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