| 释义 |
▪ I. stock, n.1|stɒk|
Forms: 1 stocc, 1–4, 6 stoc, 2–7 stoke, 3–7 stocke, stok(ke, (5 ? stolke), 5–6 stokk, 7 Sc. stouk, 4– stock. pl. 3 stocken, 4 stockus, stokez, stokken, stokkus, stoukz, 4– 5 stokkez, 4–6 stockys, stokkes, 4–7 stockis, stok(k)is, 5–6 stokkys, 6 stokys, 7 stox.
[OE. stoc(c masc., corresp. to OFris. stok tree-trunk, stump, OS. stok (Gallée) stick, pole (MLG. stok stump), (M)Du. stok, OHG., MHG. stoc stick, tree-trunk (mod.G. stock stick), ON. stokk-r tree-trunk, block, log (MSw. stokk-er, Sw. stock, Da. stok stick):—OTeut. *stukko-z. Cf. Du. stuk, G. stück (:—OTeut. *stukkjo-m neut., piece) and OFris. stok stiff. The connexions outside Teut. are doubtful: see Kluge, Franck, and Falk & Torp.
The Teut. word is the source of OF., Pr. estoc trunk, stump (mod.F. étoc, altered to étau vice), It. stocco rapier (whence OF. estoc).]
A. n.
I. Trunk or stem.
1. a. A tree-trunk deprived of its branches; the lower part of a tree-trunk left standing, a stump. Obs. or arch.
In this sense (also in b and c) often associated with stone.
862Charter in O.E. Texts 438 Ðanne fram langan leaᵹe to ðam won stocce. 971Blickling Hom. 189 He ᵹefeol on þone stocc be þære stænenan stræte þe is háten Sacra uia. 11..Fragm. ælfric's Gram. (1838) 3 Ligna, driᵹe wude, truncus, stoc, stirps. c1250Owl & Night. 25 Þo stod on old stok þar byside. c1325Sir Orpheo 332 Over stok, and over stone. c1374Chaucer Boeth. v. met. i. (1868) 152 Þe stokkes araced wiþ þe flood [L. vulsi flumine trunci]. c1480Henryson Orpheus 179 For seke hir suth I sall, and nouthir stynt nor stand for stok no stone. 1509Barclay Ship of Fools 269 b, Hange vp the scapler..Vpon a tre clene dede, or rottyn stocke. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. ix. 34 All about old stockes and stubs of trees, Whereon nor fruit nor leafe was euer seene. 1613[Standish] New Direct. Planting 6 Seldome good Timber groweth of old stockes. 1704N. Blundell Diary (1895) 22, I ploughed with a Culter..to find Stocks. 1706De Foe Jure Div. xi. 9 note, If the Parliament of England sets the Crown upon that Stock, (pointing to a Stump that stood by) I'll [etc.]. 1727Swift Poems Market⁓hill, Thorn 33 The magpye, lighting on the stock, Stood chatt'ring. 1810Scott Lady of L. i. vii, O'er stock and rock their race they take. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. II. iv. vii, Over cliffs, over stock and stone. 1868Cussans Heraldry (1893) 104 The Stump of a Tree is sometimes called a Stock. 1877Stevenson Will o' the Mill i, Only he, it seemed, remained behind, like a stock upon the wayside.
†b. A log, block of wood; occas. wood as a material. Obs.
c1000ælfric Saints' Lives xxxi. 856 Þær laᵹon stoccas. c1205Lay. 626 Mid stocken & mid stanen stal fiht heo makeden. c1386Chaucer Knt's. T. 2076 Ne how the fyr was couched first with stree And thanne with drye stokkes clouen a thre. 1422Yonge tr. Secreta Secret. 239 Suche a stomake is like a grete fyre that hath Powere to braunte grete shydis and stokkis. c1450St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 780 Made of stane and noȝt of stok. c1485Digby Myst. i. 154, I am right wele a-paid, if I do not wele, ley my hed vpon a stokke. 1501Douglas Pal. Hon. ii. xxvii, Doun on ane stock I set me suddanelie. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 251 A stocke of wood hollowed [for a coffin]. 1792G. Cartwright Jrnl. Labrador I. Gloss. p. xv, Stock of Timber, a piece of timber, intended to be sawed. 1806Pike Sources Mississ. (1810) 61 My men sawed stocks for the sleds.
c. As the type of what is lifeless, motionless, or void of sensation. Hence, a senseless or stupid person.
1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 940 Dowun he smote hys mattok, And fyl hym self ded as a stok. c1330Arth. & Merl. 3855 Arthour on hors sat stef so stok. c1407Lydg. Reson & Sens. 6411 As deffe as stok or ston. c1440Alphabet of Tales 356 Evur sho talkid vnto hym wurdis to provoce hym to luste of his bodie, and yit be no wyse myght sho induce hym þerto,..he was a stokk, sho sayd, & no man. 1569T. Underdown Heliodorus iv. 59 Yee vnhappy people, howe longe will ye sitte still, dombe like stockes? 1594Spenser Amoretti xliii, That nether I may speake nor thinke at all, But like a stupid stock in silence die! 1640Sir E. Dering Carmelite (1641) B ij, I am not so credulous to thinke every Stock a Stoicke. 1644Milton Educ. 3, I doubt not but ye shall have more adoe to drive our dullest and laziest youth, our stocks and stubbs from the infinite desire of such a happy nurture then we have now [etc.]. 1714Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Mrs. Hewet Nov. (1887) I. 35, I am glad she is not such a stock as I took her to be. 1719De Foe Crusoe ii. (Globe) 344 The Fellow stood mute as a Stock a good while. 1775Sheridan Rivals iii. i, What a phlegmatic sot it is! Why, sirrah, you're an anchorite!—a vile, insensible stock. 1809Malkin Gil Blas ix. vi. (Rtldg.) 320, I..left him in the street like a stock, staring at my termagant loquacity. 1861Dickens Gt. Expect. xxxviii, You stock and stone!.. You cold, cold heart! 1888Barrie When Man's Single i, Joey Fargus was the stock's name. 1896K. Snowden Web of Weaver xviii. 207 ‘Ye are not fain to see me, then?’ I stood like a stock, letting her think so.
d. Applied contemptuously to an idol or a sacred image. Chiefly in the phrase stocks and stones = ‘gods of wood and stone’.
c1000ælfric Deut. xxviii. 36 Ᵹe þeouiað fremdum godum, stoccum and stanum. a1225St. Marher. 1 Heðene mawmez of stockes, ant of stanes, werkes iwrahte. c1374Chaucer Troylus iii. 589 He swor hir, yis, by stokkes and by stones, And by the goddes that in hevene dwelle. 1390Gower Conf. II. 178 How myhte a mannes resoun sein That such a Stock mai helpe or grieve? c1449Pecock Repr. ii. ix. 198 Thei worschipiden ymagis of stoonys or of stockis. 1529More Dyaloge i. Wks. 140/1 Of al our Ladies saith one, I loue best our Lady of Walsingam. And I saith y⊇ other our Lady of Ippiswitch. In whiche woordes what meneth she but her..affeccion to the stocke yt standeth in the chapel of Walsingam or Ippiswiche. a1591H. Smith Sinful Mans Search (1592) B 6, That ye be not seduced to offer your petitions to strange gods, as Saints, stockes or stones. 1611Bible Jer. iii. 9, Wisd. xiv. 21. 1640 J. Taylor (Water P.) Differing Worships 4 Imploring aid..From ragges and reliques, stones, and stocks of wood. 1655Milton Sonn. xiii. 4. 1825 Scott Talism. xxviii, Those whom we regard as idolaters, and worshippers of stocks and stones. 1874Sayce Compar. Philol. viii. 332 There was a worship of nature instead of stocks and stones.
†e. (to lose) stock and block: everything, one's whole possessions. Obs.
1675Brooks Golden Key Wks. 1867 V. 244 Adam, like the prodigal son,..quickly lost stock and block, as some speak. 1725N. Bailey Fam. Colloq. Erasm. (1733) 236 Before I came Home, I lost all, Stock and Block. 1775J. Murray Lett. (1901) 194 Jack Clark..offered to send Providence wagons to move us stock and block to a place of safety. 1809Malkin Gil Blas xii. vi. (Rtldg.) 431, I had taken it for granted that..the verb-grinders..to whom I had given the plant of this Genoese bastard would lose stock and block.
† f. stock and stovel (Law): see quot. 1753. Obs.
15..Charter in Blount's Law Dict. (1691) s.v. Stoc, Præterea si homines de Stanhal dicti Abbatis inventi fuerint in bosco prædicti W. cum forisfacto ad Stoc & ad Stovel,..malefactor pro delicto, qui taliter inventus est, reddet tres solidos. 1753Chambers' Cycl. Suppl., Stoc and Stovel, in our old writers, a forfeiture where any one is taken carrying stipites and pabulum out of the woods.
2. a. The trunk or stem of a (living) tree, as distinguished from the root and branches.
† (to sell wood) upon the stock: standing.
1340Hampole Pr. Consc. i. 676 What es man in shap bot a tre Turned up þat es doun,..Þe stok nest þe rot growand Es þe heved with nek folowand. 1382Wyclif Job xiv. 9 His stoc at the smel of water shal burioune. c1430Pilgr. Lyf Manhode iii. xxi. (1869) 146 Sumtime the wodieres solden here wode up on the stok. c1449Pecock Repr. i. vi. 28 Tho bowis grewen out of stockis or tronchons, and the tronchons or schaftis grewen out of the roote. a1500in Arnolde's Chron. 168 Doo donge medlide with strawe aboute the stoke toward the roete of a good thiknes. a1500Bollarde in Turner Dom. Archit. (1851) I. 144 Take many rype walenottes, and water hem a while,..and ther shalbe grawe therof a grett stoke, that we calle masere. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 43 Of the whiche tree, fayth, hope, & charite, be compared to the stocke, to the barke, & to the sap. 1688Holme Armoury ii. 84/2 The Stock [of a tree is] next to the root. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. ii. 264 Strong Stocks of Vines it will in time produce. 1705tr. Bosman's Guinea 291 The Stock of these Trees, if they deserve that name, grow to once and a half or twice Man's height. 1846Tennyson Golden Year 62 Like an oaken stock in winter woods. 1857Henfrey Elem. Bot. §57 The Stock or caudex is an undivided woody trunk.
fig.1340Ayenb. 19 Þe oþer boȝ þet comþ out of þe stocke of prede zuo is onworþnesse. 1447O. Bokenham Seyntys, Anna 110 Of this floure..This gracyous Anne was stoke & rote. 1513Bradshaw St. Werburge i. 3163 The tryed stock of truth and the grounde of grace Is pyteously decayed. 1531Tindale Expos. 1 John (1537) 54 As ther is no synne in Christ y⊇ stock, so can ther be none in the quycke membres that lyue & grow in him. a1536Songs, Carols etc. (E.E.T.S.) 6 The blessid stoke þat yt on grew, Ytt was Mary, that bare Jhesu. 1647Cowley Mistress, Tree iii, What a few words from thy rich stock did take The Leaves and Beauties all? 1812Cary Dante, Parad. iv. 126 Thence doth doubt Spring, like a shoot, around the stock of truth. 1884tr. Lotze's Metaphysic i. iv. 89 The impossibility..of attaching the manifold of change by a merely outward tie to the unchangeable stock of the Thing.
b. The hardened stalk or stem of a plant. (Jam.) Chiefly Sc.
