STOOL (3)

Stool (?), n. [[AS. stōl a seat; akin to OFries. & OS. stōl, D. stoel, G. stuhl, OHG. stuol, Icel. stōll, Sw. & Dan. stol, Goth. stōls, Lith. stalas a table, Russ. stol'; from the root of E. stand. √163. See Stand, and cf. Fauteuil.]] 1. 1. A single seat with three or four legs and without a back, made in various forms for various uses.
2. 2. A seat used in evacuating the bowels; hence, an evacuation; a discharge from the bowels.
3. 3. A stool pigeon, or decoy bird.
4. 4. (Naut.) A small channel on the side of a vessel, for the dead-eyes of the backstays. Totten.
5. 5. A bishop's seat or see; a bishop-stool. J. P. Peters.
6. 6. A bench or form for resting the feet or the knees; a footstool; as, a kneeling stool.
7. 7. Material, such as oyster shells, spread on the sea bottom for oyster spat to adhere to.
Stool of a window, or Window stool (Arch.), the flat piece upon which the window shuts down, and which corresponds to the sill of a door; in the United States, the narrow shelf fitted on the inside against the actual sill upon which the sash descends. This is called a window seat when broad and low enough to be used as a seat. — Stool of repentance, the cuttystool. — Stool pigeon, a pigeon used as a decoy to draw others within a net; hence, a person used as a decoy for others.