_stoop_

_stoop_

Verb.

Pronunciation and accent: stuːp. 

Etymology: from Old English stupian. Maybe it has the same origin as STEEP, adj.

Preterite tense: stooped (stuːpt); preterite participle: stooped (stuːpt).

Present participle: stooping.

It is dated from the end of 800.

Intransitively: 1. Of a person: to assume a stooping posture; this is, to bend forward and downward the upper part of the body, with a purpose, like to take up something, or to be nearer to it, etc.; this is, to bend oneself forward, or to bend forward either the trunk or the knee.

Synonym: to bend.

Antonyms: to straighten, rise, aspire.

Translation: agacharse, in Spanish; chinarsi, in Italian; se baisser, in French.

"Mr. Wilson," said our host, stooping to remove from beneath his feet an exceedingly luxurious cloak of rare furs, "Mr. Wilson, this is your property."

Edgar Poe

A traveller, portmanteau in hand, is discovered running towards the wharf at full speed. Suddenly, he makes a […] halt, stoops, and picks up something from the ground in a very agitated manner.

Edgar Poe

I continued my caresses, and, when I prepared to go home, the animal evinced a disposition to accompany me. I permitted it to do so; occasionally stooping and patting it as I proceeded.

Edgar Poe

A small spring of water presented itself to my view, and here, stooping, I bathed my hands and my head and neck.

Edgar Poe

We stripped the other lady who was a blonde, laid her across the bed, put pillows under her arse to elevate it, and Gabrielle stooping, licked her cunt.

Walter… My secret life

[When Nicholas] stooped to pick it up [the pen], Miss Squeers stooped also, and they knocked their heads together.

Charles Dickens… Nicholas Nickleby

[…] we stooped under a very low ruined brick archway in the wall of the fortress.

William Macmichael… Journey from Moscow…

Stooping under the branches hanging low with their fragrant burden, and stopping every moment to loosen the hold of some hindering thorn, I followed in the footsteps of my four-footed pioneers till I reached the lower end of the marsh that had kept me from entering on the upper side.

Olive Miller… A Bird-Lover in the West

Rounding a huge fallen mass of rock, which lay poised on the very edge of the precipice, they came suddenly on a ravine, or rift, in the face of the cliff above, on climbing a few paces up which, they discovered the low, arched mouth of a cave, whence issued a faint gleam of light, and an odour of smoke. His guide stooped under the projection of the cliff that hung over it, and let himself down through the narrow entrance.

Thomas Lauder… Legendary Tales… 1884

-) With the preposition to + noun of the purpose:

Tartar was a rather large, strong, and fierce-looking dog, very ugly, […] who at this moment entered through the glass door, and posting directly to the rug, snuffed the fresh flowers scattered there. He seemed to scorn them as food; but probably thinking their velvety petals might be convenient as litter, he was turning round preparatory to depositing his tawny bulk upon them, when Miss Helstone and Miss Keeldar simultaneously stooped to the rescue.

Charlotte Brontë… Shirley

-) With the preposition to + a noun, to signify direction towards the thing implied in the noun:

The deed was done, and the Prince of Orange, stooping to the ear of his next neighbor, as they sat at the council-board, whispered that they were now about to witness the commencement…

John Motley… The Rise of the Dutch Republic

Ethelberta opened a letter from Picotee --now at Sandbourne again; and, stooping to the fire-light, she began to read.

Thomas Hardy… The Hand of Ethelberta

He still lived. With glowing hands she cleared away the snow in which he was imbedded. She rubbed his temples; and, having melted water by putting snow into her hands, she stooped to him, and let it flow between his lips.

Charles Dickens… Household Words

[…] for as my spouse and I was sitting by a little table near the fire, I reached out my hand, as if I had intended to take a spoon which lay on the other side, and threw one of the candles off of the table; and then snatching it up, started up upon my feet, and stooped to the lap of my gown and took it in my hand. "Oh!" says I, "my gown's spoiled; the candle has greased it prodigiously." This [… caused] an excuse [… for] my spouse to break off the discourse for the present.

Daniel Defoe… The Fortunate Mistress

-) With the preposition over, to signify direction:

She had stooped over the object, that now interested her, at the moment the exhausted lamp shot forth a feeble and a last ray.

William Dunlap… Memoirs of a Water Drinker

[…] my attention was attracted by a particular grave, one detached from the others […]

I stooped over it, and to my surprise read the following inscription in English: — “Beloved friend…”

The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal, Part 3

The boy stooped over the clear streamlet which trickled without a murmur over the road.

William Simms… The partisan

The old man, who was stooping over the fire toasting a piece of bread, looked round as he bantered Oliver thus.

Charles Dickens… Oliver Twist

-) With the preposition from + a noun, to signify support:

“One word more, my son,” said his father, and whispered in Arthur's ear, as he stooped from the saddle; “if you receive a letter from me, do not think yourself fully acquainted with the contents till the paper has been held opposite to a hot fire.”

Walter Scott… Anne of Geierstein

They also alight on the ground or on dry leaves, to look for food, after the trees become bare, and hop about with great nimbleness, going to the margins of the brooks to drink, and when unable to do so, obtaining water by stooping from the extremity of a twig hanging over the stream.

