STALL, noun [G., to set, that is, to throw down, to thrust down. See Still.]

1. Primarily, a stand; a station; a fixed spot; hence, the stand or place where a horse or an ox is kept and fed; the division of a stable, or the apartment for one horse or ox. The stable contains eight or ten stalls.

2. A stable; a place for cattle.

At last he found a stall where oxen stood.

3. In 1 Kings 4:26 stall is used for horse. Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots. In 2 Chronicles 9:25, stall means stable. Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots. These passages are reconciled by the definition given above; Solomon had four thousand stables, each containing ten stalls; forty thousand stalls.

4. A bench, form or frame of shelves in the open air, where any thing is exposed to sale. It is curious to observe the stalls of books in the boulevards and other public places in Paris.

5. A small house or shed in which an occupation is carried on; as a butchers stall

6. The seat of a dignified clergyman in the choir.

The dignified clergy, out of humility, have called their thrones by the name of stalls. [probably a mistake of the reason.]

STALL, verb transitive

1. To put into a stable; or to keep in a stable; as, to stall an ox.

Where king Latinus then his oxen stalld.

2. To install; to place in an office with the customary formalities. [For this, install is now used.]

3. To set; to fix; to plunge into mire so as not to be able to proceed; as, to stall horses or a carriage. [This phrase I have heard in Virginia. In New England, set is used in a like sense.]

STALL, verb intransitive

1. To dwell; to inhabit.

We could not stall together in the world. [Not in use.]

2. To kennel.

3. To be set, as in mire.

4. To be tired of eating, as cattle.