Definition

1. Noun:

   • A simple seat without a back or arms: A piece of furniture designed for sitting on, typically consisting of a flat top and three or four legs.
   • Solid excretory product evacuated from the bowels: Feces; waste matter discharged from the intestines.
   • A plumbing fixture for defecation and urination: A toilet, especially one that is not part of a full bathroom suite.
   • (Forestry) The stump of a tree that has been felled or headed for the production of saplings: The base of a cut tree from which new shoots grow.

2. Verb:

   • To have a bowel movement: To defecate.
   • To grow shoots in the form of stools or tillers: (Of a plant) to send up new shoots from the base or root.
   • To lure with a stool, as of wild fowl: To use a decoy, especially a pigeon, to attract other birds.
   • To react to a decoy, of wildfowl: (Of birds) to be attracted by a decoy.

Usage Examples

• Noun:

  • He sat on a wooden stool at the bar. (He used a simple backless seat.)
  • The doctor asked for a sample of his stool. (The doctor requested a sample of feces.)
  • The old house had an outdoor stool. (The house had an external toilet fixture.)
  • New shoots emerged from the stool of the felled tree. (New growth came from the tree stump.)

• Verb:

  • The patient needs to stool into the container for the test. (The patient must defecate into the container.)
  • The raspberry bushes will stool vigorously in the spring. (The bushes will produce many new shoots from the base.)
  • Hunters used to stool for pigeons in that field. (Hunters used decoys to attract pigeons there.)

Advanced Usage

• "To fall between two stools" (Idiom): To fail because of an inability to choose between or reconcile two alternatives.
  • His film tried to be both a comedy and a thriller and fell between two stools. (It failed to succeed as either genre.)

Variants and Related Words

• Stool pigeon (n): A person acting as a decoy or informer, especially for the police.
  • The gang discovered he was a stool pigeon.
• Stool sample (n): A small amount of feces collected for medical analysis.
  • The lab tested the stool sample for parasites.
• Footstool (n): A low stool for resting the feet on.
  • She put her feet up on the footstool.

Synonyms

• Noun (seat): Seat, footrest, ottoman.
• Noun (feces): Feces, excrement, waste.
• Noun (toilet): Toilet, commode, latrine.
• Verb (defecate): Defecate, excrete, move one's bowels.

Related Phrasal Verbs

(This word is not commonly used in phrasal verb constructions. Its verbal uses are as defined above.)

Related Idioms

• "Between two stools": In a position where one risks failing to achieve either of two objectives.
  • By not specializing, he found himself caught between two stools.

Noun

1. a plumbing fixture for defecation and urination
2. (forestry) the stump of a tree that has been felled or headed for the production of saplings
3. solid excretory product evacuated from the bowels
4. a simple seat without a back or arms

Verb

1. have a bowel movement
   • The dog had made in the flower beds
2. grow shoots in the form of stools or tillers
3. react to a decoy, of wildfowl
4. lure with a stool, as of wild fowl