footstool

• foot stool, foot-stool

From foot +‎ stool.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfʊtˌstuːl/

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footstool (plural footstools)

1. A low stool for supporting the feet while seated.
   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 183:

     In Christianity, the world is called the footstool of Christ; in this Sumerian vision, the awakened body would be called the bed of the Queen of Heaven.

2. (figurative) Anything trodden upon or treated as subservient.
   • 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 21:

     Thereafter, when I have eaten and drunken and made merry in my royal palace at Carcë, I will sail with my armies over the teeming deep to many-mountained Demonland. And it shall be my footstool, and these other Demons the slaves of me, yea, and the slaves of my slaves.

• stepstool