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stool pigeon
noun
- a pigeon used as a decoy.
- Also called stool·ie [stoo, -lee], Slang. a person employed or acting as a decoy or informer, especially for the police.
stool pigeon
noun
- a living or dummy pigeon used to decoy others
- an informer for the police; nark
- slang.a person acting as a decoy
stool pigeon
- An informer, especially for the police: “Lefty figured out that Mugsy was the stool pigeon when he saw him talking to the warden.”
Word History and Origins
Origin of stool pigeon1
Idioms and Phrases
A decoy or informer, especially a police spy. For example, Watch out for Doug; I'm sure he's a stool pigeon for the supervisor . This term alludes to a bird tied to a stool or similar perch in order to attract other birds, which will then be shot. However, one writer believes that stool is a variant for stale or stall , both nouns used for a decoy bird before 1500 or so. [c. 1820]Example Sentences
In the late 1990s, when Bulger went on the run and Flemmi turned stool pigeon, the lurid details started to come out.
If there were no thieves, where would the stool-pigeon and detective find their profits?
Of course, in a case of this sort, "stool pigeon" men are useless, for no professional crooks are involved.
Prosecutor Cunningham said he had "been looking all over for that rifle" when it was turned over to him by a stool pigeon.
Knowing from Molly that Texas was a stool pigeon he understood the philosophy of the high-priced counters.
But one is your step-father—another the step-father of your affianced bride, and the other a mere stool-pigeon.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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