James Audubon… Ornithological Biography

-) With the adverb down, it is a redundant construction:

When he awoke, he found Kate sitting by his bedside, who, seeing that he had opened his eyes, stooped down to kiss him.

Charles Dickens… Nicholas Nickleby

[…] Nancy stooped down, picked up the pieces of paper which Cornbury had torn up.

Frederick Marryat… Snarleyyow

2. (Of a person): to stand or walk with the upper part of the body somewhat inclined forwards, with no purpose, either as being under a heavy weight or as being a habitual attitude.

He was singularly tall and thin. He stooped much. His limbs were exceedingly long and emaciated.

Edgar Poe

They recognised in him the same person whom they formerly knew, but they had heard he was daft; and they beheld him stooping forward, with his hands sillily hanging between his knees; and he appeared melancholy and helpless.

John Galt… The Entail

Some persons of the same height, well-proportioned in other respects, would not be considered small men. But he stooped a little, and his neck was short, and he did not loom up very largely, nor look as if he could fight his physical battles well.

The Knickerbocker, vol. 46

He was rather tall, stooped a little, had a pale visage.

Alexander Ranken… The History of France

In walking he stooped a little, having contracted that habit from his constant search for plants and other objects.

William MacGillivray… Lives of… Zoologists

I am mounted upon a wretched ass. I see another man before me upon a sprightly horse, at which I find some uneasiness. I look behind me and see numbers on foot stooping under heavy burdens, let me learn to pity their estate.

Oliver Goldsmith… The Citizen of the World

3. Of a dog: to put its nose to the ground to find a scent.

4. Metaphor: (of a person): a. To behave submissively; to humble oneself. b. To suffer something resignedly.

-) With the preposition to, followed either by a noun, or by a verb in infinitive, to signify submission or resignation:

Linny was naturally very humble — she had underrated herself in thinking that Vaughan had stooped to her; it was she had stooped to him.

Catharine Crowe… Linny Lockwood

I would undergo the same penance, stoop to the same shame, for the same motive, and in the same cause.

Edward Lytton… Rienzi

He must stoop to the apprenticeship before he aspires to the mastery.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton… Pelham

5. Metaphor: (of a person): to condescend to do something; to degrade oneself to something.

-) With the preposition to, followed either by a noun, or by a verb in infinitive, to signify degradation:

[Louis] never stooped to flattery.

John Motley… The Rise of the Dutch Republic

[…] he was chary of having any dealings with the Viceroy, not thinking it safe to trust himself to a man who had stooped to be an assassin.

Edward D'Alton… History of Ireland

It is only the marvellous boys who come to London with epic poems, Anglo-Saxon tragedies, or metaphysical treatises in their portmanteaus, who must needs perish in their prime, or stoop to the drudgery of office or counting-house.

Mary Braddon… Birds of Prey

The haughty Ayxa la Horra, whose pride rose with the decline of her fortunes, declared that as sultana-mother she would never consent that her son should stoop to the humiliation of kissing the hand of his conquerors.

Washington Irving… Conquest of Granada

[…] she stooped from her solitary state to ask Fräulein Wolf to accompany her in her afternoon walk.

Mary Braddon… The Golden Calf

6. Of a thing: to incline from the perpendicular; to slope

The rocks and precipices which stooped down perpendicularly on our path on the right hand, exhibited a few remains of the wood.

Walter Scott… Waverley novels

7. Of a bird of prey, like a hawk: to descend on its prey.

Synonyms: to pounce, swoop.

[…] a hawk had just stooped from above to seize the yellow bird.

Oliver Goldsmith… The Citizen of the World

-) With the preposition at, or on + noun of the prey:

I once beheld a hawk stoop on a wounded snipe, and carry it off before it had touched the ground.

Edward Napier… Scenes and Sports in Foreign Lands

When a magpie is seen at a distance, a hawk is immediately to becast off. The magpie will take refuge in a bush the moment that he sees the falcon, and will remain there until the falcon arrives, with the hawk waiting on in the air. The magpie is to be driven from his retreat, and the hawk, if at a good pitch, will stoop at him as he passes to another bush.

William Maxwell… The field book

At length one of the falcons had reached a pitch from which she ventured to stoop at the heron.

Walter Scott… Betrothed

Transitively: 1. To bend (the head, neck, knee) forward and downward.

Synonym: to duck.

The servants seeing their master in such danger, and being weaponless, not daring to interfere, ran home to arm themselves, and returned with spears and other weapons. When the bull saw that, he stooped his head between his legs.

Walter Scott… The Miscellaneous Prose Works

From the fore-court […] Finlay was conducted round the end of the turretted keep of the castle, and brought to a low and narrow door in a wall, that was built from the corner of the keep to the outer wall; and having stooped his head, he entered in.

John Galt… Spaewife

“And who is this?” said Henry, as Christopher Hamilton, richly dressed, stooped his knee before him at the entrance to the principal apartment.

The Gipsey Bride

2. To cause or train (a dog) to stoop for a scent.

Young fox-hounds must be first stooped to a vermin or strong scent, such as the martin cat, badger, or fox.

John Mayer… The Sportsman's Directory

Words derived from the verb STOOP: stoop (noun), stooped, stooper, stooping, stoopingly.