stool pigeon

English

Etymology

From the act of tying or even nailing a pigeon to a stool to act as a decoy by hunters. Alternatively, from an alteration of stale (“decoy”) +‎ pigeon.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

stool pigeon (plural stool pigeons)

1. (originally) A pigeon tied to a stool by a piece of twine, used as a decoy to entice free-flying birds to the ground to be shot or trapped.
2. (slang, obsolete, gambling) A decoy used in a crooked gambling game.
3. (slang) An informer to the authorities, especially one who gives up criminal associates.

   Synonyms: stoolie, stooly; see also Thesaurus:informant

Translations

decoy

Bulgarian: мюре (bg) n (mjure), мамец m (mamec) Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Esperanto: please add this translation if you can Finnish: houkutuslintu French: balance (fr) f, indic (fr) m, mouchard (fr) m German: Lockvogel (de) m, Spitzel (de) m Greek: πληροφοριοδότης (el) m (pliroforiodótis), (colloquial) χαφιές (el) m (chafiés) Italian: pentito (it) m Norwegian: Bokmål: politispion m, angiver (no) m Polish: kapuś (pl) m, kabel (pl) m Romanian: please add this translation if you can Russian: наседка (ru) f (nasedka), подсадная у́тка (ru) f (podsadnaja útka) Spanish: please add this translation if you can Thai: please add this translation if you can

informer

Finnish: vasikka (fi)

References

• 2005: Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 17th ed. Edited by John Ayto.

Anagrams

• not-pologies, notpologies