different between couch vs stool

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: kouch, IPA^(key): /ka?t?/
• Rhymes: -a?t?

Etymology 1

From Middle English couche, cowche, from Old French couche, from the verb (see below). Doublet of cwtch.

Alternative forms

• cowch (obsolete)

Noun

couch (plural couches)

1. An item of furniture, often upholstered, for the comfortable seating of more than one person.
2. A bed, a resting-place.
3. The den of an otter.
4. (art, painting and gilding) A preliminary layer, as of colour or size.
5. (brewing) A mass of steeped barley spread upon a floor to germinate, in malting; or the floor occupied by the barley.
6. (metonymically, usually as "the couch") Psychotherapy.

   He spent years on the couch going over his traumatic childhood.

Synonyms

• (item of furniture): davenport, divan, settee, sofa

Hyponyms

• (item of furniture): chesterfield, daybed, love seat

Coordinate terms

• (item of furniture): armchair, banquette

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? German: Couch

Translations

Further reading

• couch on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• wing chair

Etymology 2

From Middle English couchen, from Old French (se) couchier, (se) colchier (“to go to bed”), from Latin colloc? (“to place, to set in order, to assemble, to settle”), from com- (“together, with”) + loc? (“to put, to place, to set”). Doublet of collocate.

Alternative forms

• cowch (obsolete)

Verb

couch (third-person singular simple present couches, present participle couching, simple past and past participle couched)

1. To lie down; to recline (upon a couch or other place of repose).

   Synonyms: lie down, recline
2. To bend the body, as in reverence, pain, labor, etc.; to stoop; to crouch.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene: Disposed into Twelue Books, Fashioning XII. Morall Vertues, London: Printed [by John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 606546721, book III, canto I, stanza IV; republished as The Works of Mr. Edmund Spenser, volume II, London: Printed for Jacob Tonson at Shakespear's Head, over against Catherine-street in the Strand, 1715, OCLC 645789119, page 368:

     At la?t, as thro an open Plain they yode, / They ?py'd a Knight, that towards pricked fair, / And him be?ide an aged Squire there rode, / That ?eem'd to couch under his Shield three-?quare, / As if that Age bad him that Burden ?pare, / And yield it tho?e that ?touter could it wield: […]
3. (transitive) To lay something upon a bed or other resting place.
4. (transitive) To arrange or dispose as if in a bed.
   • 1684, Thomas Burnet, The Theory of the Earth: Containing an Account of the Original of the Earth, and of All the General Changes which it Hath Already Undergone, or Is to Undergo, Till the Consummation of All Things, volume I, London: Printed by R[oger] Norton for Walter Kettilby, OCLC 12330969, book I; republished as The Theory of the Earth: Containing an Account of the Original of the Earth, and of All the General Changes which it Hath Already Undergone, or Is to Undergo, Till the Consummation of All Things. The Two First Books Concerning the Deluge, and Concerning Paradise, 3rd edition, volume I, London: Printed for R[oger] N[orton] for Walter Kettilby, at the Bishop's-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard, 1697, OCLC 228725686, page 56:

     [T]he Sea and the Land make one Globe, and the waters couch them?elves, as clo?e as may be, to the Center of this Globe in a Spherical convexity; ?o that if all the Mountains and Hills were ?cal'd, and the Earth made even, the Waters would not overflow its ?mooth ?urface; […]

5. (transitive) To lay or deposit in a bed or layer; to bed.
   • 1627, Francis Bacon, “VIII. Century”, in Sylua Syluarum: or A Naturall Historie: in Ten Centuries. VVritten by the Right Honourable Francis Lo[rd] Verulam Viscount St. Alban. Published after the Authors Death, by VVilliam Rawley Doctor of Diuinitie, late His Lordships Chaplaine, London: Printed by I[ohn] H[aviland and Augustine Mathewes] for William Lee at the Turks Head in Fleet-street, next to the Miter, OCLC 606502643; republished as Sylva Sylvarvm: or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centvries. Written by the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam Viscount St. Alban. Published after the Authors Death, by William Rawley Doctor in Divinitie, One of His Majesties Chaplaines. Hereunto is now Added an Alphabeticall Table of the Principall Things Contained in the Whole Worke, London: Printed by John Haviland for William Lee, and are to be sold by John Williams, 1635, OCLC 606502717, page 197:

     It is, at this Day, in u?e, in Gaza, to couch Pot-Sheards or Ve??els of Earth, in their Walls, to gather the Wind from the top, and to pa??e it downe in Spouts into Roomes. It is a Device for Fre?hne??e, in great Heats; […]

6. (transitive) To lower (a spear or lance) to the position of attack.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene: Disposed into Twelue Books, Fashioning XII. Morall Vertues, London: Printed [by John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 606546721, book III, canto V, stanza III; republished as The Works of Mr. Edmund Spenser, volume II, London: Printed for Jacob Tonson at Shakespear's Head, over against Catherine-street in the Strand, 1715, OCLC 645789119, page 240:

     And fairly couching his ?teel-headed Spear, / Him fir?t ?aluted with a ?turdy Stroke: / It booted nought Sir Guyon, coming near, / To think ?uch hideous Pui??ance on foot to bear.

