stall 2. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

stall²

PRONUNCIATION:	stôl
NOUN:	A ruse or tactic used to mislead or delay.
VERB:	Inflected forms: stalled, stall·ing, stalls
TRANSITIVE VERB:	To employ delaying tactics against: stall off creditors.
INTRANSITIVE VERB:	To employ delaying tactics: stalling for time.
ETYMOLOGY:	Alteration (influenced by stall¹) of obsolete stale, pickpocket's accomplice, from Middle English, decoy, from Anglo-Norman estale, of Germanic origin; akin to possibly akin to Old English stl, stathol, place, position. See staddle.


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.