Skelton, Colin Clout, 30. Let hym go to scole, On a thre foted stole That he may downe syt.
1592. Arden of Feversham, V. i. 131. Place Mosbie, being a stranger, in a chaire, And let your husband sit vpon a stoole.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 441. Young lads … with stooles fastened to their buttockes to milke [ewes].
1631. Gouge, God’s Arrows, IV. § 15. In the garret were set some stooles, and chaires for the better sort.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 80, ¶ 3. A servant brought a round Stool, on which I sat down.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 86. Thus first necessity invented stools, Convenience next suggested elbow-chairs.
1886. W. J. Tucker, E. Europe, 310. The legs and seats of the stools,—for chairs there were none,—were coloured in harmony with the rest.
b. A high seat of this kind for convenience of writing at a high desk; more fully office stool. Hence, a situation as clerk in an office.
1837. [see OFFICE sb. 12].
1842. Tennyson, Audley Court, 44. Oh! who would cast and balance at a desk, Perch’d like a crow upon a three-legg’d stool?
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., xx. Mr. Guppy suspects everybody who enters on the occupation of a stool in Kenge and Carboy’s office, of entertaining … sinister designs upon him.
c. A low short bench or form upon which to rest the foot, to step or kneel. Chiefly = FOOTSTOOL. Sometimes used as a child’s seat.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 166. Vor þi alle þe halewen makeden of al þe world ase ane stol [v.rr. scheomel, schamel] to hore uet, uorto arechen þe heouene.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 394. I may nouȝte stonde ne stoupe ne with-oute a stole knele.
1382. Wyclif, Matt. xxii. 44. Til that I put thin enmyes a stole of thi feet.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIV. ii. (1495), 465. The erthe is callyd the stole of goddy’s owne fete.
1468. in Archæologia, X. 197. Item, payd Will. Pylche for makyng of the stole to the funte and keverynge of the same, xx d.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 476/2. Stool, scabellum.
1567. Gude & Godlie Ball., 50. And war the warld ten tymes sa wyde,… Unworthie it war, ȝit to the, Under thy feit ane stule to be.
1827. Lytton, Pelham, xii. You must not lounge on your chair—nor put your feet upon a stool. Ibid. (1858), What will He do, I. vi. Sophy left her seat, and placed herself on a stool at her grandfather’s knee.
† d. Stool and ball, the implements used in the game of STOOL-BALL. Obs.
1619. Pasquil’s Palin. (1877), 152. When country wenches play with stool & ball.
3. fig. a. Proverb, To fall, come to the ground, sit between two stools: to incur failure through vacillation between two different courses of action.
1390. Gower, Conf., I. 15. Bot it is seid … Betwen tuo Stoles lyth the fal, Whan that men wenen best to sitte. Ibid., II. 22. O fol of alle foles, Thou farst as he betwen tuo stoles That wolde sitte and goth to grounde.
a. 1536. Prov., in Songs, Carols, etc. (E.E.T.S.), 129. Betwen two stolis, the ars goth to grwnd.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 610. Guageda betwixt two stooles had vnquiet sitting, paying tribute both to the Kings of Telensin, and the Arabians.
1717. Prior, Alma, I. 231. Poor Alma sits between two stools.
1765. Ld. Holland, in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1843), I. 380. I only hope Sir Charles Bunbury has not lost his Paris place, and dropped, as I fear he has, between two stools.
1857. Trollope, Barchester T., xx. Truly he had fallen between two stools. Ibid. (1867), Chron. Barset, xxxv. She was like to fall to the ground between two stools,—having two lovers, neither of whom could serve her turn.
b. Phrases.
1605. Shaks., Macb., III. iv. 82. But now they rise againe With twenty mortall murthers on their crownes, And push vs from our stooles.