1629Orkney Witch Trial in N.B. Advertiser Oct. 1894, [He] baid his wyff geve yow thrie or four stokis of kaill. 1783Burns Death Poor Mailie 38 To slink thro' slaps, an' reave an' steal, At stacks o' pease, or stocks o' kail. 1913J. G. Frazer Golden Bough (ed. 3) Balder II. xi. 193 One..gave him several severe blows with the stock of a plant.
c. Bot. = rhizome.
1831Macgillivray tr. A. Richard's Elem. Bot. ii. 47 The Stock or Rhizoma. This name has been given to the subterranean and horizontal stems of perennial plants, entirely or in part concealed under ground. 1863Oliver Bot. (1873) 5 A portion of the stem, which is thickened and more or less buried underground,..is called the stock.
3. Figurative uses developed from sense 2.
a. The source of a line of descent; the progenitor of a family or race. In Law, the first purchaser of an estate of inheritance.
c1393Chaucer Gentilesse 1 The firste stok, fader of gentilesse. a1425Cursor M. 9240 (Trin.) Þus was þe ton þe toþeres stok. c1440Jacob's Well 49 In ony of þise thre lynes afore-seyd, go to þe stok, þat is fadyr or modyr, & noumbre noȝt hem, but þe first persone, þat comyth of þat stok is þe first degre. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 210 Go to y⊇ stocke of our progeny, & consyder it well. 1583B. Melbancke Philotimus D iij, If a man should desire an herauld to sift out her pettigree,..her stock would be found to be the maine sea, wereof she is nothing but the ouerture and ofscombe. 1594T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. ii. 15 Hee that was the stocke of all mankinde. 1620T. Granger Div. Logike 292 The common stocke in a Kindred, or Tribe, is the Father, and Mother from whence the whole progeny, or issue is deriued. 1667Milton P.L. xii. 7 Thus thou hast seen one World begin and end; And Man as from a second stock proceed. 1765Blackstone Comm. I. iii. 210 The title to the crown is..not quite so absolutely hereditary as formerly; and the common stock or ancestor, from whom the descent must be derived, is also different. Formerly the common stock was king Egbert; then William the conqueror. 1871Freeman Norm. Conq. xviii. (1876) IV. 249 But one of Swegen's many sons might well become the stock of a new dynasty. 1886F. W. Maitland in Law Q. Rev. Oct. 485 To constitute a new stock of descent a very real possession was necessary.
†b. The original from which something is derived. Obs.
a1616Beaum. & Fl. Bonduca v. iii, Brave soldier yeeld; thou stock of Arms and Honor, thou filler of the world with fame and glory. 1650Fuller Pisgah iii. vii. 391 In some resemblance of the seven Planets, amongst which the Sun, the stock of light, stands in the midst. 1756Burke Subl. & B. i. v. (1759) 57 The delight which arises from the modifications of pain confesses the stock from whence it sprung.
c. A line of descent; the descendants of a common ancestor, a family, kindred.
1382Wyclif 1 Sam. xvii. 55 Abner, of what stok descendide [Vulg. de qua stirpe descendit] this ȝong man? c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 693 Of his lynage am I, and his of spryng, By verray ligne, as of the stok roial. 1430–31Rolls of Parlt. IV. 378/1 All the braunches of the Stok Riall. 1477Paston Lett. III. 190, I..ame better content nowe, that he sholde have hyr, than any other,..consyderyd hyr persone, hyr yowthe, and the stok that she is comyn offe. 1547Bk. Marchauntes e iiij b, A yong child comen of a good stocke and riche kinred. c1586C'tess Pembroke Ps. lxxii. ix, Eternall Lord, whom Jacobs stock adore. 1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacræ iii. iv. §1 They all were originally of the same stock. 1671Milton Samson 1079 Men call me Harapha, of stock renown'd. 1693G. Stepny in Dryden's Juvenal viii. (1697) 214 From a mean Stock the Pious Decii came. a1704T. Brown On Beauties Wks. 1730 I. 44 Unite two stocks to form the witty she, Dorinda's sense, and Flavia's repartee. 1827Hallam Const. Hist. xvii. (1876) III. 341 The national prejudices ran in favour of their ancient stock of kings. 1840Thackeray Shabby-genteel Story i, The Crabbs were of a very old English stock. 1857G. A. Lawrence Guy Liv. xviii. 168 That girl comes of the wrong stock to give up anything she has fancied without a struggle. 1870Bryant Iliad ii. I. 67 A warrior of the stock of Hercules was leader. 1879Howells Lady of Aroostook iii, An ancestral consumption, his sole heritage from the good New England stock of which he came. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 296, I usually found the stock on both sides to be a highly ‘nervous’ one.
generalized use.1873Dixon Two Queens i. i. I. 5 Gonzales was of Hebrew stock. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 137 A lady of calm, well-balanced nervous system, well nourished and of healthy stock. 1900J. Hutchinson in Archives Surg. XI. 210 Most local inflammations of the skin which are definitely blue, occur to those who are of gouty stock.
d. A race, ethnical kindred; also, a race or family (of animals or plants); a related group, ‘family’ (of languages). Also (cf. a, b), an ancestral type from which various races, species, etc. have diverged.
1549Coverdale Erasm. Par. Rom. iv. 1 Of whom as father & beginner of theyr stocke, the whole nacion of Jewes are wont specially to crake & glory. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 121 One of Nemethus his progenie, that is, of the Scythian stocke. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 152 They haue Priests of the posteritie of Aaron which resteth in peace, who marrie not with any other but the men or women of their owne stocke. 1730W. Wotton Discourse Confusion Babel 15 So that though this will invincibly prove the Gradation and Derivation of different Dialects from a common Stock, yet it will not prove the actual Formation of some essentially different Tongues which I here contend for. 1738Wesley Psalms lxxx. x, Thou didst the Heathen Stock expel. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. III. 61 Were there but one of these wild animals, the enquiry would soon be ended; and we might readily allow it for the parent stock. 1813Prichard Phys. Hist. Man vii. §6. 392 The interior of Malaya, where they have left remnants of their stock in the black savages of the mountains. 1815Elphinstone Acc. Caubul (1842) I. 405 The languages of the inhabitants were probably all derived from the ancient Persian stock. 1822Malte-Brun's Univ. Geog. I. 570 The stock or family of the languages of Eastern Asia, or of the Monosyllabic languages, differs entirely from that of the Indo-Germanic languages. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. ii. 272 A population, sprung from the English stock, and animated by English feelings. 1859Darwin Orig. Spec. i. (1872) 13 In the case of strongly marked races of some other domesticated species, there is presumptive or even strong evidence, that all are descended from a single wild stock. 1862Huxley Lect. Working Men 140 We know that all varieties of pigeons of every kind have arisen by a process of selective breeding from a common stock, the Rock Pigeon. 1868Gladstone Juv. Mundi ii. (1870) 41 Even this is considerably older than the date of any family which we can connect with..the Hellenic stock. 1911W. W. Fowler Relig. Exper. Romans iv. 69 When a stock or tribe (populus) after migration took possession of a district.
†e. Pedigree, genealogy; a genealogical tree. Obs.
c1550Cheke Matt. i. 1 (1843) 27 This is y⊇ book of Jesu Christes stock. 1552Latimer Serm., Christmas Day (1584) 273 Shee boasted not of her stocke to be of the linage of noble king Dauid. 1615Chapman Odyss. xi. 294 When, seuerally All told their stockes [Gr. ἑκάστη ὃν γόνον ἐξαγόρευεν]. 1657Wood Life (O.H.S.) I. 225 In the north window opposit to the former is the stock of Jesse.
f. Kind, sort. Now dial. (see quot. 1787).
c1450Lydg. & Burgh Secrees 2001 Good breed of whete, fflesh that wel savours, Of tarrage and stok, good and holsom wyne. 1614Jackson Creed iii. 101 It would argue either Antichristian blindness not to see, or impudency of no meaner stocke, not to acknowledge that [etc.]. 1787W. H. Marshall E. Norfolk (1795) II. 389 Stock. Species of a crop. Mod. (Norfolk) Where did you get that stock o' wheat from? Oh, I ha' had that stock for years.
g. Feudalism. native (or villein) of stock, a mod. rendering of med.L. nativus de stipite, a serf by inheritance.
1828tr. Assession Roll (Duchy of Cornwall) 11 Edw. III in Manning & Ryland Rep. Cases K.B. (1830) III. 162 Robert Ceron, a villein of stock, holds the Lord Duke, in villenage, in Tyngaran, 1 messuage, 5 acres of land English. Ibid. 193 John, son of Ralph (Ranulf) of Tremaba, a villein of stock [foot-note Nativus de stipite], who at the last assession was admitted to one messuage..is now granted..To hold in form of stock [foot-note in formâ stipitis].
h. Used for: Inherited constitution, ‘breed’. rare.
1866Alger Solit. Nat. & Man iv. 243 His toughness of stock and copiousness of force enabled him to weather the storms of nearly a century.
4. A stem in which a graft is inserted.
c1400Pylgr. Sowle iv. ii. (Caxton 1483) 58 When that this graffe had taken kynde and moysture of this stock on whiche hit was ymped. a1500in Arnolde's Chron. (1811) 164 Take a graf of an apyll tree and graf it in a stoke of elme or aller and it shal bere redde aplys. 1577Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. 73 b, When you haue thus set in your graffe in the stocke. 1664Evelyn Kal. Hort., Jan. (1679) 8 Gather Cyons for Graffs before the buds sprout; and about the latter end, Graff them in the Stock, Pears, Cherries and Plums. 1725Bradley's Family Dict. s.v. Grafting, The Stock for Slit-Grafting should be an Inch at least. 1858Carpenter Veg. Phys. §311 He chooses a stock, or stem deprived of its own buds, and cuts off its top in a sloping direction, so as [etc.]. 1903W. H. Hutton Infl. Christianity v. 225 He..grafted apples upon the wild stocks.
fig.c1480Henryson Poems (S.T.S.) III. 140 Fals titlaris now growis vp full rank, nocht ympit in the stok of cheretie. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. iv. iii. 250 He was contented to be the stock whereon Wolsey should be graffed. 1754Sherlock Discourses I. vi. 197 When once they had grafted the Slips of Superstition upon the Stock of Nature. 1796Burke Regic. Peace i. 101 The wise Legislators..who aimed at..grafting the virtues on the stock of the natural affections.
†5. The ‘trunk’ of a human body. Obs.
Quot. 1590 is prob. a conscious transferred use of sense 1.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) III. 233 Þe stok of a man [L. truncus homo] fouȝt wiþ his teeþ as it were a wood beest. 1398― Barth. De P.R. v. l. (1495) 168 The stocke of the body begynnyth at the necke and stretchyth to the buttockes. c1440Jacob's Well 32 Þanne he bad, þat þe stok of his [body] schulde be leyde in a carte. c1550T. Raynalde Birth Mankynde i. (1565) 43 b, In this first figure is set forth the tronke or stocke of a womans body. 1590Spenser F.Q. i. viii. 10 He smote off his left arme..; Large streames of bloud out of the truncked stock Forth gushed.
