stool n.
1. (also stooler) an informer.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Calif. Police Gazette 23 Jan. 2/3: The ‘stool’ did his work well, but the ‘cop’ [acted] so clumsily that the ‘Doc’ and the rest ‘tumbled’ to the stool. | |
| Tacoma Times (Wash.) 7 June 3/3: I was ‘played for a stool’ — suspected of being an informer. | |
| Thirteen Years in Oregon Penitentiary 66: There are [...] the ‘head snitch,’ the ‘stools’. | |
| ‘Charlie the Wolf’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 45: ‘Who tipped you?’ asked Kelly of Kiernan. ‘Oh, an old stool of mine,’ said Kiernan to Kelly. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Black Candle 349: He hies him to the police station to demand the immediate and constant service of every ‘spotter’ and ‘stooler’ in the city. | |
| Chicago May (1929) 142: I do know of cases where local cops have made a stool of a man by handing him dope when he was badly in need of it. | |
| Postman Always Rings Twice (1985) 117: That guy Katz, he’s nothing but a cop’s stool. | |
| We Are the Public Enemies 91: Oh [...] him? A stool. | |
| Who Live In Shadow (1960) 18: The no-good stools, who’ll be on his tail and report him to the gazers. [Ibid.] 189: stool, stoolie – A stool pigeon. | |
| Panic in Needle Park (1971) 148: He agrees to work for the narco who busted him—to be a stool. | |
| Carlito’s Way 45: Was a stool up there, black dude, rattin’ out his own people. | |
| Double Bang 228: Paterno, the OC cop in Queens, thinks he’s got reliable stools. |
2. a plainclothes detective.
| ‘Westernisms’ in AS I:3 151: ‘Fink’ and ‘stool’ and ‘fly-dick’ designate the plain-clothes men. |
In compounds
(UK und.) the team who erect the betting ring at a racecourse.
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 10: Stool mob: Men who erect the betting stands at race meetings. |
In phrases
(UK und.) working as a bookmaker.
| Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 7: On the stool: Making a book. |