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Stalk   /stɔk/   Listen
noun
Stalk  n.  
1.
(Bot.)
(a)
The stem or main axis of a plant; as, a stalk of wheat, rye, or oats; the stalks of maize or hemp.
(b)
The petiole, pedicel, or peduncle, of a plant.
2.
That which resembles the stalk of a plant, as the stem of a quill.
3.
(Arch.) An ornament in the Corinthian capital resembling the stalk of a plant, from which the volutes and helices spring.
4.
One of the two upright pieces of a ladder. (Obs.) "To climb by the rungs and the stalks."
5.
(Zool.)
(a)
A stem or peduncle, as of certain barnacles and crinoids.
(b)
The narrow basal portion of the abdomen of a hymenopterous insect.
(c)
The peduncle of the eyes of decapod crustaceans.
6.
(Founding) An iron bar with projections inserted in a core to strengthen it; a core arbor.
Stalk borer (Zool.), the larva of a noctuid moth (Gortyna nitela), which bores in the stalks of the raspberry, strawberry, tomato, asters, and many other garden plants, often doing much injury.


Stalk  n.  
1.
A high, proud, stately step or walk. "Thus twice before,... With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch." "The which with monstrous stalk behind him stepped."
2.
The act or process of stalking. "When the stalk was over (the antelope took alarm and ran off before I was within rifle shot) I came back."


verb
Stalk  v. t.  
1.
To approach under cover of a screen, or by stealth, for the purpose of killing, as game. "As for shooting a man from behind a wall, it is cruelly like to stalking a deer."
2.
To follow (a person) persistently, with or without attempts to evade detection; as, the paparazzi stalk celebrities to get candid photographs; obsessed fans may stalk their favorite movie stars.


Stalk  v. i.  (past & past part. stalked; pres. part. stalking)  
1.
To walk slowly and cautiously; to walk in a stealthy, noiseless manner; sometimes used with a reflexive pronoun. "Into the chamber he stalked him full still." "(Bertran) stalks close behind her, like a witch's fiend, Pressing to be employed."
2.
To walk behind something 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."
3.
To walk with high and proud steps; usually implying the affectation of dignity, and indicating dislike. The word is used, however, especially by the poets, to express dignity of step. "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."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Stalk" Quotes from Famous Books



... effort. I cut mine at that time, although I have learned better now. I recollect the asparagus, too: served by itself on a great flat dish, and shining pale and green through the clear golden sauce that was poured over it. I was just finishing my first luscious, liquid stalk, and indulging in anticipations of my second, when the highest, the shrillest, the most piercing, and most unearthly voice I ...
— Crowded Out! and Other Sketches • Susie F. Harrison
... me melancholy and I left off for the most part having them here. Now you see how they put up with the close room, and condescend to me and the dust—it is true and no fancy! To be sure they know that I care for them and that I stand up by the table myself to change their water and cut their stalk freshly at intervals—that may make a difference perhaps. Only the great reason must be that they are yours, and that you teach them to bear ...
— The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 • Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett
... Quit him! an hell would quit him too, he were happy. 'Slight! would you have me stalk like a mill-jade, All day, for one that will not yield us grains? ...
— The Alchemist • Ben Jonson
... royne-slippers of philosophy, as the inflamed gout of polemical controversy, which had gumfiated every mental joint and member of that zealous prop of the Relief Kirk. This was indeed the tender point of Miss Mally's character; for she was left unplucked on the stalk of single blessedness, owing entirely to a conversation on this very subject with the only lover she ever had, Mr. Dalgliesh, formerly helper in the neighbouring parish of Dintonknow. He happened incidentally to observe, ...
— The Ayrshire Legatees • John Galt
... be clearer to an English reader if "a stork" were substituted for the goat: "When a stork stoops to drink of the Neda;" and the "stalk" of the fig ...
— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol 1 - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook • The Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D.


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