1730. T. Boston, Mem., x. (1899), 276. The work was begun on Thursday with a sermon on Amos vi. 1, which I believe drew the stool from under most of us.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, I. xiii. One of the Maxims … is, when once you are got up, to kick the Stool from under you. In plain English, when you have made your Fortune by the good Offices of a Friend, you are advised to discard him as soon as you can.
† 4. The lair of a hare; = FORM sb. 21, SEAT sb. 10.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 271. In such places doth the Hare seek her lodging…. Then let him [the hunter] draw his nets round about them … and then raise her from her stoole.
5. A seat enclosing a chamber utensil; a commode; more explicitly stool of ease. Also, a privy.
For Groom of the stool (stole), see STOLE sb.2
1410–1869. [see CLOSE-STOOL].
1501. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., II. 25. Item,… giffin for ane stule of es bocht to the King viij d.
1516–7. Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905), 292. Paid for makyng clene of the Rectors stolys ij d.
1528. A prevey stole [see PRIVY a. 8 c].
1561. Invent. R. Wardr. (1815), 139. Item ane stuill of ease coverit with crammosie broun velvot.
1573. L. Lloid, Pilgr. Princes (1586), 145. The Emperour Heliogabalus was killed vpon his stole at his easement.
1645. Milton, Colast., 13. I send them by his advice to sit upon the stool and strain.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 147. If Alexander and Cæsar could never be easy off the stool, I would not deny them that needful utensil.
b. In phrases originally meaning ‘the place of evacuation,’ now (without the) the action of evacuating the bowels.
1542. Boorde, Dyetary, viii. (1870), 248. Than go to your stole to make your egestyon.
1558. Warde, trans. Alexis’ Secr., 32 b. The sayde pylles … prouoke not to the stoole.
1602. 2nd Pt. Return fr. Parnass., I. ii. They … write as men go to stoole, for needes.
1676. Marvell, Mr. Smirke, 33. Though they be reading Papers of State, or at the Stool more seasonably [he] obtrudes his Pamphlet.
1705. Phil. Trans., XXV. 2110. He did not go to Stole for a fortnight or three weeks together. Ibid., 2111. When he dy’d it was nine weeks after he had any Stole.
1726. Swift, Gulliver, III. vi. Men are never so serious, thoughtful, and intent, as when they are at stool.
1871. Napheys, Prev. & Cure Dis., III. ix. 980. To go to stool twice a day.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 263. When the veins are congested by straining at stool.
c. The action of evacuating the bowels; an act of discharging fæces. By stool: by fæcal as distinguished from other means of evacuation.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe (1541), 38 b. By experience and diligent serch by their stoole, their nourices shal perceyve what digesteth wel.
1596. Harington, Metam. Ajax, C 5. Hee heard him say, hee thanked God, hee had had a good stoole.
1623. Hart, Arraignm. Urines, i. 2. Having his vacuations by stoole as orderly as other healthfull men.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Noble Gent., V. i. I fear this loss of honor will give him some few stools.
1663. Pepys, Diary, 24 May. Having taken one of Mr. Holliard’s pills last night it brought a stool or two this morning.
1682. Digby’s Chyme. Secrets, II. 228. A second Dose … will work either by Stool or Vomit, or Sweat.
1783. Wesley, Jrnl., 16 March. It gave me four or five and twenty stools, and a moderate vomit.
1843. R. J. Graves, Syst. Clin. Med., X. 110. I do not feel the least anxiety if the patient remains without having a stool for two or three days.
1875. H. C. Wood, Therap. (1879), 106. The stools are at times normal in character and frequency.
fig. 1592. Nashe, Four Lett. Confut., 11. A Letter whereof his inuention had a hard stoole, and yet it was for his ease.
d. A discharge of fæcal matter of a specified color, consistency, etc.; the matter discharged (chiefly pl.).
1597. A. M., trans. Guillemeau’s Fr. Chirurg., 3 b/2. The patient can nether retayne his vrine, Sperma, or Stole. Ibid., 4/1. His vrine bloodye; his stoels like matter.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 104. Her nature is to hide her own dung … the little Mouse being able by that stoole, to smell the presence of her mortall foe.