†6. A post, stake. Obs.
c1000ælfric Saints' Lives xxvi. 260 Ða sæde se preost him Ic hæbbe of þam stocce þe his heafod on stod. c1275Lay. 16706 Samuel nam Agag þare king..and lette hime faste to one stocke [c 1205 stake] bynde. 1294Exch. Acc. 5/2 Pro wyndase et wyndase stockez xv s. vi d. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints xix. (Cristofore) 568 Þane þe fellone tyrand king..behynd his bak his handis bath til a gert stok gert bynd [hym] rath. 1382Wyclif Josh. x. 26 And Josue smoot, and slewȝ hem, and hongide vpon fyue stokkis [Vulg. super quinque stipites]. 1409–10in Hudson & Tingey Rec. Norwich (1910) II. 56 [To William Morton, carpenter, for a] stok. 1548Latimer Ploughers (Arb.) 23 He shall lye sycke at theyr doore betwene stocke and stocke. 1599Peele Sir Clyomon xvi. 54 I'll beat thee like a stock. 1688Holme Armoury iii. 311/2 Whipping Post (or Whipping Stock)..To this Post is [sic] Offenders and Petty Rogues and Vagabonds made fast while they are Whipt.
7. The main upright part of anything; the vertical beam, stem (of a cross).
1382Wyclif Num. viii. 4 The myddil stok [of the candlestick: Vulg. medius stipes]. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) ii. 5 Þe stock [of the Cross] þat stude in þe erthe..was of cedre. 1463in Fabric Rolls York Minster (Surtees) 134 Thomæ Spence de Pontesfracto pro j stoke pro le tryndiles, 20 d. 1859R. S. Hawker in Baring-Gould Vicar of Morwenstow vii. (1876) 198 It was..a pentacle of stars, whereof two shone for the transome and three for the stock.
8. a. pl. An obsolete instrument of punishment, consisting of two planks set edgewise one over the other (usually framed between posts), the upper plank being capable of sliding up and down. The person to be punished was placed in a sitting posture with his ankles confined between the two planks, the edges of which were furnished with holes to receive them. Sometimes there were added similar contrivances for securing the wrists.
The synonymous med.L. cippi, F. ceps, suggest that this use of stock is an application of sense 6, the reference being to the two side-posts of the apparatus.
c1325Gloss. W. de Bibbesw. in Wright Voc. 163 E pur ço ke seygnur fet coingner Soun neif en ceps [glossed stockes] pur chastier. 13..E.E. Allit. P. B. 46 On payne of enprysonment & puttyng in stokkez. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. iv. 95 Bote Reson haue reuþe of him he resteþ in þe stokkes Also longe as I lyue. c1380Sir Ferumb. 1186 Bynd hem herde wyþ yre & steel, & pote hem in stokkes of trow. 1503Act 19 Hen. VII, c. 6 §4 It shalbe lawefull..to put theym into the Stokkis and theym so to kepe till the next Market day. 1533J. Heywood Pard. & Frere 602 (Pollard) Wherfore by saynt John, thou shalt not escape me, Tyll thou hast scouryd a pare of stokys. 1598Shakes. Merry W. iv. v. 123 But that my admirable dexteritie of wit,..deliuer'd me, the knaue Constable had set me ith' Stocks, ith' common Stocks, for a Witch. 1620Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 784/2 To hald and have stockis, joggis, prissounhousis, pit and gallous. 1620Rowlands Nt.-Raven (1872) 3 Whores and Whoremongers trading for the Pox, And reeling Watch-men, carrying Rogues to Stox. 1632in E. B. Jupp Carpenters' Co. (1887) 301 Theis workes..belong vnto the..Carpenters..The makinge of..stocks cages and whipping postes. 1687Otway Soldier's Fortune iv. i. 45 Constable, watch, stokes, stokes, stokes, murder—. 1769Blackstone Comm. IV. xxix. 370 [Other punishments] Such as whipping, hard labour in the house of correction, the pillory, the stocks, and the ducking-stool. 1841Hood Tale of Trumpet 701 Over the Green, and along by The George, Past the Stocks, and the Church, and the Forge. 1901Westm. Gaz. 21 Dec. 10/1 Since my ordination (it was in 1870) I have seen a man in the stocks as a punishment for drunkenness. 1905Ld. Coleridge Story Devonshire House ii. (1906) 22 In the churchyard may be seen the time-worn stocks.
const. as sing.1573New Custom ii. iii. C iij, Euery stockes should be full, euery prison, and iayle. 1612[see c]. 1853Lytton My Novel iii. ii, The stocks stood staring at him mournfully from its four great eyes. Ibid. iii. xxiv, Now the stocks is rebuilt, the stocks must be supported.
†b. sing. Obs. rare.
1382Wyclif Job xiii. 27 Thou hast putte in the stoc [Vulg. in nervo] my foot. c1460Oseney Reg. 86 Noþer to put þere men in preson or in-to bondys or in-to stocke for oony trespase or forfet.
c. in figurative context.
1387–8T. Usk Test. Love i. iii. (Skeat) 144 Thus strayte, lady, hath sir Daunger laced me in stockes, I leve it be not your wil. c1440Jacob's Well 186 Whanne god settyth þe in stockys of sykenes, or in prisoun of deth-euyll. 1612Beaum. & Fl. Coxcomb ii. i, Was ever man but I in such a stockes? 1805A. Knox Rem. (1834) I. 27 Their feet are, as it were, made fast, in the stocks of appetite and passion. 1848L. Hunt Jar of Honey Pref. 23 Put thine own pride and cruelty in the stocks. 1878Masque of Poets 153 The world would end, were Dulness not, to tame Wit's feathered heels in the stern stocks of fact.
d. loosely in pl. † (a) Fetters. Obs. (b) The pillory.
c1430Lydg. Bochas viii. vi. (1554) 180 b/1 This hardy princesse [Zenobia]..with stockes of gold [L. aureis compedibus] was brought to the cite. c1825J. Choyce Log of Jack Tar (1891) 26 They put his neck in the stocks and kept him there until he was sober. 1860Whittier Quaker Alumni 102 The priestcraft that glutted the shears, And festooned the stocks with our grandfathers' ears.
e. transf. (a) the shoemaker's stocks (jocularly): Tight boots. (b) Applied to certain callisthenic contrivances formerly used in girls' schools.
1666Pepys Diary 22 Apr., Being in the shoemaker's stockes I was heartily weary. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Shoe-makers-stocks, pincht with strait Shoes. 1831Mrs. J. Sandford Woman xii. (1834) 182 The modern school-room..might pass in succeeding centuries for a refined inquisition. There would be found stocks for the fingers, and pulleys for the neck, [etc.]. 1823G. Kennedy Anna Ross (ed. 6) 46 Her poor little feet were placed in stocks, because her Mamma said she turned her toes in when she walked. 1880J. F. South Househ. Surg. (ed. 4) 331, I do not know whether that miserable invention, the stocks, is still in existence.
9. [? transf. from 8.] A frame in which a horse is confined for shoeing.
1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2391.
II. A supporting structure.
†10.
a. The block or table on which a butcher or a fishmonger cuts his goods. Sc. Obs.
1488Extracts Burgh Rec. Edin. (1869) I. 56 Baith in slaing and breking as a craftisman honestlie at his stok. 1508Ibid. 114 It is ordanit that..the sellares and brekkaris of the greit fische haif thair stoks and grayth thairdone for that intent. Ibid., At [= that] all thair [sc. the fleshers] stokis be of ane lenth. 1577Extracts Burgh Rec. Glasgow (1876) I. 64 It sall nocht be lesum to na freman to hawe flesche stokis ma nor ane in the land marcat.
†b. the Stocks, the Stocks Market: the name of a market for meat, fish, etc. in the City of London, on or near the site of the Mansion House.
Stow Survey (1598) 178 alleges that the market was so called because it was built on the site where ‘had stoode a payre of stockes, for punishment of offendors’; but this is probably a mere guess.
a1350Chron. Edw. I & Edw. II, Ann. Lond. (Rolls, 1882) I. 90 [In 1282 Henry le Waleis built] domos..apud Wolchirchehawe, quae vocantur Hales, Anglice Stockes. c1483Chron. Lond. (1827) 137 This yere [1450] the stokkes was dividid bitwene fisshmongers and bochers. 1554Two London Chron. (1910) 38 And at y⊇ Stokes was a great pagaunte made at y⊇ cities cost. 1587Fleming Holinshed's Chron. III. 1348/2 West towards the Stocks market. 1721Amherst Terræ Fil. No. 36. 192 A fruiterer's apprentice at Stocks-market. 1769De Foe's Tour Gt. Brit. (ed. 7) II. 110 The Mansion-house, built in the Place where Stocks⁓market used to be kept.
†c. (See quot.) Obs.
Scott's explanation is perh. erroneous; his source may have used black stock in sense 14.
1831Scott Cast. Dang. i, When was it that I hungered or thirsted, and the black stock of Berkley did not relieve my wants? [footnote, The table dormant, which stood in a baron's hall, was often so designated.]
11. A gun-carriage. Cf. gun-stock.
1496Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 289 Giffin for bering of a ryvin gunstok fra the Kingis Werk to Johne Lammys smythy to bynd it, xiiij d. 1497Naval Acc. Hen. VII (1896) 246 Elmyn tres..for..makyng of Gonne stokkes for Gonnes belongyng to the seid Ship. 1578Invent. R. Wardr. (1815) 248 Ane double cannon of fonte..montit upoun ane new stok. 1580Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Affuster, as Affuster l'artillerie, to sette the artillerie in the stocke or frame. 1748Anson's Voy. ii. vii. 213 The Carpenters were ordered to fix eight stocks in the main and fore-tops, which were properly fitted for the mounting of swivel guns.
12. The outer rail of a bedstead; the side of a bed away from the wall; pl. a bedstead. Obs. exc. Sc. (local). Cf. bedstock. [So ON. stokkr.]
1525tr. Brunswyke's Handywork Surg. lxxi. P ij b, And he must be bounde to .iii. or .iiii. places of y⊇ bedstede and y⊇ hole foote must be bounde to the stock that y⊇ pacyent may not drawe it vp to hym. 1544Test. Ebor. VI. 213 The bede and the stokes that I lie in. 1562Richmond Wills (Surtees) 156 Stocks of a bedde and bleckfatts, iiij s. 1629Z. Boyd Last Battell 71 (Jam.) Hezekiah turned his backe to the stocke, and his face to the wall. 1775Goldsm. Scarron's Com. Rom. I. 35 It will be proper to observe that the bed was so placed as to be close to the wall; Rancour went into it first, and the merchant going after him lay at the stock which was considered as the place of honour. 1796W. H. Marshall Yorksh. (ed. 2) II. 347 Stock; the outer rail of a bedstead; or the front side of a bed, which is placed against a wall.
13. a. pl. The framework on which a ship or boat is supported while in process of construction.
