stooping

Pluralstoopings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of stoop.

   She would never dream of stooping to lies to win an argument.

   High above the cliffs, a peregrine was stooping on a pigeon.

   Note

   The preposition steers the meaning: to marks a moral descent (stooping to flattery), on marks a bird of prey diving at its quarry, and under or through marks the plain bodily sense, as when someone is stooping under a low doorway. With none of them, it is simply the body bending forward and down.

2. 2
   adjective

   Bending the body forward in a way that shows submission or weakness.

   The prisoner's stooping posture made him look years older than he was.

   She noticed the clerk's stooping, apologetic manner whenever the manager walked by.

   Similarbowed, submissive, servile

   Oppositeupright, erect

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of a person bending forward and down, or of lowering themselves to something beneath them.

   Her constant stooping over the sewing machine left her shoulders aching by evening.

   The cave tour was a series of stoopings under low rock ceilings and squeezes between boulders.

   Similarbending, crouching

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