Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To leap or bound high in the air with the legs straight, as do certain antelopes and deer.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To stumble; walk irregularly; bounce in walking. Compare stoit.
  • To rebound, as a ball.
  • noun A horse; a stallion.
  • noun A young ox; a steer.
  • noun A weasel; a stoat. See cut under stoat.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete A horse.
  • noun Prov. Eng. & Scot. A young bull or ox, especially one three years old.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete An inferior horse.
  • noun An ox or bull.
  • noun regional A heifer.
  • noun Scotland, Northern England A bounce or rebound; a leap.
  • verb intransitive, Scotland and Northern England To bounce, rebound or ricochet.
  • verb transitive, Scotland and Northern England To make bounce, rebound or ricochet.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Scots and northern English dialectal, to bounce; akin to Dutch stoten, to push, thrust, and German stossen; akin to to push, knock.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English stot, stotte ("a hack, jade, or worthless horse"), in turn from Old Norse stútr. Compare Swedish stut ("a bull"), Danish stud ("an ox"). Confer stoat.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Possibly from Proto-Germanic compare Old Norse stauta.

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Examples

  • Coming up on today's program, a possible bright stot in the economy.

    CNN Transcript Mar 16, 2008 2008

  • Coming up on today's program, a possible bright stot in the economy.

    CNN Transcript Mar 15, 2008 2008

  • JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: Let me just go back here to this flood stot story.

    CNN Transcript Jan 13, 2005 2005

  • Waverley only showed that he did not understand the state of the country, and of the political parties which divided it; and, standing matters as they did with Fergus Mac – Ivor Vich Ian Vohr, the Baron would make no concession to him, were it, he said, ‘to procure restitution in integrum of every stirk and stot that the chief, his forefathers, and his clan, had stolen since the days of Malcolm Canmore.’

    Waverley 2004

  • “And leave us neither stirk nor stot,” said the youngest brother, who now entered, “nor sheep nor lamb, nor aught that eats grass and corn.”

    The Black Dwarf 2004

  • (AR-uh-stot-l) One of the greatest ancient Greek philosophers, with a large influence on subsequent Western thought.

    Aristotle 2002

  • One of the lambs began to stot, bouncing on stiff legs with its nose almost touching its bunched hoofs.

    Warlock Smith, Wilbur 2001

  • And he lifted up a rung big eneuch to fell a stot, and let flee at the monkey; but Nosey was ower quick for him, and jumping aside, he lichted on a shelf before ane could say Jock Robinson.

    The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 10, No. 275, September 29, 1827 Various

  • "I said I had a name for the thing; but they were no friends of mine who gave me the credit, and I never stole stot or quey in all my life."

    John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn Neil Munro

  • Freud would say that in this way I was releasing sex energy, but I think that the infantile sense of power was at the root of my cruelty; here was I, a wee boy, controlling a big heavy stot.

    A Dominie in Doubt Alexander Sutherland Neill 1928

Comments

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  • Ooh, ooh, another animaly verb!

    July 10, 2007

  • Oh, it's practically onomatopoeic, isn't it?

    July 11, 2007

  • Really, how could I free-associate any other word with pronk? ;-)

    February 12, 2008

  • The problem is that pronk is the first word that I free-associate with stot. While I am thrilled that both words made it on the list, I see an endless loop up ahead. Somebody else needs to take the reigns.

    February 12, 2008

  • The default dictionary in Microsoft Office does not recognize this as a correct English word.

    April 14, 2010

  • Pro, did anyone tell you that the default dictionary in Microsoft Office is a dodo-head?

    April 14, 2010

  • From the definitions and examples provided it seems that among the beasts who may be called stot are: horse, stallion (aka staig), ox (aka stirk), bull, heifer (aka quey), calf, weasel, stoat.

    Pray tell if you can: what's a stot?

    It's most of the livestock we've got -

    A stirk or a quey

    Or a staig in it's way.

    It seems there's near nothing it's not.

    The definition as a verb is more appealing. It describes an amusing form of locomotion favored by young chamois, goats, lambs and the like in which they progress in an exuberant series of four-footed leaps. This is also known as pronking. YouTube abounds in videos of animals stotting or pronking.

    When creatures walk not as they ought

    But bound on all fours from a spot

    It's joy they announce

    With each silly bounce

    As ungulates happily stot.

    May 12, 2016