Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A chair formerly used to punish offenders, in which a person was tied and exposed to public derision or ducked in water.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Formerly, a chair in which an offender, as a common brawler or scold, or a woman of disorderly life, or a defaulting brewer or baker, was placed, to be hooted at or pelted by the mob.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- A kind of chair formerly used for punishing scolds, and also dishonest tradesmen, by fastening them in it, usually in front of their doors, to be pelted and hooted at by the mob, but sometimes to be taken to the water and ducked; -- called also a
castigatory , atumbrel , and atrebuchet ; and often, but not so correctly, aducking stool .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an instrument of punishment consisting of a chair in which offenders were ducked in water
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Middle English cukking stol, from cukken, to defecate, of Scandinavian origin; see kakka- in Indo-European roots.]
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Examples
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ruzuzu commented on the word cucking stool
"Formerly, a chair in which an offender, as a common brawler or scold, or a woman of disorderly life, or a defaulting brewer or baker, was placed, to be hooted at or pelted by the mob. The cuckingstool has been frequently confounded with the duckingstool; but the former did not of itself admit of the ducking of its occupant, although in conjunction with the tumbrel it was sometimes used for that purpose."
--Century Dictionary
See also trebuchet.
September 21, 2010
bilby commented on the word cucking stool
Sounds like a frogapplause tool to me.
September 21, 2010