stoop
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L28045 on Wikidata ↗verb
- to lower body by inclining trunk or head and shoulders forward
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /stuːp/ / /stup/ / /stʉp/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English stoupe, stulpe, from Old Norse stólpi (“post, pillar”), from Proto-Germanic *stulpô.
- A post or pillar, especially a gatepost or a support in a mine.
verb
Etymology: 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”).
- To bend the upper part of the body forward and downward to a half-squatting position; crouch.
“He stooped to tie his shoe-laces.”
“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.”
- To lower oneself; to demean oneself in doing 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?”
- Of a bird of prey: to swoop down on its prey.
“the holy eagle Stoop'd, as to foote vs: his Ascension is More sweet then our blest Fields”
“Presently the bird stooped and seized a salmon, and a violent struggle ensued.”
- To cause to incline downward; to slant.
“to stoop a cask of liquor”
- To cause to submit; to prostrate.
“Many of those whose states so tempt thine ears / Are stoopt by death; and many left alive.”
- To yield; to submit; to bend, as by compulsion; to assume a position of humility or subjection.
“The grasse stoops not, she treads on it so light”
“Mighty in her ships stood Carthage long, […] / Yet stooped to Rome, less wealthy, but more strong.”
- To descend from rank or dignity; to condescend.
“Where men of great wealth do stoop to husbandry, it multiplieth riches exceedingly.”