stool pigeon

noun

Definition of stool pigeonnext
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

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of stool pigeon Once an unconscious stool pigeon, always an unconscious stool pigeon. — Howie Carr, Boston Herald, 12 Nov. 2025 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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for stool pigeon
  1. informant
  2. informer
  3. canary
  4. rat
  5. reporter
Noun
  • Ziccarelli said that Cochran claimed the charges were withdrawn because the defendant was working as a confidential informant.
    — Mike Darnay, CBS News, 16 Oct. 2026
  • Arcángel Pretel Ortiz, an FBI informant who had helped recruit the squad of commandos, had learned of the constitutional obstacles after consulting with an Ecuadorian lawyer, José Antonio Corrales.
    — Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of informant
Noun
  • One of State Security’s main goals, as well as a central source of its strength, is turning civilians into informers.
    — Abraham Jiménez Enoa, The Dial, 19 May 2026
  • And so every regime invests in having student informers.
    — Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic, 23 Jan. 2026
Definition of informer
Noun
  • For a cold moment the silence locked a grip on our table, though it was broken, at the edges, by the golf commentators moaning and harrumphing, Rory McIlroy having had a canary on a seventeenth fairway somewhere this championship Sunday.
    — Kevin Barry, New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2026
  • Astronauts bring them on journeys to keep an eye on whether or not the water filtration systems are working, much the way miners used to take canaries down to the coal mines to check for poisonous gas leaks.
    — Leslie Felperin, HollywoodReporter, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of canary
Noun
  • New research has also shown that reducing another signaling chemical, norepinephrine, in certain brain regions can decrease rats’ ability to learn from situations where expected rewards are less available.
    — Maia Szalavitz, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2026
  • The Republican billionaire accused of fueling an infestation of rats in Chicago.
    — Jim Edwards, Fortune, 16 Oct. 2026
Definition of rat
Noun
  • The row reached the competition jury’s press conference the day after the opening ceremony, where a reporter raised the question of historical fact and creative freedom.
    — Ophélie Surcouf, Variety, 16 Oct. 2026
  • One of my favorite quotes about Kansas City barbecue comes from a news reporter in Milwaukee.
    — Pete Grathoff, Kansas City Star, 15 Oct. 2026
Definition of reporter

Browse Nearby Words

stoolies
stool pigeon
stool pigeons
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Stool pigeon.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/stool%20pigeon. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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