cucking stool

Meaning

Noun

• A kind of chair to which a person (such as a scold or dishonest tradesman) was fastened in order to be punished and socially humiliated, usually by being pelted and hooted at by a mob in front of their own house, but sometimes being taken to water and ducked.

Related

Similar words

• castigatory, ducking stool, scolding stool, stool of repentance, trebuchet, tumbrel

Origin

• From about 1215. Origin uncertain.
• The variant ducking stool is a later (from 1597) corruption.