1422Foreign Acc. 61, m. 43 (Publ. Rec. Office) Ad extrahend' et deducend' dictam navem extra idem wose supra stokkes in quâdam fossurâ vocatâ le dook..apud Deptford'. 1425Ibid. 59, m. 22 d, Propter debilitatem et confracciones ejusdem posita fuit in quodam dok supra stokes ibidem de novo construend'. 1615E. S. Britains Buss in Arber Eng. Garner III. 624 At length, I was informed..that one Roger Godsdue, Esquire,..had on the stocks at Yarmouth, five Busses. 1627Capt. Smith Sea Gram. i. 1 The stockes are certaine framed posts, much of the same nature upon the shore, to build a Pinnace, a Catch, a Frigot, or Boat, &c. 1638Heywood Royal Ship 13 Had not the famous Archimedes devised new Engines to rowle her [the vessel] out of the stocks into the water. 1670Lond. Gaz. No. 4039/4 There is now upon the stocks an extraordinary large ship of 2500 Tuns. 1704J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, Stocks; so the Ship-Carpenters call a Frame of Timber, and great Posts made a-shore to build Pinnaces, Ketches, Boats, [etc.].. Hence we say, a Ship is on the Stocks, when she is a Building. 1755New-York Mercury 14 July 3/1 One of the Gallies [is] planked and compleatly rigged on the Stocks. 1769Falconer Dict. Marine (1780). 1790Beatson Nav. & Milit. Mem. II. 34 Having..set upon the stocks two ships. 1810Wellington in Gurw. Disp. (1836) VI. 568 Having completed the boats which were on the stocks. 1875Comte de Paris' Hist. Civ. War Amer. I. 448 They..only succeeded in destroying one of the stocks for ship-building.
b. fig., esp. in phrase on the stocks, said e.g. of a literary work planned and commenced.
1669C. F. Pluto Furens Ep. Ded., Until my other Play be finished, which is now on the Stocks. 1693Dryden Love Triumph. iv. i, Farewel; you know I have other business upon the Stocks. 1765Foote Commissary ii. (1782) 45, I made these rhimes into a duet for a comic opera I have on the stocks. 1783Virginia Hist. Mag. V. 390, I'm desirous to provide in the best manner I possibly can for my wife, a son, two daughters, and a child which I expect is in the stocks. 1828P. Cunningham N.S. Wales (ed. 3) II. 281 A worthy elder, shocked at the scandal of such a numerous illegal progeny being all ‘on the stocks’ at once, waited on his pastor to condole upon the subject. 1836J. H. Newman Lett. (1891) II. 163, I have had a long letter on the stocks for you for the last fortnight. 1868E. FitzGerald Lett. I. 315 We shouldn't go off the stocks easy (pardon nautical metaphors). 1898Athenæum 4 June 724/1 The ‘Encyclopædia Britannica’, the ninth edition of which was on the point of being put on the stocks.
14. dial. A ledge at the back or the side of a fireplace, on which a kettle or pot can be placed when removed from the fire: = hob n.2 1.
1592Warner Alb. Eng. ix. xlvii. (1612) 218 Cowring ore two sticks a crosse, burnt at a smoakie stocke. a1613Overbury Wife, News (1616) Q 6, That a Wise-rich-man is like the backe or stocke of the Chimney, and his wealth the fire, it receiues not for its owne need, but to reflect the heat to others good. 1823E. Moor Suffolk Words, Stock, the plate, or place, at the back of the fire, or immediately above it. 1854A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss., Stock, the horizontal space at the side of a grate. Mod. (Northants.) I put the tea-kettle on one of the stocks and the saucepan on the other.
15. Brick-making.
a. = stock-board (see 65).
1683J. Houghton Collect. Lett. Improv. Husb. II. vi. 188 In the middle we fasten with Nails a piece of board, which we call a Stock; this Stock is about half an Inch thick, and just big enough for the Mould to slip down upon. Ibid., Then rubbing the Stock and inside of the Mould with Sand, with the Earth he forms a Brick. 1703[see stock-brick in 65]. 1753Chambers Cycl. Suppl. s.v. Brick, Stock-bricks..are made on a stock, that is, the mould is put on a stock, after the manner of moulding or striking of tiles.
b. Short for stock-brick (see 65).
c1738in E. B. Jupp Carpenters' Co. (1887) 567 The Brickwork for {pstlg}5. 10 per Rod and to do the same with Stocks. 1833Loudon Encycl. Archit. §79 To pave the back kitchen..with common stocks, bedded in sand. 1837Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 34/1 Brickwork, consisting of sound, hard, and well-burned square stocks. 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Stocks,..the red and grey bricks which are used for the exterior of walls and fronts of buildings. 1892Daily News 16 Dec. 2/2 Decorated with red ‘Newbiggin’ stone and picked London stocks. 1905Pall Mall Gaz. 29 May 8/2 Brick, of the kind known as dark purple stock.
16. The support of the block in which the anvil is fixed, or of the anvil itself.
1295Stithistokke [see stithy n. 5]. 1790Cowper Odyss. viii. 336 To the stock he heaved His anvil huge. 1875Knight Dict. Mech. 2389 That to which others are attached, or in which they are inserted, as,..The anvil to its stock or pillar.
17. A stand or frame supporting a spinning-wheel or a churn.
1688Holme Armoury iii. 286/2 The large Spinning Wheele..consists in these parts. The Stock standing on four Feet. The Standard [etc.]. 1858Arnot Laws fr. Heaven Ser. ii. xlix. 400 She kept a Bible lying open on the ‘stock’ of the wheel.
†18. A roller for a map. Obs.
1737in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. i. 479 The Maps are very large, there was no possible way of sending them by Post..than by rolling them upon a Stock.
†19. A perch for a bird. Obs. [So Du. stok.]
1575Turberv. Bk. Falconrie 79 When you haue showed hir the perche or stocke, and tyed hir vpon it, put with hir vpon the sayde pearche or stocke some Pullet.
III. A box, hollow receptacle. Cf. trunk n. 2.
†20. An alms-box. [So G. (almosen)stock, Du. (offer) stok. Cf. F. tronc.] Obs.
c1400Love Bonavent. Mirr. (1907) 188 A coffre hauynge a hole abouen in manere of stokkes that ben now vsed in chirches. 1419Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 146 Et in sal. unius hominis facientis j stok propter oblac. in le Crudys, 3d. ex convencione. 1504Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. II. 266 Item, to the Kingis offerand in the stock at Sanct Duthois towm, xiiij s. 1527Churchw. Acc. St. Giles, Reading 30 Of Willm A Dene for the stokk of the masse xls.
†21.
a. A trough; a basin; a stoup, esp. one used for holy water. (See holy-water stock, holy water 2.) Obs.
c1450Maitl. Club Misc. III. 203 Ane crem stok of siluer with ane closour of siluer. 1486Bk. St. Albans b viij b, It behouyth that yowre hawke haue a fedyng stokke in hir mewe. 1500Will of Odingsellis (Somerset Ho.), Holy Water stoke. 1554in Fuller Hist. Waltham Abbey (1655) 17 A Stock of brass for the Holy-water. 1591G. Fletcher Russe Commw. (Hakl. Soc.) 135 They doe not onely hallow their holie water stockes and tubbes ful of water, but all the rivers of the countrey once every yeere.
b. (See quot. 1877.)
1872Shipley's Gloss. Eccl. Terms 334 Oil Box... Also called Oil Stock. 1877F. G. Lee Gloss. Liturg. & Eccl. Terms 384 Stock... A vessel containing oils blessed for use in the Christian sacraments is so called in ordinary parlance.
22. (More fully fulling-stock, fulling vbl. n.) In a fulling-mill: Originally, the wooden trough or box in which the cloth is placed to be beaten by the ‘faller’ or the mallet; hence, this receptacle together with the ‘faller’. In modern use, stock is often taken to denote the ‘faller’ or mallet itself.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 445 Cloth..is nouȝt comly to were, Tyl it is fulled vnder fote or in fullyng stokkes. 1506–7Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 252 Pro factura de lez stoke 13s. 4d. 1674Petty Discourse Roy. Soc. 64 The same is true of water gushing out upon the floats of under-shot Mills; as may be seen in the Stampers of Paper-Mills, the Stocks of Fulling-Mills [etc.]. 1677A. Yarranton Eng. Improv. 109 Our Fulling-Mills that we now have, our Fallers are taken up a great height, and so fall down into the Stock upon the Cloth. Ibid., The Mills that go by Wind, the Fallers, or Feet, fall down perpendicular into the Stock, through a square hole, where the Cloth is, and so attracts no Wind, nor can any Air get into the Stock or Chest where the Cloth is. 1844G. Dodd Textile Manuf. iii. 103 The ‘fulling-stocks’,.. are hollow receptacles in which an enormous oaken hammer or stock vibrates up and down, each stock being kept in motion by machinery connected with a steam-engine. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 342 By steeping the cloth in alkaline liquor, and beating it in the fulling stocks.
23. Tanning. (See quot. 1885.)
1882Paton in Encycl. Brit. XIV. 383/2 The softening of these materials is helped and rendered thorough by working them for some time in the stocks after they have been well soaked. 1885H. R. Procter Tanning 136 The ‘stocks,’..consist of a wooden or metallic box, of peculiar shape, wherein work 2 very heavy hammers, raised alternately by pins in a wheel, and let fall upon the hides, which they force up against the side of the box with a sort of kneading action.
IV. The more massive portion of an instrument or weapon; usually, the body or handle, to which the working part is attached.
24. a. The heavy cross-bar (originally wooden) of an anchor.
1346Exch. Acc. 25/7 Pro ij hankerstokkes duorum ancor' ejusdem navis. 1407MS. Acc. Exch. K.R. 44/11 (1) m. 3 In duobus ancrestokes inde faciendis. 1485Cely Papers (Camden) 185 Item pd by me for iij hanker stolkes..xv d. 1497Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 379 Item, for thre geestis to be stokkis to ankyrris, and other grath to the schippis,—s. 1615E. S. Britain's Buss in Arber Eng. Garner III. 628 And so the four anchors, and their four stocks will come to {pstlg}18 0 0. 1688Holme Armoury iii. xv. (Roxb.) 29/1 The Anchor stock, is the peece of tymber fitly wrought and fastned at the nutts, below the eye, crossing the flookes. 1748Anson's Voy. iii. vi. 345 To fix two..anchors into one stock. 1825H. B. Gascoigne Path Nav. Fame 50 The circling Capstan merrily runs round, Until the Stock a proper height is found. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 45 The stock of the anchor is made of oak. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. 657.
b. Naut. phrase, stock and fluke.
1825Cobbett Rur. Rides 9 Nov. (1885) II. 5 The new owner of the estate..bought it ‘stock and fluke’ as the sailors call it; that is to say, that he bought movables and the whole. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Stock and Fluke, the whole of anything.
25. The block of wood from which a bell is hung.
1474–5in Swayne Churchw. Acc. Sarum (1896) 20 It' in tymber for the stokke and uphongyng of the same [bell] xxij d. 1526–7Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905) 340 For mendyng of the Stokke of the Saunctus bell iiij d. 1706in J. Watson Jedburgh Abbey (1894) 91 [To see if the bells] be sound in their hanging upon the stocks. 1871W. Wigram Change Ringing Disentangled 1 He will see that it [the bell] is fastened to the under-side of a block of wood, called the ‘stock’. 1906Raven Bells 291 The bells are rung from the stock, without wheel or rope.
