Meaning & use
stooped
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Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Bent forward at the upper back and shoulders so that one does not stand straight.
Grammar: Used before a noun or after a verb: a stooped old man; he looked stooped.
Patterns
- stooped with something
- stooped from something
The stooped gardener moved slowly between the rows of beans.
She was tall once, but years at a desk left her slightly stooped.
He walked into the room with stooped shoulders and a tired smile.
verbtransitive or intransitive
Past form of stoop: bent the body forward and down, or lowered oneself to behave in a dishonorable way.
Grammar: Mostly intransitive; the moral sense uses to: he stooped to cheating.
Patterns
- stoop to do something
- stoop down
She stooped to pick up the child's mitten.
He never stooped to lying, even when it would have helped him.
The old man stooped under the low doorway.
Word forms
| comparative | more stooped |
|---|---|
| superlative | most stooped |
Common combinations
- stooped shoulders
- His stooped shoulders made him look older than he was.
- a stooped figure
- A stooped figure waited at the bus stop in the rain.
- stooped posture
- Hours at the computer had given her a stooped posture.
- stooped with age
- The librarian was stooped with age but still sharp.
- stooped over
- He stooped over the map, studying every road.
Synonyms and how they differ
- hunched
- Hunched suggests the shoulders are pulled up and forward, often for a short time because of cold or concentration, while stooped is more often a lasting posture.
- bent
- Bent is a general word for any curve, and stooped specifically describes the forward-leaning upper body.
- round-shouldered
- Round-shouldered names the curve of the shoulders only, whereas stooped describes the lean of the whole upper body.
- slouched
- Slouched implies lazy or careless posture that you could correct, while stooped often comes from age or habit.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: stooped or stopped?
stooped vs stopped
Stopped means ceased moving; stooped has an extra o and means bent forward. They are easy to mix up in writing.
Practice
After decades of carrying heavy bags, the postman had become slightly ___.
Choose one answer.
Stooped describes a forward-bent back. Stunted means prevented from growing fully, which does not fit a posture.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “stooped”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.