stoop

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /stuːp/
• Rhymes: -uːp

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From Middle English stoupen, from Old English stūpian (“to bow, bend”), from Proto-West Germanic *stūpōn, from Proto-Germanic *stūpōną, *stūpijaną (“to stand out”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewb- (“to push, butt, knock”). Compare steep. Cognate with Dutch stuipen (“to bend the upper part of the body forward and downward”), Old Norse stúpa (“to stoop”). Related also to Old Frisian stēpa (“to help”), Old Norse steypa (“to cause to stoop, cast down, overthrow”).

stoop (plural stoops)

1. A stooping, bent 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, “Bracebridge Hall”, in Hawking, Washington Irving:

     At length the hawk got the upper hand, and made a rushing stoop at her quarry

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 to a half-squatting position; crouch.

   He stooped to tie his shoe-laces.

   • 1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company , →OCLC:

     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. (intransitive) Of a bird of prey: to swoop down on its prey.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     the holy eagle
     Stoop'd, as to foote vs: his Ascension is
     More sweet then our blest Fields

   • 1882, , Thomas Bewick, James Reiveley, William Harvey, The Parlour Menagerie, 4th edition, page 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.
   • 1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. , London: Rich Field , for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, , volume (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, , 1857, →OCLC:

     Many of those whose states so tempt thine ears / Are stoopt by death; and many left alive.

     The spelling has been modernized.

6. To yield; to submit; to bend, as by compulsion; to assume a position of humility or subjection.
   • 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: Richard Field, , →OCLC:

     The grasse stoops not, she treads on it so light

   • 1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. , London: Henry Herringman, , →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):

     Mighty in her ships stood Carthage long, […] / Yet stooped to Rome, less wealthy, but more strong.

   • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. , London: J Tonson, , published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene iv, page 9:

     Theſe, theſe are Arts, my Prince, / In which your Zama does not ſtoop to Rome.

7. To descend from rank or dignity; to condescend.
   • 1773, Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer:
   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Riches”, in The Essayes , 3rd edition, London: Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:

     Where men of great wealth do stoop to husbandry, it multiplieth riches exceedingly.

• (bend oneself forwards and downwards): bend down, crouch, squat

• stoop and roop

From Middle English stope, stoupe, from Old Norse staup (“dip, well, cup”), from Proto-Germanic *staupą, related to the verb *staupijaną (“to steep”). Related to Old English stēap (“drinking vessel, cup, flagon, stoop”).

stoop (plural stoops)

1. A vessel for holding liquids; like a flagon but without the spout.

• stoup, stowp

Borrowed from Dutch stoep (“platform", "pavement”). Doublet of stoep. Cognate with step.

stoop (plural stoops)

1. (chiefly New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, also Canada) The staircase and landing or porch leading to the entrance of a residence.

   Synonyms: porch, verandah

   • 1856, James Fenimore Cooper, Satanstoe or The Littlepage Manuscripts: A Tale of the Colony, London, 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...

   • 2023 October 12, HarryBlank, “Fire in the Hole”, in SCP Foundation‎, archived from the original on 22 May 2024:

     The guard at the door coughed up blood, and died instantly. Fina was carrying an empty rifle with a sharpened bayonet, and she'd thrust it straight up through his neck, severing the spinal cord. She levered him off the front stoop and into the bushes, then stood up on the tips of her toes to peer through the window in the door.

2. (US) The threshold of a doorway; a doorstep.

   Synonyms: step, 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.

• stoopball

• stoep

From Middle English stoupe, stulpe, from Old Norse stólpi (“post, pillar”), from Proto-Germanic *stulpô.

• stoup

stoop (plural stoops)

1. (dialect) A post or pillar, especially a gatepost or a support in a mine.

• stoup and room

• Spoto, poots, topos