26. The ‘hub’ of a wheel.
1585Higins Junius' Nomencl. 268/1 Modiolus rotæ,..the stocke or naue wherein the spokes be fastened. 1876Voyle & Stevenson Milit. Dict. 409/2 Stock, the nave of a wooden wheel. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 206/1 The stock or hub..should be in growth as near as possible the size required.
†27. = saddle-tree. Obs.
1497Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 372 Item, agane Ȝule, to turs our the Month, for ane stok of ane sadil. 1553Ibid. X. 175 Item,..for making of the stok and sadill heirto.
28. a. The wooden portion of a musket or fowling-piece; the handle of a pistol.
1541Act 33 Hen. VIII, c. 6 §2 Any handgune..shalbe in the stock and gonne of the lenghe of one hole Yarde. 1591Garrard Art of Warre 10 Raising up the crooked end of the stocke to his breast. 1641J. Langton in Lismore Papers Ser. ii. (1888) V. 8 Our men..knocked some of them in the heade with the stocks of theire peeces. 1664Evelyn Sylva viii. §4. (1679) 50 Walnut..is of singular account..with the Gunsmith for Stocks. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. (Globe) 261 The Captain.. knock'd him down with the Stock of his Musket. 1741Compl. Family-Piece ii. i. 320 As for Stocks, Walnut-Tree or Ash are very good for Use. 1830Hobart Town Almanack 115 My trusty Manton, which falling under his right side,..was broken in the handsome stock. 1860All Yr. Round No. 71. 500 The stock is divided into the nose-cap, the upper, middle, and lower bands, the swell [etc.]. 1879Martini-Henry Rifle Exerc. 42 Grasping the stock with the left hand.
b. Phrase, stock, lock, and barrel (also lock, stock, and barrel: see lock n.2 5): the whole of a thing; also advb., every whit, entirely.
1817W. Scott Let. 29 Oct. (1933) V. 4 Like the High-landman's gun, she wants stock, lock, and barrel, to put her into repair. 1830Galt Lawrie T. ii. viii. (1849) 66 Even the capital likewise—stock, lock, and barrel, all went. 1868E. Yates Rocks Ahead iii. iii, ‘Cut the whole concern, stock, lock and barrel’, said his lordship. 1905Times 7 July 10/3 [Sir George White said:] He was not a Scotsman; he was..lock, stock, and barrel an Irishman.
29. The handle (of a whip, fishing-rod, etc.).
1695Lond. Gaz. No. 3044/4 All sorts of Whips, the Stocks of the best Greenland Whalebone. 1787T. Best Angling (ed. 2) 9 The best manner of making{ddd}Rods. The best time to provide stocks is in the winter solstice. 1882Stevenson New Arab. Nts. (1912) 321 The stock of a lance even rattled along the outer surface of the door.
30. The attachment of a seal.
1711Lond. Gaz. No. 4815/4 Two Seals with Gold Stocks.
31. The part of a plough to which the share is attached.
1578Knaresb. Wills (Surtees) I. 133 One new stocke and two plow cloutes, [etc.]. 1733W. Ellis Chiltern & Vale Farm. 318 Three Holes in the upper part of the Stock.
32. (More explicitly bit-stock.) A carpenter's boring tool: = brace n.2 6.
1794Rigging & Seamanship I. 152 Stock. A wooden instrument to bore holes with, by fixing a bit in the lower end, and a pin with a round head in the other end. 1812P. Nicholson Mech. Exerc. 126 Stock and Bits. 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Stock and bit, an instrument for boring wood, used by carpenters; a centre-bit.
33. An adjustable wrench for holding screw-cutting dies.
1862Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit. II. No. 6139, Wrought-iron welded tubes; stocks, taps, and dies. 1902P. Marshall Metal Working Tools 61 The die which cuts the thread is made in two halves, and is placed in a ‘stock,’ or holder, fitted with an adjusting screw... A set of stocks and dies consists of one stock with a series of interchangeable dies to cut threads of different sizes.
34. The shorter and thicker of the two pieces composing a T-square or an L-square.
1815J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 699 A thin flat ruler called the blade, let perpendicularly into the middle of another piece called the stock... The blade being laid on the paper, and the stock brought up close to the edge of the board, it is very readily used in ruling. 1857W. Binns Elem. Orthogr. Projection i. (1862) 6 Place the stock of the T square against the left hand side of the drawing-board. 1902P. Marshall Metal Working Tools 15 This of course can only be the case when the blade and the stock have their respective inner and outer surfaces perfectly parallel.
35. In a plane, the block in which the plane-iron is fitted. † Also, the block carrying the axe of a ‘maiden’ or beheading instrument.
1639in J. J. Cartwright Chapters Hist. Yorks. (1872) 339 They let runne the stock wth y⊇ hatchet in. 1815J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art I. 107 The block of wood in which the blade or Chisel of a plane is fixed, is called the stock.
36. The head of a brush (in which the bristles are inserted). Also, the wooden head of a wool-card.
1835Ure Philos. Manuf. 145 [The two rows of teeth] are fixed into a wooden stock or head c, which..has a handle d fixed into it. 1837Whittock Bk. Trades (1842) 84 (Brush-maker), The wood, or ‘stock’, thus shaped has afterwards a number of small holes drilled through it at regular distances.
37. The wooden case of a lock.
1833Loudon Encycl. Archit. §84 And..eight-inch fine plate stock locks (locks with a wooden back, or stock).
38. Flax-dressing. One of the beaters in a scutching-mill. (Cf. 22).
1776Young Tour Irel. (1780) I. 313 Two beetling cylinders,..a pair of stocks, a washing wheel. 1860Ure's Dict. Arts II. 234 Short arms, to which are nailed the stocks, which are parallelogram shaped blades of hard wood, with the edges partially sharpened.
V. Concrete senses of uncertain or mixed origin.
†39. A mouse-trap. [Cf. mouse-stock and Norw. stok trap (for birds).] Obs.
c1175Lamb. Hom. 53 Þurh þe sweote smel of þe chese, he bicherreð monie mus to þe stoke.
40. A stocking. Now only dial. See netherstock, upper stock.
The upper stock was the upper and wider part, and the nether stock the lower part, of the hose. Without the defining word, stock denoted the netherstock or stocking.
1456–7in Fabric Rolls York Minster (Surtees) 208 Meam subtuniculam de harden cloth, cum stokkes de correo. 1530Privy Purse Exp. Hen. VIII (1827) 94 Euery one of them ij payer of hosen and ij payer of stockis. 1546Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. IX. 27 Tua elnis fyne purpure welwote to be ane pair of stokes of hois to the said James..viij li. 1564Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 308 Ane pair of almany stokkis of blak sating, drawin out with taffeteis. 1577–87Hooker Chron. Irel. 89/2 in Holinshed, He hit vpon the letter, bare it awaie in the heele of his stocke. a1592Greene Vision Wks. (Grosart) XII. 209 His legs were small, Hosd within a stock of red. 1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. iii. ii. 67 With a linnen stock on one leg, and a kersey boot-hose on the other. 1612Drayton Poly-olb. xvi. 350 Before the costly Coach, and silken stock came in. 1876Mid-Yorksh. Gloss. 137 Now then, I am ready for going—stock, shoes, and gaiter.
41. A swarm of bees.[Cf. Du. stok, G. stock, a hive; but connexion is doubtful on account of the difference in sense. Cf. however quot. 1675, where the word appears to have the Du. sense.] 1568MS. Acc. St. John's Hosp., Canterb., There is a swarme found by Wylson and a seruante..seruaunt to haue the fyrste swarme and Wilson the next and so the stocke remayne to the house. 1577Googe Heresbach's Husb. iv. 177 b, You may soone learne where theyr [sc. bees'] stockes [L. examina] be. 1649Ogilby Virg. Georg. ii. (1684) 89 In rugged Bark the Bees conceal their Stocks [L. examína]. 1675J. Gedde New Discov. Bee-houses 30 A stock full of Bees and Honey. 1679M. Rusden Further Discov. Bees 68 A swarm in May, or June, is called a Stock at Michaelmas. 1793Trans. Soc. Arts V. 287 The greatest number of Stocks of Bees, not fewer than thirty. 1877A. I. Root ABC Bee Culture 158/1 Our pure Italian stocks could have been opened, and their queens removed, scarcely disturbing the cluster. 1930W. Herrod-Hempsall Bee-Keeping I. vi. 315 A ‘Swarm’ is a cluster of bees and their queen only; a ‘Colony’ consists of the bees and queen living on combs containing brood..and food; a ‘Stock’ includes the latter together with the home in which the bees are residing. 1980R. J. & W. E. Howe Practical Beekeeping vi. 49 When a stock of ten frames is broken up into a number of nuclei, the flying bees from these nuclei will return to their old stand.
42. The portion of a tally which was given to the person making a payment to the Exchequer.
The counterpart kept in the Exchequer was called the foil or counterstock. In Anglo-L. the terms were stipes and folium. Cf. F. souche (lit. tree-trunk), the longer of the two portions of a tally, hence also the counterfoils in a register or cheque-book.
a1601Sir T. Fanshawe Pract. Exch. (1658) 98 The joyners of the tallies..do see if the stock and the file do agree in hand, letter, and joyning. 1642C. Vernon Consid. Exch. 44 The said stocke is delivered to the party that paid the money for his discharge, and the foile is cast into the Chamberlaines chest. 1671E. Chamberlayne Pres. St. Eng. ii. (ed. 5) 101 The Counterfoyles of the Talleys..so exactly ranged..that they may be found out, to be joyned with their respective Stock or Tally. 1714[Bp. Atterbury] Eng. Advice to Freeholders 4 Boroughs are rated on Royal Exchange, like Stocks and Tallies.
43. [Short for stock-gillyflower.]
a. Any plant of the cruciferous genus Matthiola.
b. Virginian stock: the cruciferous plant Malcolmia maritima, having flowers somewhat resembling those of the stock-gillyflower.
1664in Verney Mem. (1907) II. 208 To smell the sucklins and the stocks and to see the new trees grow. 1728–46Thomson Spring 533 The.. lavish stock that scents the garden round. 1760J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 328 Stock, Virginian, Hesperis. 1796C. Marshall Gardening xix. (1813) 347 The French stock is very floriferous, and most apt to come double. 1844Lady G. C. Fullerton Ellen Middleton (1854) iii. xx. 49 The delicate lilac flowers of the Virginian Stock. 1866M. Arnold Thyrsis vii, And stocks in fragrant blow. 1894Bridges Garden Sept. Poems (1912) 305 Stocks Of courtly purple, and aromatic phlox. 1908R. Bagot A. Cuthbert xix. 237 The sweet night-flowering stock.
44. a. A kind of stiff close-fitting neckcloth, formerly worn by men generally, now only in the army.
