A small porch, platform, or staircase leading to the entrance of a house or building.
[Dutch stoep, front verandah, from Middle Dutch.]
Regional Note: Originally brought to the Hudson Valley of New York by settlers from the Netherlands, a few items of Dutch vocabulary have survived there from colonial times until the present. Stoop, “a small porch,” comes from Dutch stoep; this word is now in general use in the Northeast and is probably spreading. . . .
*stoop* 2 (stoop)n.
Chiefly Northeastern U.S.
A small porch, platform, or staircase leading to the entrance of a house or building.
[Dutch stoep, front verandah, from Middle Dutch.]
Regional Note: Originally brought to the Hudson Valley of New York by settlers from the Netherlands, a few items of Dutch vocabulary have survived there from colonial times until the present. Stoop, “a small porch,” comes from Dutch stoep; this word is now in general use in the Northeast and is probably spreading. . . .
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright© 2006, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.