A small porch or set of steps at the entrance to a building, or to bend your body forward and downward.
From Dutch stoep, entering English in New York Dutch colonial areas. As a verb, it comes from Old English stupian meaning to bend or incline.
In Dutch colonial New York, stoops were social centers where neighbors gathered—today in cities like Brooklyn, stoops are still where community life happens, which is why 'sitting on the stoop' still feels like belonging somewhere.
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