1698. Sloane, in Phil. Trans., XX. 69. Stools resembling the Dregs of Wine.
1789. W. Buchan, Dom. Med. (1790), 497. He must … drink freely of water-gruel to prevent bloody stools.
1845–6. G. E. Day, Simon’s Anim. Chem., II. 386. Calomel is frequently given…: its administration is succeeded by numerous, very green, bilious stools.
1871. Garrod, Mat. Med. (ed. 3), 97. It often produces in children the so-named calomel stools, or green-coloured fæces.
† 6. A frame upon which to work embroidery or tapestry. Obs.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 2352. So that she werkyn & enbroude couthe And weuyn in hire stol the radyuore.
c. 1475[?]. Promp. Parv., 305/2 (Camb. MS.). Lyncet, a werkynge stole, liniarium.
1502. Privy Purse Exp. Eliz. of York (1830), 2. Item … for the stuff and making of iiij working stoles for the Quene … v s. iiij d.
1513. Papers 5 Hen. VIII., No. 4101 (P.R.O.). A frontlett for an aulter wrought in the stole.
1523. Skelton, Garl. Laurel, 790. To weue in the stoule sume were full preste, With slaiis, with tauellis, with hedellis well drest.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Licia, be thredes, whiche sylke women do weaue in lyncelles or stooles.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 7. On their heades bonets of Damaske, syluer flatte wouen in the stole.
7. Naut. a. (See quot. 1867. Cf. CHANNEL sb.2) b. (See quot. c. 1850.) c. (See quot. 1846.)
a. 1711. W. Sutherland, Shipbuild. Assist., 37. Backstays or Topmast Shrouds are to be fasten’d down to the Channels, or Stools fixed for that purpose.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Stool, a minor channel abaft the main channels, for the dead-eyes of the backstays.
b. 1750. Blanckley, Nav. Expositor.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 153. Stools,… ornamental blocks for the poop lanterns to stand on abaft.
c. 1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVII. 395/2. This line will represent the lower edge of the rail that comes to the middle stool.
1830. Hedderwick, Mar. Archit., 120. Stools, pieces of plank which are bolted edgeways to the quarters of small vessels, to form the mock quarter-galleries.
1846. A. Young, Naut. Dict., 323. Stool. The lowest transom of a vessel’s stern-frame; or, more correctly, a chock introduced beneath the lowest transom: to it the lower ends of the fashion-pieces are secured.
8. Brickmaking. A brick-molder’s shed or workshop; also, the gang of workmen employed in one shed; also, a molder’s bench.
1693. J. Houghton, Collect. Improv. Husb., No. 70, ¶ 1. There are usually employed about a Stooles Work four Men, and two Boyes: The first, an Earth-maker that prepares the Earth. The second a Carter … to bring the Earth to the Stool. Ibid., ¶ 3. A Stool does ordinarily make … eight Thousand in a Day.
1850. E. Dobson, Bricks & Tiles, I. 34. In slop moulding, the mould is simply laid on the moulding stool. Ibid., 37. The area occupied by each stool is greater than in making slop-moulded bricks.
1886. Standard, 10 May, 8/5. To be let, a brickfield with four stools. Ibid. (1891), 24 Jan., 2/8. To distribute the funds to the different fields according to the number of stools or moulders’ sheds worked.
9. Arch. The sill of a window. Obs. exc. U.S.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 88. For the Capitol, to the stooles of those windowes.
1682. Sir C. Wren, in W. H. St. John Hope, Windsor Castle (1913), II. 387. By cleansinge from moss & weeds all the coapings of the Buttresses,… the stooles of the Windowes,… [etc.].
