Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Stoop

Stoop (sto͞op), n. [D. stoep.] (Arch.) Originally, a covered porch with seats, at a house door; the Dutch stoep as introduced by the Dutch into New York. Afterward, an out-of-door flight of stairs of from seven to fourteen steps, with platform and parapets, leading to an entrance door some distance above the street; the French perron. Hence, any porch, platform, entrance stairway, or small veranda, at a house door. [U. S.]

Stoop, n. [OE. stope, Icel. staup; akin to AS. steáp, D. stoop, G. stauf, OHG. stouph.] A vessel of liquor; a flagon. [Written also stoup.]

Fetch me a stoop of liquor. Shak.

Stoop, n. [Cf. Icel. staup a knobby lump.] A post fixed in the earth. [Prov. Eng.]

Stoop, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Stooped; p. pr. & vb. n. Stooping.] [OE. stoupen; akin to AS. stūpian, OD. stuypen, Icel. stūpa, Sw. stupa to fall, to tilt. Cf 5th Steep.] 1. To bend the upper part of the body downward and forward; to bend or lean forward; to incline forward in standing or walking; to assume habitually a bent position.

2. To yield; to submit; to bend, as by compulsion; to assume a position of humility or subjection.

Mighty in her ships stood Carthage long, . . . Yet stooped to Rome, less wealthy, but more strong. Dryden.

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

3. To descend from rank or dignity; to condescend. "She stoops to conquer." Goldsmith.

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

4. To come down as a hawk does on its prey; to pounce; to souse; to swoop.

The bird of Jove, stooped from his aëry tour, Two birds of gayest plume before him drove. Milton.

5. To sink when on the wing; to alight.

And stoop with closing pinions from above. Dryden.

Cowering low With blandishment, each bird stooped on his wing. Milton.

Syn. — To lean; yield; submit; condescend; descend; cower; shrink.

Stoop, v. t. 1. To bend forward and downward; to bow down; as, to stoop the body. "Have stooped my neck." Shak.

2. To cause to incline downward; to slant; as, to stoop a cask of liquor.

3. To cause to submit; to prostrate. [Obs.]

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

4. To degrade. [Obs.] Shak.

Stoop, n. 1. The act of stooping, or bending the body forward; inclination forward; also, an habitual bend of the back and shoulders.

2. Descent, as from dignity or superiority; condescension; an act or position of humiliation.

Can any loyal subject see With patience such a stoop from sovereignty? Dryden.

3. The fall of a bird on its prey; a swoop. L'Estrange.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.