stoop

To bend your head and upper body forward and down.

• She stooped to tie her shoe.
• You must stoop under this low branch.
• He was stooping over the box when I arrived.

How to use it: stoop to + verb (She stooped to pick up her bag.); stoop under something (He stooped under the low doorway.)

Similar words: bend down, bend over

Opposites: straighten

Common phrases: stoop down, stoop to pick, stoop under something

To do something dishonest or shameful that you would normally consider beneath you.

• Don't stoop to insults.
• She refused to stoop to cheating.
• Would he really stoop so low as to hurt a child?

How to use it: stoop to something/doing something (I would never stoop to lying about a colleague.); stoop so low as to + verb (He stooped so low as to steal from his friends.)

Similar words: sink, lower oneself

Common phrases: stoop so low, stoop to cheating, stoop to insults

If a bird does this, it dives suddenly toward the ground, usually to catch another animal.

• The hawk stooped toward the field.
• A falcon stooped on its prey.
• We watched the bird stoop from high above the cliff.

How to use it: stoop on someone/something (The falcon stooped on a pigeon.)

Similar words: dive, swoop

Common phrases: stoop on prey, stoop at something, stoop from above

A body position in which the head and shoulders bend forward.

• He has a slight stoop.
• Years of bending over a desk gave her a stoop.
• The man walked with a pronounced stoop.

Similar words: hunch

Common phrases: a slight stoop, walk with a stoop, a pronounced stoop