1891. Century Dict., s.v., 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.
1913. Webster, s.v. [adds] In the United States, the narrow shelf fitted on the inside against the actual sill.
10. A base or stand upon which a thing is set to raise it above the ground or general surface.
1481–3. in W. H. St. John Hope, Windsor Castle (1913), II. 404. Cxx et xxxviij pedibus Chaptrelles et Braces. xvij Stolys. xlii. Botraces. cix panelles.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Chron. iv. 14. He made the stoles also and ye kettels vpon the stoles [Luther Gestühle].
1554–5. Extracts Burgh Rec. Edin. (1871), II. 309. For twa greit bakis to be stullis to the malt myln [etc.].
1566. Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 763/2. Dicti commendatarius [etc.] sustentarent dimidietatem scabelli lie mylne stuill.
1641. Invent. Goods C’tess Arundel, in Burlington Mag. (1911), Nov., 98/1. In the Seller … is noething, but two stowelles to sett beare on & two Shelues.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xv. ¶ 2. So much of this Bottom-Plate … is called the Stool,… because on it the lower end of the Matrice rests.
1827. Faraday, Chem. Manip., iv. (1842), 97. This furnace … being raised upon a stool so as to bring the aperture of the air-chamber to a level with the nozzle of the bellows.
1888. Jacobi, Printers’ Vocab., 133. Stool, a platform or stage on which paper or printed work is stacked.
b. The stand of a beehive. ? Obs.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 122. Set a stole or a forme nyghe vnto the swarme,… shake the bees in-to the hyue, and shortely sette it vppon the stole.
1609. C. Butler, Fem. Mon. (1634), 14. As many as fall beside the stool, when it waxeth dark, ten to one they lie abroad all night.
1774. Phil. Trans., LXV. 274. We have seen fleas … swarming at the mouths of these holes like bees on the stools of their hives.
11. A bench, counter, table, trestle. Sc. and north.
1519. Reg. Aberd. (Maitl. Club), II. 177. The baikhouss witht … ij bakin stulis.
1559. Richmond Wills (Surtees), 135. The mylke house … a fleke, a stole.
1559. Peebles Burgh Rec. (1872), 257. The inqueist findis Thomas Dikesone in the wrang for … castin of his [John Edmond’s] flesche stule in the gutter.
1870. J. K. Hunter, Life Studies of Char., xlvi. 282. There was nae word of John comin’ wi’ the spokes and stools [trestle for a coffin].
12. Mining. (See quot. 1851.)
1653. Manlove, Lead-Mines, 62. Then must the Miners chase the stole to th’ stake; From meer to meer.
1670. Pettus, Fodinæ Reg., 86. And the Miners shall work their Meers duly, and shall chuse their Stool on that one part there as he may find Mine between two Walls.
1747. Hooson, Miner’s Dict., N iv b. When the old-man is cleared out from a Shaft-foot, Forfield, Stool, or Stope, we say we have bared it.
1778. W. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 63. The end or stool of the vein will run of itself, like sand.
1851. Tapping, Gloss. to Manlove, Stool, is where the miners leave digging deeper and work in the ends forward; the end before you is called the stool…. The term stool has also another signification, which is so far as the miner cuts before him, which is about two yards high.
13. [Cf. Du. stoel in similar uses. (In technical language sometimes spelt stole.)] a. The stump of a tree that has been felled; also the head of the stump, from which new shoots are produced.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., I. 195/2. When a grene tree is cut in sunder in the middle, and the part cut off is caried three acres bredth from the stocke, and returning againe to the stoale, shall ioine therewith.
1686. Plot, Staffordsh., 209. The stooles or stumps of many trees.
1769. D. Barrington, Indig. Trees, in Phil. Trans., LIX. 33. No pine or fir ever shoots from the stool.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 286. If a graft is inserted either in the collar or stool, or in the amputated head, it will give an immediate direction to the sap.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, I. 116. The stools of hard-wood trees,… set on end…, form a very durable flooring.