In the first quot. app. the collar-band of a shirt.
a1700Evelyn Diary June 1645, They [the Venetian nobility] also weare their collar open to shew the diamond button of the stock of their shirt. 1731Gentl. Mag. I. 454 He lay in his Stock, which was so tight about his Neck, that it near strangled him. 1742Whyte's Poems in Fairholt Costume (1860) 591 The stock with buckle made of plate Has put the cravat out of date. 1753Lond. Mag. Oct. 480/2 Let the stock be well plaited, in fanciful forms. 1755Johnson, Stock, something made of linen; a cravat; a close neckcloth. 1764Boston Even. Post in Alice M. Earle Costume Col. Times (1894) 169 Newest fashion'd plaited Stocks. 1781Cowper Let. to Unwin 23 May, My neckcloths being all worn out, I intend to wear stocks. In that case, I shall be obliged to you if you will buy me a handsome stock-buckle. 1802C. James Milit. Dict., Stock, a part of an officer's dress which consists generally of black silk or velvet, and is worn round the neck... The soldier's stock is of black ribbed leather... Red stocks were formerly worn in the guards. 1806Sir R. Wilson Jrnl. 11 Feb. Life (1862) I. 307 The issue of an order this morning for every officer in the garrison [of Cape Town] to wear black leather stocks! 1818Scott Rob Roy i, He had the same..suit of light brown clothes,..the same stock, with its silver buckle. 1825Sir H. Cockburn Memor. ii. 131 The disclosure of the long neck by the narrow bit of muslin stock. 1837Dickens Pickw. ii, An old stock, without a vestige of shirt collar, ornamented his neck. 1840J. P. Kennedy Quodlibet x. (1860) 137 His shirt collar was turned down over a narrow horse-hair stock. 1868Queen's Regul. Army §604 g, The wearing of Stocks may be dispensed with on the line of March. 1892Kipling Barrack-room Ballads, Cells 16 But I fell away with the Corp'ral's stock, and the best of the Corp'ral's shirt.
b. An article of clerical attire, consisting of a piece of black silk or stuff (worn on the chest and secured by a band round the neck) over which the linen collar is fastened.
1883Offic. Yearbk. Ch. Eng. p. iv. (Advt.), Clerical Collars and Stocks... Stuff Stocks 3/6; Silk do., 5/-; Stock Bands 5/6 per dozen.
45. The udder of a cow. Now dial.
1608Topsell Serpents 218 Afterward that Cowes vdder or stocke dryeth vppe, and neuer more yeeldeth any milke. Mod. (Kent), This cow has a very large stock but I don't know that she'll give over-much milk.
46. A rabbit-burrow. Now dial. Cf. stop n.
1741Compl. Family-Piece ii. i. 303 The Bucks will kill their young ones, if they can come at them; and therefore Nature hath so decreed it, that the Does prevent them by stopping or covering their Stocks or Nests with Earth or Gravel. 1876Surrey Gloss. 1883Hampsh. Gloss.
VI. A fund, store.
The senses grouped under this head are not found in the other Teut. languages except by adoption from English. Their origin is obscure, and possibly several different lines of development may have blended. Thus the application of the word to a trader's capital may partly involve the notion of a trunk or stem (branch I) from which the gains are an outgrowth, and partly that of ‘fixed basis’ or ‘foundation’ (branch II): cf. fund. Sense 47 may be derived immediately from that of ‘money-box’, and have given rise to uses coincident with senses of different origin. The application to cattle is primarily a specific use of the sense ‘store’, but the notion of ‘race’ or ‘breed’ (sense 3) has had some share in its development.
†47. A sum of money set apart to provide for certain expenses; a fund. Obs.
1463Bury Wills (Camden) 17 A stoke to fynde yerly ij taperis lyght. 1547–8in E. Green Somerset Chantries (1888) 10 Redy money gyven by Robte Holcombe to remayne in stocke to the saide use [sc. lights]. 1548in Hudson & Tingey Rec. Norwich (1910) II. 126 All guylde stockis whatsoeuer their be withyn this citie shalbe employde towardes the fyndyng feyeng of the rever of the same citie. c1550Yorksh. Chantry Surv. (Surtees) II. 478 There is a stoke of xxij s. yeven to the finding of a light in the said chapell. 1553Inv. in Ann. Dioc. Lichf. (1863) 7, xxj s. which remayned as a stoke to finde tapers in the churche. 1589Nashe Martin Marprelate Wks. (Grosart) I. 80 That reuerend Elder of your Church, who being credited with the stocke of the poore,..was compelled to keepe it to himselfe, because [etc.]. 1638R. Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. III.) 156, I feare mee, the Stocke that was appoynted for paying of me, will goe some other way. 1645in Arber Transcr. Stationers' Reg. (1875) I. 590 The Committee..resolved upon the Companies sudden setting upon the printing the Bible by a new Stock. 1663Gerbier Counsel b 3, Venturing a stock to fetch Aurum Horizontale from the East Indies. 1676Earl of Essex in Essex Papers (Camden) 55 There will be a surplus of near 3000 l, [MS. 3000d] which may be kept in stock for any contingency. 1690Andros Tracts II. 42 To make a Voluntary Subscription for a stock to bear the Charges of a Triall at Law. 1718Hickes & Nelson J. Kettlewell ii. xxv. 127 He set aside for a standing Stock..One Hundred Pound. [1881C. R. Rivington Rec. Stationers' Co. 18 There were originally five different trading stocks, called respectively the Ballad Stock, the Bible Stock, the Irish Stock, the Latin Stock, and the English Stock.]
†48.
a. A capital sum to trade with or to invest; capital as distinguished from revenue, or principal as distinguished from interest. Obs.
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 28 b, That rychesse he hath gyuen to vs as a stocke to occupy in our dayly exercyse, for the profyte of our owne soules. 1546J. Heywood Prov. ii. ix. (1867) 77 How can ye now get thrift, the stocke beyng gone? Which is thonely thing to reise thrift vpon. 1561J. Awdelay Frat. Vacab. 8 Some yong Marchant man or other kynde of Occupier, whose friendes hath geuen them a stock of mony to occupy withall. 1573New Custom ii. iii. C iij b, The heyre Had substanciall reuenewes, his stocke also was faire. 1581Reg. Privy Council Scot. III. 435 To..redeliver the same [sc. gold and silver] cunyeit to the said maister Thomas in prentit money, stok and proffite. 1613J. White Two Serm. (1615) 69 Prisoners, and distressed housholders, yong tradesmen that want stocks: must be thought on. 1614Ralegh Hist. World v. ii. §2. 377 He thinkes that all this is too little for a stock, though it were indeede a good yearlie Income. 1677A. Yarranton Eng. Improv. 47 Let each County begin with two thousand Pounds Stock apiece. Ibid. 98 The Factors would joyn stock together, and set up our Trade in some other place. 1681–6J. Scott Chr. Life (1747) III. 454 A Master coming to take account of his Servants, among whom he had entrusted a Stock of Ten Pounds. 1694E. Phillips tr. Milton's Lett. State 287 Lest he should lose his Ship and Lading, together with his whole principal Stock. a1700Evelyn Diary 13 Aug. 1641, The reson of this store of pictures and their cheapness proceedes from their want of land to employ their stock. 1760Cautions & Adv. Officers of Army 8, I hope you will thoroughly weigh with yourself whether you are possessed of a sufficient Stock to enable you to discharge your Duty without repining.
fig.1595Daniel Civ. Wars ii. iv, And on the Hazard of a bad Exchange Have ventur'd all the Stock of Life beside. a1652J. Smith Sel. Disc. v. iv. (1821) 155 To prepare our own souls more and more to receive of his liberality,..that the stock which he is pleased to impart to us may not lie dead within us. 1665Howard Ind. Queen ii. i, Why should you waste the Stock of those fair Eyes?
†b. to spend upon the stock: to trench on one's capital. Obs.
1617Moryson Itin. i. 199 And lest by spending upon the stocke, my patrimony should be wasted I [etc.]. 1662W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. iii. 253 That Minister must needs spend upon the stock, that hath no comings in from a constant Trade in his Study.
†c. An endowment for a son; a dowry for a daughter. Also fig. Obs.
1527Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc.) I. 17 Item to hyr son Justinean xxli to make hym a stokke wt. 1581Mulcaster Positions v. (1887) 34 To write and read wel which may be iointly gotten is a prety stocke for a poore boye. 1605Lond. Prodigal v. i. 400 Why this is well, and toward faire Luce's stocke, heres fortie shillings. c1639Cowley Misc., To Ld. Falkland 32 Whilst we like younger Brothers, get at best But a small stock, and must work out the rest. 1685–6Stillingfl. Serm. (1698) III. i. 3 Therefore nothing would satisfie him [the young prodigal] unless he were intrusted with the Stock which was intended for him.
†d. in stock: possessed of capital. out of stock: without means. (Cf. in, out of funds.)
1648in Willis & Clark Cambridge (1886) I. 256 In regard yt y⊇ Colledge is wholey out of stocke,..y⊇ chest-keepers wer requested to [etc.]. 1671[S. Collins] Pres. St. Russia xii. 51 This put the man in stock, whereby he began to drive a Trade.
†e. fig. phrase. upon the stock of: on the ground or basis of. Obs. Very frequent in Jer. Taylor.
1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. vi. §229 Which [help] they had no hope to procure but upon the stock of alteration of the government of the Church. 1649Jer. Taylor Great Exemp. ii. vi. 11 He who beleeves upon the onely stock of education, made no election of his faith. Ibid. ii. vii. 33 Upon the same stocke S. Chrysostome chides the people of his Diocese for walking, and laughing and prating in Churches. 1692South 12 Serm. (1697) I. 275 Few practical Errors in the world are embraced upon the Stock of Conviction, but Inclination. 1821Lamb Elia Ser. i. My First Play, The theatre became to me, upon a new stock, the most delightful of recreations.
†49.
a. An estate or property that produces income; a person's total property. Obs.
1552Latimer Serm. St. John Evang. (1584) 282 It shall not be a diminishing of theyr stockes, but it shall be rather an increase then a diminishing. 1579Spenser Sheph. Cal. July 192 They han great store and thriftye stockes. 1587Turberv. Trag. Tales (1837) 22 Whose land and fee descended orderly Unto the Sonne, with store of other stocks. 1646Crashaw Steps 97 The steward of our growing stocke. c1665Mrs. Hutchinson Mem. Col. Hutchinson (1885) I. 185 But they, having stocks and families, were not willing to march as far as the army. a1687Petty Pol. Arith. ii. (1691) 38 If the Stocks of laborious and ingenious Men..should be diminished by a Tax, and transferred to such as do nothing at all, [etc.]. 1771Beattie Minstrel i. xiv, An honest heart was almost all his stock.
†b. public stock: the property held for public purposes by a nation, municipality, or community.
1663Patrick Parab. Pilgrim (1687) 115 A poor Widow, who had cast all her living into the publick stock. 1701W. Wotton Hist. Rome (Marcus) iv. 60 The Public Stock was well near exhausted by Verus's Prodigality. c1710C. Fiennes Diary (1888) 92 They have a great publick stock belonging to ye Corporation. 1770Langhorne Plutarch (1879) I. 184/2 It appears..that the public stock of the Athenians amounted to 9700 talents.
c. Movable property.
