Stool Pigeon - Wiktionary

Jump to content

Contents

move to sidebar hide

• Beginning
• 1 English Toggle English subsection
  • 1.1 Etymology
  • 1.2 Pronunciation
  • 1.3 Noun
    • 1.3.1 Translations
  • 1.4 References
  • 1.5 Anagrams

• Entry
• Discussion

English

• Read
• Edit
• View history

Tools Tools move to sidebar hide Actions

• Read
• Edit
• View history

General

• What links here
• Related changes
• Upload file
• Permanent link
• Page information
• Cite this page
• Get shortened URL
• Download QR code

Print/export

• Create a book
• Download as PDF
• Printable version

In other projects Appearance move to sidebar hide From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

From the act of tying or even nailing a pigeon to a stool to act as a decoy by hunters. Alternatively, from an alteration of stale (“decoy”) +‎ pigeon.

Pronunciation

[edit]

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

[edit]

stool pigeon (plural stool pigeons)

1. (originally) A pigeon tied to a stool by a piece of twine, used as a decoy to entice free-flying birds to the ground to be shot or trapped.
2. (slang, obsolete, gambling) A decoy used in a crooked gambling game.
3. (slang) An informer to the authorities, especially one who gives up criminal associates. Synonyms: stoolie, stooly; see also Thesaurus:informant

Translations

[edit] decoy

Bulgarian: мюре (bg) n (mjure), мамец m (mamec) Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Esperanto: please add this translation if you can Finnish: houkutuslintu (fi) French: balance (fr) f, indic (fr) m, mouchard (fr) m German: Lockvogel (de) m, Spitzel (de) m Greek: πληροφοριοδότης (el) m (pliroforiodótis), (colloquial) χαφιές (el) m (chafiés) Italian: pentito (it) m Norwegian: Bokmål: politispion m, angiver (no) m Polish: kapuś (pl) m, kabel (pl) m Romanian: please add this translation if you can Russian: наседка (ru) f (nasedka), подсадная у́тка (ru) f (podsadnaja útka) Spanish: please add this translation if you can Thai: please add this translation if you can

informer

Finnish: vasikka (fi)

References

[edit]

• 2005: Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 17th ed. Edited by John Ayto.

Anagrams

[edit]

• not-pologies, notpologies

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=stool_pigeon&oldid=88591690" Categories:

• English compound terms
• English terms with audio pronunciation
• English lemmas
• English nouns
• English countable nouns
• English multiword terms
• English slang
• English terms with obsolete senses
• en:Gambling

Hidden categories:

• Pages with entries
• Pages with 1 entry
• Entries with translation boxes
• Terms with Bulgarian translations
• Requests for translations into Mandarin
• Requests for translations into Esperanto
• Terms with Finnish translations
• Terms with French translations
• Terms with German translations
• Terms with Greek translations
• Terms with Italian translations
• Terms with Norwegian Bokmål translations
• Terms with Polish translations
• Requests for translations into Romanian
• Terms with Russian translations
• Requests for translations into Spanish
• Requests for translations into Thai

Search Search Toggle the table of contents stool pigeon 8 languages Add topic