1874. Lyell, Elem. Geol., xxiv. 421. All the stools of the fossil trees dug out by us divided into four parts.
1886. Cheshire Gloss., s.v. Stoo, Clap yon owd stoo a’ top o’ th’ foire.
1899. R. Munro, Prehist. Scotland, ii. 29. As evidence … we can still point to the stools of huge trees, at the bottom of extensive tracts of moorland peat.
b. Forestry. A stock or stump of a tree felled or headed for the production of coppice-wood, underwood, saplings, or young timber. Also a set or group of stumps.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 365. I proposed to cut coppice-wood for the fire: my woodward said, it would not hurt the stools to cut it so late, but it would never … burn well.
1827. Steuart, Planter’s G. (1828), 298. The making up into one set or stool separate plants of the same species.
1832. Planting, 41, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. The parent wood of coppice stools is most frequently suffered to rise too high from the roots.
1880. Jefferies, Gt. Estate (1881), 82. Between the stoles [of the copse] … the ground was quite covered in spring with dark-green vegetation.
1894. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., June, 243. The [willow] rods being cut off close to the stools.
c. Forestry and Horticulture. The base of a plant cut down to produce shoots or branches for layering. Also, a plant laid down for layering (rare).
1789. Trans. Soc. Arts, VII. 126. I have likewise procured several small stools of the black mulberry [for propagating].
1813. C. Marshall, Gardening xix. (ed. 5), 317. In order to obtain suckers and shoots for layers [of elm], stools are to be formed, by cutting down some young trees, almost close to the ground.
1825. Greenhouse Comp., I. 221. Where entire plants are layed down to produce layers, they are called stools; and the main root remains there as a stool for several years.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 711. Having been much troubled with caterpillars on our gooseberry stools in the nursery.
1880. C. R. Markham, Peruv. Bark, 223. He afterwards went round to all the old stools and put in as many layers from them as possible.
d. Horticulture. The base containing the latent buds in plants which annually throw up new stems or foliage to replace the old.
1790. Phil. Trans., LXXX. 350. Stool of [sugar] canes (which is the assemblage of its numerous roots where the stems begin to shoot out) is almost impenetrable to rain.
1824. Loudon, Encycl. Garden., § 3339. Stools [of the strawberry] of two years standing, which have borne one crop, may be put into pots in August.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1194. Rattoons (a word corrupted from rejettons) are the sprouts or suckers that spring from the roots or stoles of the canes that have been previously cut for sugar.
1842. Florist’s Jrnl. (1846), III. 95. Chrysanthemums may be struck and the old stools turned out.
1846. J. Baxter’s Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 231. As the finest … of these fruits [raspberries] are … the produce of strong and well-ripened canes, it becomes necessary that the stools should have every advantage afforded them.
1877. S. Hibberd, Amateur’s Kitchen Gard., 158. Manure should be spread around the stool to insure some benefit to the roots of the [rhubarb] plant.
1882. Garden, 14 Jan., 17/3. Each stool consisting of about eight canes.
e. A cluster of stems or foliage springing from a stool or from the same root; the complement of stalks produced by one grain of corn.
1712. J. Morton, Nat. Hist. Northamptonsh., 154. They much resembled the Bottom of a Cluster, or Stool, as it is here called, of large Rushes.
1807. Prize Ess. & Trans. Highl. Soc., III. 476. A single stole of corn growing in a dung hill, has plenty of air, light, and heat.
1880. F. W. Burbidge, Gardens of Sun, v. 94. Each tuft or stool [of rice] being about eight inches from its neighbours.
1882. Contemp. Rev., Aug., 233. From one wheat grain there were eighty-five stalks to the stool.
1887. Blackmore, Springhaven, III. vii. His shelter was a stool of hazel, thrown up to repair the loss of stem. Ibid. (1894), Perlycross, vii. A great stool of fern.
f. A fine, good stool (of clover, of timber): clover or timber well stooled (see STOOL v. 3).
