Word.ws English Dictionary

pedal stool

pedal stool noun: a stool with vertical foot levers that attach to the pedals of a piano, organ, or similar instrument, thereby assisting children and other players who cannot reach the pedals normally.

Noun (1)

pedal stool (plural pedal stools)

  1. A stool with vertical foot levers that attach to the pedals of a piano, organ, or similar instrument, thereby assisting children and other players who cannot reach the pedals normally.
    • A pedal-stool having an opening in its rear side to clear the piano-pedals.1904, Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, CXII:ii, page 1,878
    • The sound-post of this instrument “extended above the ridge of heaven, while the pedal-stool was beneath hell.”1998, David Nicholls, The Whole World of Music, page 22

Noun (2)

pedal stool

  1. (nonstandard) malapropism of pedestal.
    • ‘I looked up to him, you know. I put him on a pedal stool.’1993, Rory MacLean, Stalin’s Nose, page 210
    • They retire and get put up on a pedal-stool by there fans.1996, Bill Crider, A Dangerous Thing, page 52

Examples of pedal stool in a sentence

  • “It is unwise for auterists to put auteurs on a pedal stool above nonauteurs.”2002, Tribune, LXVI, page 45:
  • Leah, holding high to her own personal beliefs took a path that would soon put her on a pedal stool upon other Christians.2006, Thomas E. Sliwinski, The House of Thomas, III, page 5:
  • “You know it’s against the rules to date the judge Juliet, our rivals will put you on a pedal stool”.2007, Mamet, Hush Ma, page 103:
  • He was still not one hundred percent certain that she would carry out any further threats and Luke would bounce back and return to her good books and his place on her pedal stool.2008, Debbie Graham, The Mutts Nuts, page 140:

Forms of pedal stool

pluralpedal stools
alternative formpedal-stool

Origin of pedal stool

pedal + stool

Mishearing owing to homeophony (compare pedestal: pĕʹdəstəl with pedal stool: pĕʹdəl.sto͞ol).

Questions about pedal stool

What does pedal stool mean?
Pedal stool means a stool with vertical foot levers that attach to the pedals of a piano, organ, or similar instrument, thereby assisting children and other players who cannot reach the pedals normally.
How do you use pedal stool in a sentence?
“It is unwise for auterists to put auteurs on a pedal stool above nonauteurs.”
What part of speech is pedal stool?
Pedal stool is a noun.
What is the plural of pedal stool?
The plural of pedal stool is pedal stools.

Words near pedal stool in the dictionary

  1. pedal steel guitar
  2. pedal steel guitarist
  3. pedal steel guitarists
  4. pedal steel guitars
  5. pedal steels
  6. pedal stool
  7. pedal stools
  8. pedal stroke
  9. pedal strokes
  10. pedal to the metal
  11. pedal-pusher

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pedal stool (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “pedal stool.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pedal_stool. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.