Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Slang A person acting as a decoy or as an informer, especially one who is a spy for the police.
- noun A pigeon used as a decoy.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A pigeon fastened to a stool, and used as a decoy.
- noun Hence A person employed as a decoy: as, a stool-pigeon for a gambling-house: such a fellow is generally a “rook” who pretends to be a“pigeon.” See
pigeon , 2, and rook, 3. - noun One who looks over the hand of a card-player and signals its contents to a confederate.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun slang A decoy or an
informer , especially one who is aspy for the police.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun someone acting as an informer or decoy for the police
- noun a dummy pigeon used to decoy others
- noun someone acting as an informer or decoy for the police
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[From the practice of tying decoy pigeons to a stool to attract other pigeons.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From the act of tying or even nailing a pigeon to a stool to act as a decoy for hunters.
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Examples
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seanahan commented on the word stool pigeon
This appears to be a pigeon which is not a homing pigeon, but is released with homing pigeons to distract the enemy. Wikipedia says,
"The term "stool pigeon" was first coined when passenger pigeons were captured, had their eyelids sewn shut, and were tied to stools. The birds sitting on the stools would be used as live decoys so pigeon hunters would have an easier shot at their quarry"
but the whole stool thing doesn't make any sense.
June 30, 2007
reesetee commented on the word stool pigeon
Neither does the fact that gazillions of passenger pigeons were slaughtered for food (and thus went extinct), but that happened too, sad to say.... :-\ Never heard that story though, seanahan.
June 30, 2007
slumry commented on the word stool pigeon
More here: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/stool-pigeon.html regarding the origins of phrase.
June 30, 2007
seanahan commented on the word stool pigeon
Alright, here is what the article says, clarifying the confusing Wikipedia statement. They would stick a dead pigeon on a stool, which would make other birds less wary, since the birds figure if one bird thinks it's safe, it must be.
I never imagined this term meant something so archaic.
June 30, 2007