   • 1805, Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, Paternoster-Row, and A. Constable and Co. Edinburgh; by James Ballantyne, Edinburgh, OCLC 1250572, canto III, stanza V; 2nd edition, London, Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, Paternoster-Row, and A. Constable and Co. Edinburgh; by James Ballantyne, Edinburgh, 1805, OCLC 928165697, page 76:

     Stout Deloraine nor sighed, nor prayed, / Nor saint, nor ladye, called to aid: / But he stooped his head, and couched his spear, / And spurred his steed to full career. / The meeting of these champions proud / Seemed like the bursting thunder-cloud.

7. (ophthalmology, transitive) In the treatment of a cataract in the eye, to displace the opaque lens with a sharp object such as a needle. The technique is regarded as largely obsolete.
8. (paper-making, transitive) To transfer (for example, sheets of partly dried pulp) from the wire mould to a felt blanket for further drying.
9. (sewing, transitive) To attach a thread onto fabric with small stitches in order to add texture.
10. To phrase in a particular style; to use specific wording for.

    Synonyms: explain, express, phrase, term
11. (archaic) To lie down for concealment; to conceal, to hide; to be concealed; to be included or involved darkly or secretly.
    • 1832, Isaac Taylor, “The State of Sacred Science: ‘Thy Testimonies are My Meditation’”, in Saturday Evening, London: Holdsworth and Ball, OCLC 262702496; republished Hingham, Mass.: Published by C. & E. B. Gill [...], 1833, OCLC 191249371, page 91:

      […] Or who, regardless of the powers of calumny that keep their state as ministers of vengeance around the throne of ancient Prejudice, explores anew the half-hidden, half-revealed wonders, that yet couch beneath the words of the Scripture?

Alternative forms

• cowch (obsolete)

Derived terms

• couchedness
• couch a hogshead
• recouch
• uncouched

Translations

Etymology 3

From quitch, from Old English cwice.

Noun

couch (uncountable)

1. Couch grass, a species of persistent grass, Elymus repens, usually considered a weed.

Translations

Further reading

• couch on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Elymus repens on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stu?l/
• Rhymes: -u?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English stool, stole, stol, from Old English st?l (“chair, seat, throne”), from Proto-Germanic *st?laz (“chair”) (compare West Frisian stoel, Dutch stoel, German Stuhl, Swedish/Norwegian/Danish stol, Finnish tuoli, Estonian tool), from Proto-Indo-European *stoh?los (compare Lithuanian stálas, Russian ???? (stol, “table”), Russian ???? (stul, “chair”), Serbo-Croatian stol (“table”), Slovene stol (“chair”), Albanian kështallë (“crutch”), Ancient Greek ????? (st?l?, “block of stone used as a prop or buttress to a wall”)), from *steh?- (“to stand”). More at stand.

The medical use derives from sense 2 (seat used for defecation).

Noun

stool (countable and uncountable, plural stools)

1. A seat, especially for one person and without armrests.
   1. A seat for one person without a back or armrests.
   2. A footstool.
   3. (now chiefly dialectal, Scotland) A seat with a back; a chair.
   4. (now chiefly dialectal, Scotland, literally and figuratively) A throne.
2. (obsolete) A close-stool; a seat used for urination and defecation: a chamber pot, commode, outhouse seat, or toilet.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:chamber pot, Thesaurus:toilet, Thesaurus:bathroom

3. (horticulture) A plant that has been cut down until its main stem is close to the ground, resembling a stool, to promote new growth.
4. (chiefly medicine) Feces, excrement.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:feces
5. (chiefly medicine) A production of feces or excrement, an act of defecation, stooling.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:defecation
6. (archaic) A decoy; a portable piece of wood to which a pigeon is fastened to lure wild birds.
7. (nautical) A small channel on the side of a vessel, for the deadeyes of the backstays.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Totten to this entry?)

8. (US, dialect) Material, such as oyster shells, spread on the sea bottom for oyster spat to adhere to.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• chair
• seat

Verb

stool (third-person singular simple present stools, present participle stooling, simple past and past participle stooled)

1. (chiefly medicine) To produce stool: to defecate.
2. (horticulture) To cut down (a plant) until its main stem is close to the ground, resembling a stool, to promote new growth.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:defecate

Etymology 2

Latin stolo. See stolon.

Noun

stool (plural stools)

1. A plant from which layers are propagated by bending its branches into the soil.

Verb

stool (third-person singular simple present stools, present participle stooling, simple past and past participle stooled)

1. (agriculture) To ramify; to tiller, as grain; to shoot out suckers.
   • 1869, Richard D. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, chapter 38:

     I worked very hard in the copse of young ash, with my billhook and a shearing-knife; cutting out the saplings where they stooled too close together, making spars to keep for thatching, wall-crooks to drive into the cob, stiles for close sheep hurdles, and handles for rakes, and hoes, and two-bills, of the larger and straighter stuff.

References

Anagrams

• loots, lotos, sloot, sotol, tools, tosol

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /stul/

Noun

stool m or f (plural stools)

1. (Canada, slang, derogatory) A denouncer or whistleblower; a stoolie.

Derived terms

• stooleux