1776Adam Smith W.N. v. ii. II 412 The funds or sources, of revenue which may peculiarly belong to the sovereign or commonwealth must consist either in stock or in land.
†d. The aggregate wealth of a nation. Obs.
1640Pym in Rushw. Hist. Coll. iii. (1692) I. 22 By which means the Stock of the Kingdom is diminished. 1719W. Wood Surv. Trade 154 There is not anything more certain, than that our West-India Trade has greatly enlarged our Stock. 1729Swift Modest Proposal 12 The Nation's stock will be thereby encreased fifty thousand pounds per Annum. 1796Burke Regic. Peace ii. (1892) 110 If we look to our stock in the Eastern world, our most valuable and systematick acquisitions are made in that quarter. 1825McCulloch Pol. Econ. ii. ii. 92 The whole produce of industry belonging to a country is said to form its stock.
†50.
a. The business capital of a trading firm or company. in stock (said of a person): in the position of a partner. Obs.
c1600Henslowe Diary (1845) 276 A Note of all suche bookes as belong to the Stocke. 1613J. Tapp Pathw. Knowl. 233 Two Marchants are in Company, B putteth in 200 li more then A, B continueth in stocke 5 moneths, and A 7 moneths ½, they gaine one as much as the other; the question is [etc.]. 1669W. A[glionby] Pres. St. United Provinces 159 Many..put in different summes, which all together made up six hundred thousand pound, the first stock upon which this [Dutch East India] Company has built its prodigious Encrease. 1694J. Houghton Collect. Improv. Husb. No. 122 ⁋4 Lately a Company of Gentlemen have made a Stock for Improvement of Tanning with Birch-Bark... Their Tannery is at Holloway. 1697Lond. Gaz. No. 3303/3 Each Member having Five hundred Pounds in the Stock of the Bank. 1798Hutton Course Math. (1806) I. 124 They admit K as a third partner, who brought into stock 2800l. 1844H. H. Wilson Brit. India I. 494 As the state of the money market rendered it unadvisable to increase the Company's capital stock,..the Court applied to the House for such aid as [etc.].
b. In Bookkeeping by Double Entry, the heading (more fully stock account: see 65.) of the ledger account which summarizes the assets and liabilities of the trader, firm, or company to whom the books belong.
1588Mellis Briefe Instr. D vij, Then for your Creditor goe to the letter S. and there enter stocke as followeth: Stocke is in folio 2. 1674J. Collins Introd. Merchants-Acc. B 3 b, John Speed Debitor. January 2 To Stock owing by him..100 l. 00 s. 00 d. Ibid. B 4, Per contra John Speed Creditor. January 7 By Stock for Three Months rebate [etc.]. 1732J. Clark in B. F. Foster's Double Entry eluc. (1852) Pref. p. iii, Let it be supposed that the account of Stock is a real person employed to take care of my estate, and to render an account of the improvement he has made of it. 1771Encycl. Brit. I. 589/2 Therefore this accompt is closed, by being debited or credited to or by Stock, for the difference of its sides. Ibid. 593/2 Accordingly in your new Journal, the several particulars on the Dr side must all of them be made Drs to Stock. c1789Ibid. (ed. 3) III. 368/2 Thirdly, Accounts of Stock, Profit, and Loss. 1828–32Webster, Stock, in book-keeping, the owner or owners of the books. 1852B. F. Foster Double Entry eluc. (ed. 5) 4 When the assets exceed the debts, Stock or the proprietor is a creditor for the surplus, or, in the event of insolvency debtor for the deficiency.
†51. Money, or a sum of money, invested by a person in a partnership or commercial company. Obs.
c1645Howell Lett. (1650) II. 12 By reason of the generality of commerce,—the banks, adventures, the common shares and stocks which most have in the Indian and other companies,—the wealth doth diffuse it self here in a strange kind of equality. 1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. iv. §248 They [the Commons] were no way guilty of the troubles, the fears, and public dangers, which made men withdraw their stocks, and keep their money by them. 1685Caldwell Papers (Maitl. Club) I. 146 The East India Companie..had very little advantage.. which he had reason to know, because he himselfe had a stock in it.
fig.1686Goad Celest. Bodies iii. ii. 434 When I consider that I do hereby advance a Stock towards the Discovery of the Cause, whether Celestial or no, I shall find some Mitigation of Censure. 1710Steele Tatler No. 225 ⁋2 All..Deviations from the Design of pleasing each other when we meet, are derived from Interlopers in Society, who want Capacity to put in a Stock among regular Companions.
52. a. The subscribed capital of a trading company, or the public debt of a nation, municipal corporation, or the like, regarded as transferable property held by the subscribers or creditors, and subject to fluctuations in market value. Also, in particularized sense, a kind of stock, a particular fund in which money may be invested.
In expressions like to buy or sell stocks, the word may be partly an application of sense 42, ‘tally’. Cf. quot. 1714 under that sense.
In modern British use the application of the word is narrowed; the subscribed capital of a public company is called shares when it is divided into portions of uniform amount, and stock when any desired amount may be bought or sold. In British use, also, when there is no specific indication, stock is usually taken to refer to those portions of the National Debt, the principal of which is not repayable, the government being pledged only to the payment of interest in perpetuity.
a1692H. Pollexfen Disc. Trade (1697) A 4 b, Whether any profit can arise to the Nation by the advance of Stocks. 1708Swift Abol. Chr. Misc. (1711) 181 The Bank, and East-India Stock, may fall at least One per Cent. 1714Macky Journ. Eng. I. ix. 113 You will see Fellows, in shabby Cloaths, Selling Ten or Twelve Thousand Pounds in Stock, though perhaps he mayn't be worth at the same time Ten Shillings. a1763W. King Pol. & Lit. Anecd. (1819) 105 Sir William..had a fair estate in land, a large sum of money in the stocks, and [etc.]. 1777Sheridan Sch. Scand. iii. i, He is forced to sell stock at a great loss. 1781D. Hartley Consid. Renewal Bank Charter 18 One hundred pounds of Bank stock is now worth about 110 l. 1784Cowper Task iv. 16 The fall of stocks. 1842Penny Cycl. XXIII. 71/2 Stocks, a term applied to the various ‘Funds’ which constitute the national debt. 1845McCulloch Taxation iii. ii. (1852) 450 Though it be true..that four and five per cent. stocks have always borne a lower relative value in the market than three per cent. stock, it is not true that [etc.]. 1889Act 52 & 53 Vict. c. 32 §9 The expression ‘stock’ shall include fully paid-up shares. 1898W. J. Greenwood Business Pract. 42 Stock, Capital in a lump sum divisible into unequal amounts, large or small, to suit investors, instead of in shares of fixed or equal instalments. English Government Consols are of this kind; also the stocks of some railway companies. 1913Times 9 Aug. 17/6 Furness stock did not move on the announcement of an interim dividend at the rate of 2 per cent.
b. fig. phrase (colloq. or slang). to take (large etc.) stock in (rarely of): to be interested in, attach importance to, give credence to.
1870‘Mark Twain’ in Galaxy Oct. 575/1 The ‘chance’ theory..is..calculated to inflict..pecuniary loss upon any community that takes stock in it. 1878Masque of Poets 216 All which I do most potently believe, Taking large stock in Natural Selection. 1885Homiletic Rev. Aug. 134 Educated, and I believe scientific men, took stock in it [Blue Glass theory of cure]. 1891B. Harte First Family Tasajara v, I never took stock of that story. 1902Daily Chron. 1 Apr. 6/3 There are many tales of the manifestation of natural gas in Sussex, which I do not take much stock in.
c. fig. Reputation, esteem, credit.
1930Times Lit. Suppl. 17 Apr. 334/4 He found British stock very high in North Germany. 1942R.A.F. Jrnl. 27 June (recto rear cover), The stock of the R.A.F. is high in the Soviet. 1955Times 24 June 10/2 General Perón's stock still seemed to be rising to-day as the country gradually returned to normal conditions. 1979A. Boyle Climate of Treason viii. 237 This minor triumph sent up the personal stock of Philby.
53. a. A collective term for the implements (dead stock) and the animals (live stock) employed in the working of a farm, an industrial establishment, etc. See also rolling stock.
1519N.C. Wills (Surtees 1908) I. 106 That my sonne..have my ferme of Lenwyke..with the stocke theruppon. a1676Hale Prim. Orig. Man. (1677) 214 The Stock being exhausted one Year, left little for the supply of Tillage, Husbandry, or Increase for the next. 1788Priestley Lect. Hist. v. xliv. 324 Cattle..bear a much lower price than corn, which requires more art, labour, and stock to raise it. 1826Art of Brewing (ed. 2) 140 The costs of rents, of taxes, of agricultural stock, and of labourers' wages, are much less now than heretofore in our memory they have been. 1836C. P. Traill Backwoods of Canada 26 Live and dead stock that go or are taken on board. 1841W. Spalding Italy & Ital. Isl. III. 246 The tenant was to find his own stock and tools. 1851Greenwell Coal-Trade Terms, Northumb. & Durh. 52 Colliery stock comprises the establishment of engines, waggons, horses, and materials of every description requisite to carry on a colliery. 1863H. Cox Instit. iii. v. 658 Inspectors, who report on the sufficiency of the works and stocks of railways.
†b. Scots Law. stock and teind: the gross produce of a farm, fishery, etc., without deduction of the tithe. Obs.
1574in Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1586, 367/2 Que salina esset libera a decimis, eo quod decime nunquam solite sunt separari, sed una lie stok et teind intromissa sunt. 1588Reg. Privy Council Scot. IV. 280 Baith stok and teind thairof. [1651in Agnew Hered. Sheriffs Galloway (1893) II. 73 Salcharie pays in stock and teind thretty bolls victual, 300 marks money.]
c. = stock-car 2. U.S.
1951Sun (Baltimore) 11 Oct. b24/1 The Philadelphia district will be well represented when the 100-mile National Championship, for sportsman stocks, gets the green flag at the Langhorne Speedway, Sunday. 1979Arizona Daily Star 1 Apr. c 12/5 Tucson Dragway will run its weekly racing program today, with the junior pro stocks..topping the racing.
54. spec. = live stock; the animals on a farm; also, a collective term for horses, cattle, and sheep bred for use or profit.
1523–34Fitzherb. Husb. 39 It is conuenient, that he rere two oxe calues, and two cowe calues at the least, to vpholde his stocke. 1608Rowlands Humors Looking Glasse (1872) 15 This poore man had a Cow twas all his stocke. 1649Milton Eikon. 220 The people he accounts his Heard, his Cattell, the Stock upon his ground. 1660F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 348 They keep stocks of tame Deer. 1744M. Bishop Life & Adv. 4, I frequently rode out with him in a Morning to look at his Stock. 1796W. H. Marshall Yorksh. (ed. 2) II. 347 Stock; livestock. 1801Farmer's Mag. Apr. 228 Drovers are now buying lean stock briskly at good prices. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xliv, The proofs he had given of his skill in managing stock. 1851H. Stephens Bk. Farm §4065 (1855) II. 240/1 Salted hay is much relished by all kinds of stock. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer ix, But few stock were visible on the plain.
b. Applied to slaves.