1801. Farmer’s Mag., Nov., 461. This year, the field was in barley, and yielded seven bolls per acre, leaving as fine a stool of young clover and rye-grass as ever I saw.
1814. 4th Rep. Comm. Irish Bogs, II. 188. The country possesses a good stool of timber.
transf. 1831. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1856, III. 327. Hecate a beauty! I aye thocht she had been a furious fricht—black-a-viced, pockey-ort, wi’ a great stool o’a beard.
g. A shoot or layer from the stump or base of a plant. [Confused with L. stolo: see STOLE sb.3, STOLON.]
1818. Todd, Stool, 4. [stolo Latin], a shoot from the trunk of a tree.
1821. S. F. Gray, Brit. Plants, I. 52. Stool, Stolo. A branch from the head of the root, bending down, taking root, and emitting leaves.
1824. Mactaggart, Gallovid. Encycl., Stowl or Stole, a scion from a root.
† 14. a. The scar left by a wound, a cicatrix. Obs. rare–1. (Cf. STADDLE sb. 6.)
1601. Holland, Pliny, XX. i. II. 36. The root [of wild cucumber] … reduceth the stooles or skars left after any sore … to their fresh and native colour againe.
† b. The ‘eye’ of an apple, pear or quince.
1671. Grew, Anat. Plants, I. vi. § 2. Most of them [i.e., the branches of the endocarp of an apple] enarching themselves towards the Cork or Stool of the Flower. Ibid., II. § 9. [of a pear]. Ibid., § 10. [of a quince].
† 15. The head or top of a mushroom. (Cf. stool in TOADSTOOL.) Obs. rare–1.
1743. Pickering, Seeds of Mushrooms, in Phil. Trans., XLII. 595. I began with one of the Gills carefully separated from the Head, or Stool, without bruising.
16. U.S. (See quot.)
1881. E. Ingersoll, Oyster-Industr. (Hist. Fish. Industr. U.S.), 249. Stools.—Material spread on the bottom for oyster spawn to cling to.
17. † a. ? Some part of a plow. Obs. rare–1. (Possibly an error.) b. The shank of a rake or hay-fork (Northumbld. Gloss., 1893–4).
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 5. It is necessarye for hym to lerne to make his yokes, Oxe-bowes, stooles, and all maner of plough-geare.
18. U.S. A decoy-bird (perh. short for stool-pigeon), esp. one used in shooting wildfowl; also a perch upon which a decoy-bird is set. (Cf. STALE sb.3, STALL sb.2)
1859. Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), 452. Stool, an artificial duck or other water-fowl used as a decoy.
1872. Schele de Vere, Americanisms, 211. Stool-Pigeon…. In the former [literal signification] it means the pigeon, with its eyes stitched up, fastened on a stool, which can be moved up and down by the hidden fowler.
1874. J. W. Long, Amer. Wild-fowl, xvii. 205. Wood-ducks … are not easily decoyed, either by stools or calls.
1895. G. J. Manson, Sporting Dict., Stool, a decoy for snipe, plover, and peach-birds.
1902. Greenough & Kittredge, Words, 363. A stool pigeon … is a ‘decoy pigeon,’ so called from its being tied to a stool.
19. attrib. and Comb. (sense 2) as stool cover; (sense 5), as † stool door, † house, † pan; (sense 13), as stool-growth, shoot; (sense 7 c), as stool rail; appositive (sense 1), as stool stone; objective, as stool-bearer, -bearing, -casting; similative, as stool-like adj.
1518. Perth Hammermen Bk. (1889), 2. The *stule berer.
1821. S. F. Gray, Brit. Plants, I. 42. *Stool-bearing. Stoloniferæ. Throwing out stools, stolones, which take root.
1637. Ld. Wariston, Diary, 23 July (S.H.S.), 265. Thair rayse … sik ane outcrying quhat be the people’s murmuring, mourning, rayling, *stoolcasting, as the lyk was never seien.
