joint-stool
(ˈdʒɔɪntstuːl)
Forms: α. 5–7 ioyned, ioyn'd, ioynd, ioin'd s. (with or without hyphen: see forms of stool); β. 7 joyne-stoole; γ. 6–7 ioynt, 8 joynt-, 7–9 joint-stool.
[In sense 1, orig. joined stool. In sense 2, f. joint n. 4.]
1. A stool made of parts joined or fitted together; a stool made by a joiner, as distinguished from one of more clumsy workmanship. (Cf. joined 2.) Obs. exc. Hist.
Frequently mentioned in 16–18th c. as an article of furniture; also in allusive or proverbial phrases expressing disparagement or ridicule, of which the precise explanation is lost.
| 1434 E. E. Wills (1882) 102 Also a litil Ioyned stoll for a child, & a nother Ioyned stoll, large for to sitte on, whanne he cometh to mannes state. 1512 Nottingham Rec. III. 114 Duo scabella vocata joyned stoles. 1594 Lyly Moth. Bombie iv. ii, Accius. You neede not be so lustie: you are not so honest. Selina. I crie you mercie, I tooke you for a ioynt stoole. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. ii. i. 199 Kath. I knew you at the first, You were a mouable. Petr. Why, what's a mouable? Kath. A ioyn'd stoole. 1611 Cotgr., Selle,..any illfauored, ordinarie..stoole, of a cheaper sort then the ioyned, or buffet-stoole. 1634 Withal's Dict. 553 Ante hoc te cornua habere putabam, I cry you mercy, I tooke you for a joynd stoole. 1638 Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. III.) ii. xii, Fitter to be read upon a Joyne-stoole, than pronounced at a Tribunall. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull iii. i, He used to lay chairs and joint-stools in their way, that they might break their noses by falling over them. 1784 Cowper Task i. 19 Joint-stools were then created; on three legs Upborne they stood. Three legs upholding firm A massy slab, in fashion square or round. 1820 Scott Monast. xv, As passive an instrument of my accommodation as this ill-made and rugged joint-stool on which I sit. 1859 Jephson Brittany ii. 9, I seated myself on a joint-stool on the deck. |
2. Mech. ‘A block holding up the ends of parts which belong in apposition, as railway rails, ways of vessels, etc.’ (Knight Dict. Mech. 1875).