/stɔːk/, /staːk/, /stɔk/
OriginFrom Middle English stalke, stelke, stalk, perhaps from Old English *stealc, *stielc, *stealuc, from Proto-West Germanic *staluk, *stalik, from Proto-Germanic *stalukaz, *stalikaz, diminutive of Proto-Germanic *stalô, *staluz (“support, stem, stalk”), from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to place, stand; be stiff; stud, post, trunk, stake, stem, stalk”).
Cognates
Cognate with Dutch staal (“sample”), steel (“stem”), German Stiel (“stalk”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål stilk (“stalk, stem”), Faroese stjølur (“bottom part of a sheaf”), Icelandic stilkur (“stalk, stem”), Norwegian Nynorsk stilk, stylk (“stalk, stem”), styl (“lower part of a straw”), Swedish stjälk (“stalk, stem”), Albanian shtalkë (“crossbeam, board used as a door hinge”), Welsh telm (“frond”), Ancient Greek στειλειή (steileiḗ, “beam”), Old Armenian ստեղն (stełn, “trunk, stalk”).
- The stem or main axis of a plant.
“a stalk of wheat, rye, or oats; the stalks of maize or hemp”
“Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with […] on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarl”
- The petiole, pedicel, or peduncle of a plant.
- Something resembling the stalk of a plant, such as the stem of a quill.
“they appear to be made up of little Bladders , like those in the Plume or Stalk of a Quill”
- An ornament in the Corinthian capital resembling the stalk of a plant, from which the volutes and helices spring.
- One of the two upright pieces of a ladder.
- A stem or peduncle, as in certain barnacles and crinoids.
- The narrow basal portion of the abdomen of a hymenopterous insect.
- The peduncle of the eyes of decapod crustaceans.
- An iron bar with projections inserted in a core to strengthen it; a core arbor.
- Informally, a construction which generalizes that of the notion of the ring of germs of functions near a point to the context of arbitrary sheaves.
- slangThe penis.
- A particular episode of trying to follow or contact someone.
- The hunting of a wild animal by stealthy approach.
“When the stalk was over (the antelope took alarm and ran off before I was within rifle shot) I came back.”
- A haughty style of walking.
- transitiveTo approach slowly and quietly in order not to be discovered when getting closer.
“As for shooting a man from behind a wall, it is cruelly like to stalking a deer.”
“But they had already discovered that he could be bullied, and they had it their own way; and presently Selwyn lay prone upon the nursery floor, impersonating a ladrone while pleasant shivers chased th”
- transitiveTo (try to) follow or contact someone constantly, often resulting in harassment.ᵂᵖ
“My ex-girlfriend is stalking me.”
- intransitiveTo walk slowly and cautiously; to walk in a stealthy, noiseless manner.
“[Bertran] stalks close behind her, like a witch's fiend, / Pressing to be employed.”
“O ay, stalk on, stalk on, the fowl sits”
- intransitiveTo walk behind something, such as a screen, for the purpose of approaching game; to proceed under cover.
“The king[…]crept under the shoulder of his led horse;[…]"I must stalk," said he.”
“One underneath his horse, to get a shoot doth stalk.”
- intransitiveTo walk haughtily.
“With manly mien he stalked along the ground.”
“Then stalking through the deep, / He fords the ocean.”
“I forbear myself from entering the lists in which he has long stalked alone and unchallenged.”
Formsstalks(plural) · stalks(present, singular, third-person) · stalking(participle, present) · stalked(participle, past) · stalked(past)