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Webster 1913 Edition


Stoop

Stoop

,
Noun.
[D.
stoep
.]
(Arch.)
Originally, a covered porch with seats, at a house door; the Dutch stoep as introduced by the Dutch into New York. Afterward, an out-of-door flight of stairs of from seven to fourteen steps, with platform and parapets, leading to an entrance door some distance above the street; the French perron. Hence, any porch, platform, entrance stairway, or small veranda, at a house door.
[U. S.]

Stoop

,
Noun.
[OE.
stope
, Icel.
staup
; akin to AS.
steáp
, D.
stoop
, G.
stauf
, OHG.
stouph
.]
A vessel of liquor; a flagon.
[Written also
stoup
.]
Fetch me a
stoop
of liquor.
Shakespeare

Stoop

,
Noun.
[Cf. Icel.
staup
a knobby lump.]
A post fixed in the earth.
[Prov. Eng.]

Stoop

,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Stooped
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Stooping
.]
[OE.
stoupen
; akin to AS.
st[GREEK]pian
, OD.
stuypen
, Icel.
stūpa
, Sw.
stupa
to fall, to tilt. Cf 5th
Steep
.]
1.
To bend the upper part of the body downward and forward; to bend or lean forward; to incline forward in standing or walking; to assume habitually a bent position.
2.
To yield; to submit; to bend, as by compulsion; to assume a position of humility or subjection.
Mighty in her ships stood Carthage long, . . .
Yet
stooped
to Rome, less wealthy, but more strong.
Dryden.
These are arts, my prince,
In which your Zama does not
stoop
to Rome.
Addison.
3.
To descend from rank or dignity; to condescend.
“She stoops to conquer.”
Goldsmith.
Where men of great wealth
stoop
to husbandry, it multiplieth riches exceedingly.
Bacon.
4.
To come down as a hawk does on its prey; to pounce; to souse; to swoop.
The bird of Jove,
stooped
from his aery tour,
Two birds of gayest plume before him drove.
Milton.
5.
To sink when on the wing; to alight.
And
stoop
with closing pinions from above.
Dryden.
Cowering low
With blandishment, each bird
stooped
on his wing.
Milton.
Syn. – To lean; yield; submit; condescend; descend; cower; shrink.

Stoop

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To bend forward and downward; to bow down;
as, to
stoop
the body
.
“Have stooped my neck.”
Shak.
2.
To cause to incline downward; to slant;
as, to
stoop
a cask of liquor
.
3.
To cause to submit; to prostrate.
[Obs.]
Many of those whose states so tempt thine ears
Are
stooped
by death; and many left alive.
Chapman.
4.
To degrade.
[Obs.]
Shak.

Stoop

,
Noun.
1.
The act of stooping, or bending the body forward; inclination forward; also, an habitual bend of the back and shoulders.
2.
Descent, as from dignity or superiority; condescension; an act or position of humiliation.
Can any loyal subject see
With patience such a
stoop
from sovereignty?
Dryden.
3.
The fall of a bird on its prey; a swoop.
L’Estrange.

Webster 1828 Edition


Stoop

STOOP

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To bend the body downward and forward; as, to stoop to pick up a book.
2.
To bend or lean forward; to incline forward in standing or walking. We often see men stoop in standing or walking, either from habit or from age.
3.
To yield; to submit; to bend by compulsion; as, Carthage at length stooped to Rome.
4.
To descend from rank or dignity; to condescend. IN modern days, attention to agriculture is not called stooping in men of property.
Where men of great wealth stoop to husbandry, it multiplieth riches exceedingly.
5.
To yield; to be inferior.
These are arts, my prince, in which our Zama does not stoop to Rome.
6.
To come down on prey, as a hawk.
The bird of Jove stoopd from his airy tour, two birds of gayest plume before him drove.
7.
To alight from the wing.
And stoop with closing pinions from above.
8.
To sink to a lower place.
Cowering low with blandishments, each bird stoopd on his wing.

STOOP

,
Verb.
T.
1.
To cause to incline downward; to sink; as, to stoop a cask of liquor.
2.
To cause to submit. [Little used.]

STOOP

,
Noun.
1.
The act of bending the body forward; inclination forward.
2.
Descent from dignity or superiority; condescension.
Can any loyal subject see with patience such a stoop from sovereignty?
3.
Fall of a bird on his prey.
4.
In America, a kind of shed, generally open, but attached to a house; also, an open place for seats at a door.

STOOP

,
Noun.
1.
A vessel of liquor; as a stoop of wine or ale.
2.
A post fixed in the earth. [Local.]

