stalk

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: stôk, IPA^(key): /stɔːk/
• (US) enPR: stôk, IPA^(key): /stɔk/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /stɑk/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (US) (cot-caught merged)

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• Homophone: stork (non-rhotic accents), Homophone: stock (in accents with the cot-caught merger)
• Rhymes: -ɔːk

From Middle English stalke, diminutive of stale 'ladder upright, stalk', from Old English stalu 'wooden upright', from Proto-Germanic *stalǭ (compare Middle Low German stal, stale 'chair leg'), variant of *steluz, stelōn 'stalk' (compare Old English stela, Dutch steel, German Stiel, Danish stilk), from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (compare Albanian shtalkë (“crossbeam, board used as a door hinge”), Welsh telm (“frond”), Ancient Greek stélos 'beam', Old Armenian ստեղն (stełn, “trunk, stalk”)).

stalk (plural stalks)

1. The stem or main axis of a plant, which supports the seed-carrying parts.

   a stalk of wheat, rye, or oats;  the stalks of maize or hemp

   • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, chapter I, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1915, OCLC 40817384:

     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 gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.

2. The petiole, pedicel, or peduncle of a plant.
3. Something resembling the stalk of a plant, such as the stem of a quill.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Grew to this entry?)

4. (architecture) An ornament in the Corinthian capital resembling the stalk of a plant, from which the volutes and helices spring.
5. One of the two upright pieces of a ladder.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Chaucer to this entry?)

6. (zoology)
   1. A stem or peduncle, as in certain barnacles and crinoids.
   2. The narrow basal portion of the abdomen of a hymenopterous insect.
   3. The peduncle of the eyes of decapod crustaceans.
7. (metalworking) An iron bar with projections inserted in a core to strengthen it; a core arbor.

From Middle English stalken, from Old English *stealcian (as in Old English bestealcian (“to move stealthily”), stealcung (“stalking”)), from Proto-Germanic *stalkōną 'to move stealthily' (compare Dutch stelkeren, stolkeren 'to tip-toe, tread carefully', Danish stalke (“to high step, stalk”), Norwegian dialectal stalka 'to trudge'), from *stalkaz, *stelkaz (compare Old English stealc 'steep', Old Norse stelkr, stjalkr (“knot (bird), red sandpiper”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)telg, *(s)tolg- (compare Middle Irish tolg (“strength”), Lithuanian stalgùs (“stiff, defiant, proud”)).[1]

Alternate etymology connects Proto-Germanic *stalkōną 'to stalk, move stealthily', to a frequentative form of Proto-Germanic *stelaną 'to steal'.

stalk (third-person singular simple present stalks, present participle stalking, simple past and past participle stalked)

1. (transitive) To approach slowly and quietly in order not to be discovered when getting closer.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Sir Walter Scott

     As for shooting a man from behind a wall, it is cruelly like to stalking a deer.

   • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326:

     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 themselves over Drina, whom he was stalking.

2. (transitive) To (try to) follow or contact someone constantly, often resulting in harassment.^Wp

   My ex-girlfriend is stalking me.

3. (intransitive) To walk slowly and cautiously; to walk in a stealthy, noiseless manner.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden

     [Bertran] stalks close behind her, like a witch's fiend, / Pressing to be employed.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

4. (intransitive) To walk behind something, such as a screen, for the purpose of approaching game; to proceed under cover.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Francis Bacon

     The king […] crept under the shoulder of his led horse; […] "I must stalk," said he.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Michael Drayton

     One underneath his horse, to get a shoot doth stalk.

stalk (plural stalks)

1. A particular episode of trying to follow or contact someone.
2. A hunt (of a wild animal).
   • Theodore Roosevelt

     When the stalk was over (the antelope took alarm and ran off before I was within rifle shot) I came back.

• stalker

1530, 'to walk haughtily', perhaps from Old English stealc 'steep', from Proto-Germanic *stelkaz, *stalkaz 'high, lofty, steep, stiff'; see above

stalk (third-person singular simple present stalks, present participle stalking, simple past and past participle stalked)

1. (intransitive) To walk haughtily.
   • Dryden

     With manly mien he stalked along the ground.

   • Addison

     Then stalking through the deep, / He fords the ocean.

   • Mericale

     I forbear myself from entering the lists in which he has long stalked alone and unchallenged.

• talks

• Audio

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stalk

1. first-person singular present indicative of stalken
2. imperative of stalken