stoop
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /stuːp/
rhymes: -uːp
Forms: form: stoops
form: stooping
form: stooped
form: stooped
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”).
Senses: examples: text: He stooped to tie his shoe-laces.
text: 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.
ref: 1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 2010 December 28, Kevin Darlin, “West Brom 1 - 3 Blackburn”, in BBC:
glosses: To bend the upper part of the body forward and downward to a half-squatting position; crouch.
examples: text: Can you believe that a salesman would stoop so low as to hide his customers' car keys until they agreed to the purchase?
glosses: To lower oneself; to demean oneself in doing something below one's status, standards, or morals.
examples: text: the holy eagle
Stoop'd, as to foote vs: his Ascension is
More sweet then our blest Fields
ref: 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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv]:
text: Presently the bird stooped and seized a salmon, and a violent struggle ensued.
ref: 1882, [1875], Thomas Bewick, James Reiveley, William Harvey, The Parlour Menagerie, 4th edition, page 63:
glosses: Of a bird of prey: to swoop down on its prey.
examples: text: to stoop a cask of liquor
glosses: To cause to incline downward; to slant.
examples: text: Many of those whose states so tempt thine ears / Are stoopt by death; and many left alive.
ref: 1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC:
glosses: To cause to submit; to prostrate.
examples: text: The grasse stoops not, she treads on it so light
ref: 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC:
text: Mighty in her ships stood Carthage long, […] / Yet stooped to Rome, less wealthy, but more strong.
ref: 1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):
text: Theſe, theſe are Arts, my Prince, / In which your Zama does not ſtoop to Rome.
ref: 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene iv, page 9:
glosses: To yield; to submit; to bend, as by compulsion; to assume a position of humility or subjection.
examples: ref: 1773, Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer:
text: Where men of great wealth do stoop to husbandry, it multiplieth riches exceedingly.
ref: 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Riches”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
glosses: To descend from rank or dignity; to condescend.
Synonyms: sense: bend oneself forwards and downwards
word: bend down
sense: bend oneself forwards and downwards
word: crouch
sense: bend oneself forwards and downwards
word: squat
Derived terms: stoop and roop