Definition 2024


stoop

stoop

English

Noun

stoop (plural stoops)

  1. (chiefly Northeastern US, chiefly New York, also, Canada) The staircase and landing or porch leading to the entrance of a residence.
    • 1856 James Fenimore Cooper, Satanstoe or The Littlepage Manuscripts: A Tale of the Colony (London, 1856) page 110
      Nearly all the houses were built with their gables to the streets and each had heavy wooden Dutch stoops, with seats, at its door.
    • 1905 Carpentry and Building, vol. 27 (January 1905), NY: David Williams Company, page 2
      ...the entrance being at the side of the house and reached by a low front stoop with four or five risers...
  2. The threshold of a doorway, a doorstep.
    • 1902, Gustav Kobbé, Signora: a child of the opera house, page 15:
      A short flight of iron steps leads up to it and a storm door is built over the stoop, forming a little vestibule, and serving to keep out the gusts.
    • 1975, Laurraine Goreau, Just Mahalia, Baby: The Mahalia Jackson Story, page 248:
      You better hurry up and get strong, if you going to carry me across the stoop.
    • 1997, Peter S. Feibleman, A place without twilight, page 15:
      Holding her breath while she set one foot over the stoop and followed it up into the house
    • 1999, Nora Gallagher, Things Seen and Unseen: A Year Lived in Faith, page 115:
      She grins at me and lifts her walker over the stoop.
Synonyms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Old English stūpian (to bow, to bend). Compare steep. Cognate with Dutch stuipen (to bend the upper part of the body forward and downward).

Verb

stoop (third-person singular simple present stoops, present participle stooping, simple past and past participle stooped)

  1. To bend the upper part of the body forward and downward.
    He stooped to tie his shoe-laces.
    • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I,
      Their walk had continued not more than ten minutes when they crossed a creek by a wooden bridge and came to a row of mean houses standing flush with the street. At the door of one, an old black woman had stooped to lift a large basket, piled high with laundered clothes.
    • 2010 December 28, Kevin Darlin, “West Brom 1 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC:
      Pedersen took a short corner and El-Hadji Diouf was given time to send in a cross for Mame Diouf to stoop and head home from close range.
  2. To lower oneself; to demean or do something below one's status, standards, or morals.
    Can you believe that a salesman would stoop so low as to hide his customers' car keys until they agreed to the purchase?
  3. Of a bird of prey: to swoop down on its prey.
    • 1882 [1875], Thomas Bewick, James Reiveley, William Harvey, The Parlour Menagerie, 4th ed., p. 63:
      Presently the bird stooped and seized a salmon, and a violent struggle ensued.
  4. (transitive) To cause to incline downward; to slant.
    to stoop a cask of liquor
  5. (transitive) To cause to submit; to prostrate.
    • Chapman
      Many of those whose states so tempt thine ears / Are stooped by death; and many left alive.
  6. To yield; to submit; to bend, as by compulsion; to assume a position of humility or subjection.
    • Dryden
      Mighty in her ships stood Carthage long, [] / Yet stooped to Rome, less wealthy, but more strong.
    • Addison
      These are arts, my prince, / In which your Zama does not stoop to Rome.
  7. To descend from rank or dignity; to condescend.
    • Goldsmith
      She stoops to conquer.
    • Francis Bacon
      Where men of great wealth stoop to husbandry, it multiplieth riches exceedingly.
  8. To degrade.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)
Synonyms

(bend oneself forwards and downwards):

Derived terms
Translations

Noun

stoop (plural stoops)

  1. A stooping (ie. bent, see the "Verb" section above) position of the body
    The old man walked with a stoop.
    • 2011, Phil McNulty, Euro 2012: Montenegro 2-2 England
      Theo Walcott's final pass has often drawn criticism but there could be no complaint in the 11th minute when his perfect delivery to the far post only required a stoop and a nod of the head from Young to put England ahead.
  2. An accelerated descent in flight, as that for an attack.
    • 1819, Washington Irving, Bracebridge Hall: Hawking:
      At length the hawk got the upper hand, and made a rushing stoop at her quarry
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English, from Old Norse stolpe

Alternative forms

Noun

stoop (plural stoops)

  1. (dialect) A post or pillar, especially a gatepost or a support in a mine.
Derived terms
  • stoup and room

Etymology 4

Old English stope

Alternative forms

Noun

stoop (plural stoops)

  1. A vessel of liquor; a flagon.
    • Shakespeare
      Fetch me a stoop of liquor.

Anagrams