1837. A. Hayward, Lett. (1886), I. 60. I am quite charmed with the *stool-cover.
1564. in Archæol. Cant. (1874), IX. 234. Itm payd … for makyng and setting on of ij payer of Charnayles [hinges] uppon a *stoole doore, vj d.
1909. Nation, May, 156/2. We push through the rods of the *stool-growth with difficulty.
1541–2. MS. Rawl. D. 781 lf. 160. Item in ye *Stolle howse ij quarelles mendyd—j d.
16[?]. in Archæologia, LXIV. 390. The Stowll hous.
1868. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 251. A hedge becomes thin at the base … the sap ascending and forming a spreading, *stool-like form of growth.
1620. in Unton Inventories (1841), 26. xj *stoole panns.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. xiv. (Roxb.), 9/2. He beareth Gules, a stoole pan, or close stoole pan, Argent.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVII. 395/2. Set off the depth of the middle *stool rail above the line already drawn.
1907. Blackw. Mag., April, 488/2. Self-sown seedlings and *stool-shoots being then left to come up naturally.
1664. J. Webb, Stone-Heng (1725), 198. One only simple Circle of about twelve Slabbs of Stone, with a *Stool-stone for the King.
b. Special comb.: stool-bed (see quot. 1879); stool-bent (see quot. 1789); stool-crab (see quot.); stool land West Africa (see quot., cf. 1 f); stool-mail Sc., a fine imposed upon a person condemned to the stool of repentance; stool-pigeon U.S., a pigeon fastened to a stool as a decoy; chiefly fig. of a person employed, especially by gamblers, as a decoy; stool-pipe (see quot.); † stool table, ? a table on trestles; † stool-wagon [G. stuhl-wagen], a German chaise.
For stool-chamber, -room, see STOLE sb.2
1859. F. A. Griffiths, Artil. Man. (1862), 126. Place *stool-bed and quoin.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., II. 391/2. A third point of support … for the gun … is supplied … by a ‘quoin’ … placed immediately under the breech, and resting on a block called a ‘stool-bed.’
1777. J. Lightfoot, Flora Scotica, II. 1131. Juncus squarrosus. *Stool-Bent. Scotis aust[ralibus].
1835. ‘Stephen Oliver’ (W. A. Chatto), Rambles Northumb., 165. Spreats and stool-bent, which, in moist places, always indicate the spot where the pedestrian may be sure of firm footing.
1880. E. Cornw. Gloss., *Stool-crab, the male of the edible crab, Platycarcinus pagurus.
1909. D. Moore, We Two in West Africa, 146, note. I … mean the lands belonging to the tribe governed by the chief in question. On the ‘Coast’ these are called *‘stool lands.’
1837. Voluntary Ch. Mag., Nov., 493. It was poinded by the session because its owner would not pay the *stool-mail for having had a bastard child.
1805. Intelligencer (Lancaster, PA), 30 July, 2/2. They will serve for Bait, in their turn, or Stool-pigeons, to catch others.
1859. Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), 452. *Stool-pigeon, a decoy robber, in the pay of the police, who brings his associates into a trap laid for them.
1865. Pall Mall Gaz., 13 Nov., 2. The harrowing narrative of ‘Antilles’ may be after all only an ingenious ‘stool-pigeon,’ concocted for the purpose of terrifying the Republican party.
1906. L. H. Vincent, Amer. Literary Masters, 46. I am not going to be made a stool-pigeon to attract birds of passage that may be flying about.
1886. J. Barrowman, Sc. Mining Terms, 64. *Stool-pipe, Stool-piece, the pipe on which a column of pipes rests.
1630. Maldon (Essex) Documents Bundle 217 No. 22. In the hall … 1 *stoole table.
1829. Sporting Mag., XXIV. 201. Four horses were next put to the *stool-wagon, and we drove to Faulenrost.
