stool
n. C / Un. a simple seat that has no back or arms. It usually has three or four legs and is often used at a kitchen counter or a bar.
n. a seat without a back or armrests, typically supported by three or four legs. In medical contexts, it refers to a piece of solid waste from the body.
He sat on a tall stool at the bar.
The doctor asked for a stool sample to check for signs of infection in the digestive system.
While the wooden stool provided a rustic aesthetic to the kitchen, its lack of back support made it uncomfortable for sitting during long meals.
From Middle English stool, stole, stol, from Old English stōl (“chair, seat, throne”), from Proto-West Germanic stōl, from Proto-Germanic stōlaz (“chair”) (compare West Frisian stoel, Dutch stoel, German Stuhl, Swedish/Norwegian/Danish stol, Finnish tuoli, Estonian tool), from Proto-Indo-European stoh₂los (compare Lithuanian stálas, Russian стол (stol, “table”), Russian стул (stul, “chair”), Serbo-Croatian stol (“table”), Slovene stol (“chair”), Albanian kështallë (“crutch”), Ancient Greek στήλη (stḗlē, “block of stone used as a prop or buttress to a wall”)), from steh₂- (“to stand”). More at stand. The medical use derives from sense 2 (seat used for defecation).
From Latin stolo. See stolon.
Countable when referring to furniture; both countable and uncountable in medical contexts depending on whether referring to a specific sample or the substance in general.