• (British, America) IPA: /stuːp/

stoop (plural stoops)

1. (chiefly, Northeastern US, chiefly, New York, also, Canada) The staircase and landing or porch leading to the entrance of a residence.

   Synonyms: porch, verandah

   • 1856 James Fenimore Cooper, Satanstoe or The Littlepage Manuscripts: A Tale of the Colony (London, 1856) page 110 ↗

     Nearly all the houses were built with their gables to the streets and each had heavy wooden Dutch stoops, with seats, at its door.

   • 1905 Carpentry and Building, vol. 27 (January 1905), NY: David Williams Company, page 2 ↗

     ...the entrance being at the side of the house and reached by a low front stoop with four or five risers...

2. (US) The threshold of a doorway, a doorstep.

   Synonyms: step, doorstep

• stoep

• French: perron
• German: Treppeneingang
• Italian: portico
• Russian: крыльцо́
• Spanish: porche, zaguán

stoop (stoops, present participle stooping; past and past participle stooped)

1. To bend the upper part of the body forward and downward to a half-squatting position; crouch.

   He stooped to tie his shoe-laces.

   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I,

     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.

2. To lower oneself; to demean or do 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?

3. Of a bird of prey: to swoop down on its prey.
   • 1882 [1875], Thomas Bewick, James Reiveley, William Harvey, The Parlour Menagerie, 4th ed., p. 63 ↗:

     Presently the bird stooped and seized a salmon, and a violent struggle ensued.

4. (transitive) To cause to incline downward; to slant.

   to stoop a cask of liquor

5. (transitive) To cause to submit; to prostrate.

   • Many of those whose states so tempt thine ears / Are stooped by death; and many left alive.

6. To yield; to submit; to bend, as by compulsion; to assume a position of humility or subjection.
   • 1668, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, M. DC. LXVI. […], London: Printed for Henry Herringman, […], OCLC 1064438096 ↗, (please specify the stanza number):

     Mighty in her ships stood Carthage long, […] / Yet stooped to Rome, less wealthy, but more strong.

   • 1713, Joseph Addison, Cato, published 1712, [Act 1, scene 1]:

     These are arts, my prince, / In which your Zama does not stoop to Rome.

7. To descend from rank or dignity; to condescend.

   • She stoops to conquer.

   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Riches

     Where men of great wealth do stoop to husbandry, it multiplieth riches exceedingly.

8. To degrade.

• bend down
• crouch
• squat

• French: baisser, pencher
• German: bücken, beugen
• Portuguese: inclinar-se, curvar-se
• Russian: нагиба́ться
• Spanish: agacharse

• French: s'abaisser à
• German: erniedrigen, herabwürdigen
• Russian: опуска́ться
• Spanish: rebajarse

• French: piquer
• German: stürzen
• Russian: пики́ровать

stoop (plural stoops)

1. A stooping, bent position of the body.

   The old man walked with a stoop.

   • 2011, Phil McNulty, Euro 2012: Montenegro 2-2 England

     Theo Walcott's final pass has often drawn criticism but there could be no complaint in the 11th minute when his perfect delivery to the far post only required a stoop and a nod of the head from Young to put England ahead.

2. An accelerated descent in flight, as that for an attack.
   • 1819, Washington Irving, Bracebridge Hall: Hawking:

     At length the hawk got the upper hand, and made a rushing stoop at her quarry

• French: piqué
• Russian: пике́

stoop (plural stoops)

1. (dialect) A post or pillar, especially a gatepost or a support in a mine.

stoop (plural stoops)

1. A vessel for holding liquids; a flagon.