stall / stôl/ • n. 1. a stand, booth, or compartment for the sale of goods in a market or large covered area: fruit and vegetable stalls.2. an individual compartment for an animal in a stable or barn, enclosed on three sides. ∎  a stable. ∎  a marked-out parking space for a vehicle. ∎  a compartment for one person in a shower room, toilet, or similar facility.3. a fixed seat in the choir or chancel of a church, more or less enclosed at the back and sides and often canopied, typically reserved for a particular member of the clergy.4. (stalls) Brit. the seats on the ground floor in a theater.5. an instance of an engine, vehicle, aircraft, or boat stalling: speed must be maintained to avoid a stall and loss of control.• v. 1. [intr.] (of a motor vehicle or its engine) stop running, typically because of an overload on the engine: her car stalled at the crossroads. ∎  (of an aircraft or its pilot) reach a condition where the speed is too low to allow effective operation of the controls. ∎  Sailing have insufficient wind power in the sails to give controlled motion. ∎  [tr.] cause (an engine, vehicle, aircraft, or boat) to stall.2. [intr.] (of a situation or process) stop making progress: his career had stalled, hers taken off. ∎  [tr.] delay, obstruct, or block the progress of (something): the government has stalled the much-needed project. ∎  speak or act in a deliberately vague way in order to gain more time to deal with a question or issue; prevaricate: she was stalling for time. ∎  [tr.] delay or divert (someone) by acting in such a way: stall him until I've had time to take a look.3. [tr.] put or keep (an animal) in a stall, esp. in order to fatten it.

stall.
1. Fixed seat in a chancel or choir, one of a number, generally elevated, enclosed at the back and sides, arranged in rows on the north and south sides, and often, in grander churches, surmounted by lofty canopies of tabernacle-work. Seats were often hinged and had misericords on the underside. In larger churches the choir-stalls returned at the west end of each row, parallel to the pulpitum or choir-screen.

2. Theatre-seat in the part of the parquet nearest the stage (orches-tra-stalls).

3. Division in a stable equipped with facilities for feeding and drainage.

Bibliography

F. Bond (1910, 1912, 1913, 1916);
J. Parker (1850)

stall2
A. †have one's abode;

B. †install;

C. put (an animal) in a stall XIV; †assign, fix;

D. come or bring to a stand XV. of mixed orig.; partly (i) — OF. estaler stop, sit in choir, f. estal (see STALL1), (ii) f. STALL1, and (iii) aphetic of INSTALL
.

stall1 †place, position; division in stable or shed OE.; each of a row of seats in a choir; board in front of a shop for the sale of goods, booth, stand XIV; sheath for the finger, etc. XV (finger-stall). OE. steall = (M)Du., OHG. stal (G. stall), ON. stallr pedestal, stall for a horse :- Gmc. *stallaz, prob. :- *staðlaz, f. *sta- STAND. In ME. partly — OF. estal (mod. étal) place, stall in church, etc., of Gmc. orig
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