stoop

Meanings

Noun

• The staircase and landing or porch leading to the entrance of a residence.
• The threshold of a doorway, a doorstep.
• A stooping, bent position of the body.
• An accelerated descent in flight, as that for an attack.
• A post or pillar, especially a gatepost or a support in a mine.
• A vessel for holding liquids; like a flagon but without the spout.

Verb

• To bend the upper part of the body forward and downward to a half-squatting position; crouch.
• To lower oneself; to demean or do something below one's status, standards, or morals.
• Of a bird of prey: to swoop down on its prey.
• To cause to incline downward; to slant.
• To cause to submit; to prostrate.
• To yield; to submit; to bend, as by compulsion; to assume a position of humility or subjection.
• To descend from rank or dignity; to condescend.

Related

Similar words

• bend down
• crouch
• squat

Origin

• Borrowed from Dutch stoep ("platform", "pavement"). stoep. Cognate with step.
• From Middle English stoupen, from Old English stūpian, from Proto-West Germanic *stūpōn, from Proto-Germanic *stūpōną, *stūpijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewb-. Compare steep. Cognate with Dutch stuipen, Old Norse stúpa. Related also to Old Frisian stēpa, Old Norse steypa.
• From Middle English stoupe, stulpe, from Old Norse stólpi, from Proto-Germanic *stulpô.
• From Middle English stope, stoupe, from Old Norse staup, from Proto-Germanic *staupą. Related to Old English stēap.