stoop

/stup/

/stup/

Other forms: stooped; stooping; stoops

Stoop means to lean your head and torso forward and down. If you're six feet tall and you tour a historical building, you'll have to stoop to get through the low doorways.

Stoop comes from the same root as steep. You can stoop to clear a doorway, or stoop metaphorically, by lowering your morals. If you slouch and droop, you are stooping. When owls quickly descend on their prey, that's also called stooping. Last but not least, a stoop refers to a small porch or the stairs leading up to a front entrance of a house, but that meaning is from the Dutch word stoep, "flight of steps, doorstep, or threshold."

Definitions of stoop

1. verb

   bend one's back forward from the waist on down
   “The young man stooped to pick up the girl's purse”

   synonyms: bend, bow, crouch

   types:

   squinch

   crouch down

   cower, huddle

   crouch or curl up

   type of:

   bend, flex

   form a curve
2. verb

   carry oneself, often habitually, with head, shoulders, and upper back bent forward
   “The old man was stooping but he could walk around without a cane”

   type of:

   bear, carry, hold

   support or hold in a certain manner
3. verb

   sag, bend, bend over or down
   “the rocks stooped down over the hiking path”

   type of:

   incline, pitch, slope

   be at an angle
4. verb

   debase oneself morally, act in an undignified, unworthy, or dishonorable way
   “I won't stoop to reading other people's mail”

   synonyms: condescend, lower oneself

   type of:

   act, move

   perform an action, or work out or perform (an action)
5. verb

   descend swiftly, as if on prey
   “The eagle stooped on the mice in the field”

   type of:

   pounce, swoop

   move down on as if in an attack
6. noun

   an inclination of the top half of the body forward and downward
   type of:

   inclination, inclining

   the act of inclining; bending forward
7. noun

   small porch or set of steps at the front entrance of a house
   synonyms: stoep

   type of:

   porch

   a structure attached to the exterior of a building often forming a covered entrance
8. noun

   basin for holy water
   synonyms: stoup

   type of:

   basin

   a bowl-shaped vessel; usually used for holding food or liquids