as in informant
a person who provides information about another's wrongdoing
the FBI finally got a break when one of the mob boss's top henchmen turned stool pigeon
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Recent Examples of stool pigeon
Russo turned stool pigeon within a month of his November 2017 arrest for selling a kilo of cocaine to an undercover agent.
—
John Annese, New York Daily News, 26 Feb. 2025
They are barred from using certain language during debates including git, guttersnipe, swine and stool pigeon.
—Max Colchester, WSJ, 3 Jan. 2019
John Annese, New York Daily News, 26 Feb. 2025
They are barred from using certain language during debates including git, guttersnipe, swine and stool pigeon.
—Max Colchester, WSJ, 3 Jan. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for stool pigeon
Noun
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Once behind bars, Limon-Gonzalez discovered an unnamed government informant had given up information about him in December 2022, authorities say.—
Nate Gartrell,
Mercury News,
29 Aug. 2025
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Smith and Bean were found guilty of one count of tampering with a witness, victim or informant, and they were acquitted on the three other counts against them.—
Phil Helsel,
NBC news,
28 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Option 2: If one prisoner informs while the other stays silent, the informer will go free while the silent one receives the harshest sentence.—
Michael Ashley,
Forbes.com,
29 July 2025
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The Nazis set up secret squads in the camps to conduct beatings and killings of prisoners thought to be too friendly with U.S. officials or were accused of being informers.—
Peter Lucas,
Boston Herald,
10 July 2025
Noun
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But the joblessness numbers and declining participation among Black women suggest a complication to his pronouncement and a canary in the coal mine for broader economic instability.—
Richard Fowler,
Forbes.com,
2 Sep. 2025
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The insurance crisis is the canary in the coal mine for the climate crisis.—
Giulia Carbonaro,
MSNBC Newsweek,
28 Aug. 2025
Noun
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As the connections strengthened, the rats showed significant functional recovery.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
5 Sep. 2025
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Roughly half of all the mammal species on the planet are rodents such as rats, mice, squirrels, and hamsters and they are found on every single continent except for Antarctica.—
Laura Baisas,
Popular Science,
4 Sep. 2025
Noun
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The changes follow the announcement earlier this week that crew members would be required to submit deep throat saliva samples at Hong Kong International Airport.—
Julia Horowitz,
CNN,
9 July 2020
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The airlines dropped flights to the city after Hong Kong’s health authority mandated new deep throat testing and quarantine rules for anyone flying there, including possible mandatory hospitalization for anyone that tests positive for COVID-19.—
Dallas News,
Dallas News,
9 July 2020
Noun
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There were reporters and photographers all around, clamoring for interviews and pictures.—
Matthew Futterman,
New York Times,
6 Sep. 2025
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Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.—
Gloria Casas,
Chicago Tribune,
6 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Stool pigeon.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/stool%20pigeon. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
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