Stool pigeon
Suggest a CorrectionMeaning
An informer, especially one working for the police against other offenders. Dated but understood in crime contexts Regional use: United States, later wider underworld slang.
Origin
American underworld slang based on a real decoy. Stool here is a variant of stale, an old word for a lure; a stool pigeon was a bird used to attract others into a trap. An American political example applies the compound to a human dupe in 1800, and the police-informer sense is printed by 1831. It has nothing to do with a seat or with bathroom slang.
Variants
- stool-pigeon
- stoolie
Usage Examples
- The gang suspected that a stool pigeon had described the warehouse to police.
- Nobody trusted Cal after the papers named him as a stoolie.
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