Adjacent Words

stool pigeon definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: someone acting as an informer or decoy for the police [syn: fink, snitch, snitcher, stoolpigeon, stool pigeon, stoolie, sneak, sneaker, canary]
2: a dummy pigeon used to decoy others

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: probably from the early practice of fastening the decoy bird to a stool Date: 1826 1. a person acting as a decoy or informer; especially a spy sent into a group to report (as to the police) on its activities 2. a pigeon used as a decoy to draw others within a net

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Stool Stool, n. [AS. st[=o]l a seat; akin to OFries. & OS. st[=o]l, D. stoel, G. stuhl, OHG. stuol, Icel. st[=o]ll, Sw. & Dan. stol, Goth. st[=o]ls, Lith. stalas a table, Russ. stol'; from the root of E. stand. [root]163. See Stand, and cf. Fauteuil.] 1. A single seat with three or four legs and without a back, made in various forms for various uses. 2. A seat used in evacuating the bowels; hence, an evacuation; a discharge from the bowels. 3. A stool pigeon, or decoy bird. [U. S.] 4. (Naut.) A small channel on the side of a vessel, for the dead-eyes of the backstays. --Totten. 5. A bishop's seat or see; a bishop-stool. --J. P. Peters. 6. A bench or form for resting the feet or the knees; a footstool; as, a kneeling stool. 7. Material, such as oyster shells, spread on the sea bottom for oyster spat to adhere to. [Local, U.S.] Stool of a window, or Window stool (Arch.), the flat piece upon which the window shuts down, and which corresponds to the sill of a door; in the United States, the narrow shelf fitted on the inside against the actual sill upon which the sash descends. This is called a window seat when broad and low enough to be used as a seat. Stool of repentance, the cuttystool. [Scot.] Stool pigeon, a pigeon used as a decoy to draw others within a net; hence, a person used as a decoy for others.

Moby Thesaurus

agent provocateur, betrayer, blab, blabber, blabberer, blabbermouth, canary, capper, come-on man, decoy, delator, fink, informer, narc, nark, peacher, plant, shill, snitch, snitcher, spy, squealer, stoolie, talebearer, tattler, tattletale, telltale, tipster, whistle-blower