/stɔːl/, /stɔl/, /stɑl/
OriginFrom Middle English stall, stalle, from Old English steall (“standing place, position”), from Proto-Germanic *stallaz, from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to place, put, post, stand”). Cognate with French étal, Italian stallo, German Stall, Swedish stall.
- countableA compartment for a single animal in a stable or cattle shed.
- A stable; a place for cattle.
“His Fellow ſought what Lodging he could find:
At laſt he found a Stall where oxen ſtood,
And that he rather choſe than lie abroad.”
- A bench or table on which small articles of merchandise are exposed for sale.
“Now he goes on, and ſings of fairs and ſhows,
For ſtill new fairs before his eyes aroſe.
How pedlars' ſtalls with glitt'ring toys are laid,
The various fairings of the country maid.”
- countableA small open-fronted shop, for example in a market, food court, etc.
“He looked in vain into the stalls for the butcher who had sold fresh meat twice a week, on market days [...]”
“Despite the swift backpedalling of the university, the original notice given to stall operators is suggestive of the potential existence of 'a growing English-speaking elite' that is 'happy to maintai”
- A small partitioned space or roomlet used for a shower or a toilet.
“Rabbit eases from the king-size bed, goes into their bathroom with its rose-colored one-piece Fiberglas tub and shower stall, and urinates into the toilet of a matching rose porcelain.”
- countableA seat in a theatre close to and (about) level with the stage; traditionally, a seat with arms, or otherwise partly enclosed, as distinguished from the benches, sofas, etc.
- GermanicAn Heathen altar, typically an indoor one, as contrasted with a more substantial outdoor harrow.
“In a private rite, a ring is drawn on the ground around a harrow or before an indoor stall.”
“Some Asatruar kindreds call their indoor altars stalls and their outdoor altars harrows.”
“Stalli (STAL-i) - Altar.”
- A seat in a church, especially one next to the chancel or choir, reserved for church officials and dignitaries.
- A church office that entitles the incumbent to the use of a church stall.
“He had battled like a man, and gotten a man's reward — no silver tea-pots or salvers, with flowery inscriptions setting forth his virtues and the appreciation of a genteel parish; no fat living or sta”
“1910 [1840], Alexandre Dumas, père, translator not mentioned, Celebrated Crimes: Urbain Grandier, P. F. Collier edition,
When he had been some months installed there as a priest-in-charge, he received”
- A sheath to protect the finger.
- The space left by excavation between pillars.
- A parking stall; a space for a vehicle in a parking lot or parkade.
- An action that is intended to cause, or actually causes, delay.
“His encounters with security, reception, the secretary, and the assistant were all stalls until the general manager's attorney arrived.”
- Loss of lift due to an airfoil's critical angle of attack being exceeded, normally occurring due to low airspeed.
“The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the asymmetric stall and the ensuing roll of the aircraft because of the uncommanded retraction of the ”
- transitiveTo put (an animal, etc.) in a stall.
“to stall an ox”
“But Niſus hit the Turns with happier haſte,
And thoughtleſs of his Friend, the Foreſt paſs'd:
And Alban Plains, from Alba's Name ſo call'd,
Where King Latinus then his Oxen ſtall'd.”
- To fatten.
- obsoleteTo live in, or as if in, a stall; to dwell.
“I must perforce
Haue ſhewne to thee ſuch a declining day,
Or looke on thine: we could not ſtall together
In the whole world.”
- To place in an office with the customary formalities; to install.
“Deck'd in thy rights , as thou art stall'd in mine”
- To forestall; to anticipate.
“This is not to be staled by my report,
This only must be told: […]”
- To keep close; to keep secret.
“You haue diſcharg'd this honeſtlie, keepe it to your ſelfe, […] praie you leaue mee, ſtall this in your boſome, and I thanke you for your honeſt care: I will ſpeake with you further anon.”
- transitiveTo employ delaying tactics against.
“He stalled the creditors as long as he could.”
- intransitiveTo employ delaying tactics; to stall for time.
“Soon it became clear that she was stalling to give him time to get away.”
“See the look on my face
From staying too long in one place
But every time I try to leave
I find I keep on stalling”
- intransitiveTo come to a standstill.
“[...] the 4-4-0 unhappily stalled after a stop on Reading Old Bank with its eight-coach load and the Reading Up Line pilot, a "Hall", had to bank the train into Reading General.”
“But both projects have stalled, with no indication of how they would be funded.”
- transitiveTo cause to stop making progress; to hinder; to slow down; to delay or forestall.
“In Barnhouse's mind, their screwed-up childhoods have left homosexuals stalled at an adolescent point in the normal progression of psycho-social development. Unable to attain the "normal" gender ident”
“Long stretches of the railroad south from Hankow were torn up by bombs from Chennault’s planes, and their attacks limited traffic to nighttime on the parallel Hsiang River. The combined efforts of the”
- intransitiveTo exceed the critical angle of attack, resulting in loss of lift.
“The thrust levers were advanced, the first officer selected the go-around mode for the flight director, and he started to increase the pitch of the aircraft to the command bar indications, 10 degrees ”
- transitiveTo cause to exceed the critical angle of attack, resulting in loss of lift.
“The pilot stalled the plane by pulling the nose up too high at a slow airspeed.”
- To plunge into mire or snow so as not to be able to get on; to set; to fix.
“to stall a cart”
“His horses had been stalled in the snow.”
- intransitiveTo stop suddenly.
- transitiveTo cause the engine of a manual-transmission car or truck to stop by going too slowly for the selected gear.
- obsoleteTo be stuck, as in mire or snow; to stick fast.
- obsoleteTo be tired of eating, as cattle.
Formsstalls(plural) · stalls(present, singular, third-person) · stalling(participle, present) · stalled(participle, past) · stalled(past)
Source: Wiktionary