1828–32Webster, Stock, in the West Indies, the slaves of a plantation. 1837H. Martineau Soc. Amer. II. 41 Her [Virginia's] revenue is chiefly derived from the rearing of slaves as stock for the southern market.
55. a. A quantity (of something specified, whether material or immaterial) accumulated for future use; a store or provision to be drawn upon as occasion requires. Phrase, to lay in a stock.
1638Rous Heav. Acad. i. 4 Let him gather a stock of them, and lay them up for his use. 1639Fuller Holy War iii. xi. (1640) 126 A Prince (as writers report) having a sufficient stock of valour in himself, but little happy in expressing it. a1662Heylin Laud (1668) 391 By making this agreement with them he put them into such a stock of Reputation, that [etc.]. 1693C. Dryden Juvenal's Sat. vii. 200 But oh, what stock of Patience wants the Fool, Who wastes his Time and Breath in teaching School! 1711in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. i. 142 When he has acquir'd to himself a good stock of reputation perhaps he will not envy ours. 1728Gay Let. to Swift 16 May, I..am in hopes to lay in a stock of health. 1738Common Sense (1739) II. 112 She dyes, alters, and turns her little Stock of Finery into all the Changes which Fancy and Affectation produce in every Brain of Quality. 1750Johnson Rambler No. 109 ⁋1 You have not yet exhausted the whole stock of human infelicity. 1771Franklin Autobiog. Wks. 1840 I. 18, I wanted a stock of words. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. II. 133 When..a stock of provisions sufficient to support them the whole way, would be more than they could carry,..they [etc.]. 1790Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. 1808 V. 273 That stock of general truth, for the branches of which they contended with their blood. 1804Med. Jrnl. XII. 305 It is frequently observed in the inoculated cow-pox. I have seen it..after I had been using matter from the same stock for upwards of three years. 1812Shelley Devil's Walk xvi, For he is fat,..How vast his stock of calf! 1843[Pycroft] Hints to Freshmen 16 Lay in a stock of Bryant's Regalias and Castle's Sylvas, to acquire condition in your absence. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xii. III. 228 The stock of cannon balls was almost exhausted. 1907J. A. Hodges Elem. Photogr. (ed. 6) 81 An ever-increasing stock of glass negatives.
†b. Complement of population; also, a large number (of persons). Obs.
1674T. Lower in Jrnl. Friends Hist. Soc. (1913) July 144 Seeinge such stockes of Quakers did resort to him. 1690Child Disc. Trade (1698) 246 With us, after that with long civil wars the land was half unpeopled, so as till of late years, it came not to its full stock of people again.
c. Mining. (See quot.)
1709T. Robinson Nat. Hist. Westm. & Cumb. xv. 85 To see that rich Vein, and the Stock of Ore upon the Bank, which was like a little Mountain. 1886G. P. Merrill in Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst. ii. (1889) 525 Stock, the useful rock taken from a quarry. 1909Century Dict. Suppl., Stock, the material removed from a quarry which is of suitable size to be worked into marketable articles.
56. a. The aggregate of goods, or of some specified kind of goods, which a trader has on hand as a provision for the possible future requirements of customers.
1696–7Act 8 & 9 Will. III, c. 7 §10 The several Stockes of Paper Parchment Pastboard or Vellum. 1736Gentl. Mag. VI. 591/2 They all brew great Quantities, which they keep by them as a Stock in Hand. 1814Scott Let. in Lockhart (1837) III. x. 322 That having resolved, as they are aware, to relinquish publishing, you only wish to avail yourselves of this offer to the extent of helping off some of your stock. 1833H. Martineau Loom & Lugger ii. ii. 21 She might look through her father's stock many times. 1833J. Holland Manuf. Metals II. 112 A large depôt of arms had been established in the Tower; and it was known to some in the trade, that of this warlike stock the government were desirous to dispose. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair xxxv, The sculptors of those days had stocks of such funereal emblems in hand. 1851Hawthorne Ho. Sev. Gables v. (1852) 59 ‘We must renew our stock, Cousin Hepzibah!’ cried the little saleswoman. 1868M. Pattison Academ. Org. v. 167 We have not cared to keep on hand a larger stock than we could dispose of in the season. 1881W. S. Gilbert Foggerty's Fairy i. (1895) 35 You are in trade?..So am I. Wholesale. What's your stock? Tal. Mine's cheese. 1885Manch. Exam. 3 June 5/3 The market is reported to be glutted, and the production has of late been largely going into stock. 1899Daily News 1 Nov. 3/1 The authorities at Enfield say that they are well supplied with these guns out at the Cape, and that they are working for stock.
b. take stock. In commercial use, to make an inventory of the merchandise, furniture, etc. in one's own (rarely in another's) possession, recording its quantity and present value. Hence fig., to make a careful estimate of one's position with regard to resources, prospects, or the like. to take stock of: to reckon up, evaluate; also colloq., to scrutinize (a person) with suspicion or interest.
1736Country Jrnl. or Craftsman 14 Aug. 1/1 [Innkeeper to Exciseman.] Goodmorrow..Mr. Gage... I hope you have no Information against Me... Did you not take Stock but last Night? 1825Coleridge Aids Refl. (1831) 184 How vague and general these [thoughts] are even on objects of Sense, the few who at a mature age have seriously set about the discipline of their faculties, and have honestly taken stock, best know by recollection of their own state. 1826New Monthly Mag. XVI. 19 It may therefore be worth while at this commencement of a new year for us to balance accounts with our readers, and, in the trader's phrase, to ‘take stock’. 1840Macaulay Ess., Clive ⁋7 The business of the servant of the Company was not, as now, to conduct the judicial, financial, and diplomatic business of a great country, but to take stock [etc.]. 1857Borrow Rom. Rye xlvi, One day, being at a place called the Escurial, I took stock, as the tradesmen say, and found I possessed the sum of eighty dollars won by playing at cards. 1865Slang Dict. 247 To take stock of one, to scrutinize narrowly one whom you have reason to suspect. 1867W. Johnson in Farrar Ess. Lib. Educ. (1867) 333 You will find the historian taking stock of human knowledge for the end of the Middle Ages. 1877–81Voyle & Stevenson Milit. Dict. Suppl. 36/2 A combatant officer appointed to ‘take stock’, either at home or abroad, is entitled to receive extra pay of 5s. a day. 1883Froude Short Stud. IV. ii. i. 166 It is, perhaps,..occasionally well to take stock of our mental experience. 1885M. E. Braddon Wyllard's Weird ii, How is it that you who are so sharp could not contrive to spot him when you took stock of the passengers? 1893Times 30 May 9/3 It is always the custom with practical politicians to take stock of what has been done..and what can be done. 1896N. & Q. Ser. viii. IX. 158/2 A narrow squint window at the back of one of them enabled its occupant to take stock of any one who might knock at the door of his neighbour.
c. in stock: in the possession of the trader.
1618in J. Charnock Hist. Mar. Archit. (1801) II. 237 There will remaine in stock at Deptford 738 t. 14 c. 0 q. 9 lb. 1891Law Rep., Weekly Notes 44/1 The defendant had about forty copies of the impression in stock which he desired to sell. 1898W. J. Greenwood Commerc. Corresp. (ed. 2) 3, I intend to dispose of the whole of the goods in stock.
d. Theatr. A stock company; repertory. Chiefly U.S.
1916Variety 27 Oct. 12/1 The Alcazar stock is enjoying satisfactory business. 1933M. Lincoln Oh! Definitely vii. 73 ‘He had been getting three pounds a week in stock’ but would ‘take two-ten for town’. 1937Daily Tel. 14 Aug. 9/1 No money will induce them [sc. good actors] to bury themselves in Stratford..under ‘stock’ conditions. 1962Listener 16 Aug. 242/2 Between her junior and senior years in college..she played summer stock.
57. a. The liquor made by boiling meat (with or without vegetables, etc.) and used as a foundation for soup.
1730C. Carter Compl. Pract. Cook 1 A good Stock of strong Broth Well made, and good Gravies well drawn off, are very principal Ingredients in the Composing of all Made-Dishes of boil'd Meats. 1747H. Glasse Art of Cookery ix. 78 An Oyster Soop. Your stock must be made of any Sort of Fish the Place affords. 1764E. Moxon Eng. Housew. (ed. 9) 119 You must make your stock the day before you use it. 1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm II. 169 Its decoction forms an excellent stock for various dishes. 1870Dickens E. Drood vi, Stock for soup became fragrant in the air of Minor Canon Corner. 1886Sat. Rev. 6 Mar. 328/2 Vatel himself..would not have hesitated to make a stock for his master Condé, or his king Louis the Magnificent, out of cod's-heads.
b. gen. The raw material from which anything is made; material. Chiefly with prefixed word as in paper-stock, soap-stock.
1873Spon Workshop Rec. Ser. i. 350 In its natural state, fat..is always associated with..foreign matters, which must be separated before it can be used as candle stock. 1875Paper-stock [see paper n. 12]. 1882Encycl. Brit. XIV. 384/2 In these the stock is exposed to the strongest tanning liquors. 1924S. Leicester Pract. Stud. for Paper Manufacturers v. 116 The mistakes in sizing are some of the most difficult to elucidate... The stock used may be the cause. 1963R. R. A. Higham Handbk. Papermaking ii. 45 Distinct variations occur between one batch of stock and another with regard to treatment, colour, temperature, consistency, retention of additives, etc.
c. Cinematographic film.
1897C. F. Jenkins Picture Ribbons 27 The film is of transparent celluloid, one side of which is coated with a sensitive emulsion, that for the negative being much more rapid than the positive stock. 1909Moving Picture World 3 July 11/2 The non-inflammable film stock is now being issued by so many manufacturers. 1938Times 15 Mar. 12/3 A twelve-minute film on 16 mm. stock, shown privately in Liverpool. Ibid., The technical quality of the film is excellent, super-panchromatic stock giving rich quality to shots which are themselves carefully composed. 1974C. Priest Your Bk. of Film-Making i. 23 The film is twice as wide as 8 mm film stock.
58. Card-playing.
a. In certain games, the portion of the pack of cards which is not dealt out, but left on the table to be drawn from according to the rules of the game.[Cf. Du. stok, Norw. stokk, in the same sense.] 1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xiii. xxvii. (1886) 273 Throw upon the Stocke the nether card. 1607Heywood Wom. Killed w. Kindn. (1617) E 2 b, This Queene I haue more then mine owne, you see. Giue me the stocke. 1674Cotton Compl. Gamester vi. (1680) 65 [Gleek] The Dealer delivers the Cards by four till every one hath twelve, and the rest are laid on the Table, for the Stock, being in number eight. Ibid. vii. 69 [L'Ombre] There will remain thirteen Cards in the Stock. 1732Swift Poems, Beasts' Confess. 193 He heard there was a club of cheats, Who..Could change the stock, or cog a dye. 1830Hardie Hoyle 44 (Piquet) Talon, or stock, is the eight remaining cards, after twelve are dealt to each person. 1878H. Gibbs Ombre 19 After dealing he places the remaining thirteen cards before him, and they are called the Stock.
b. The set of cards used in a particular game (whether a pack, or one or more incomplete packs).
1584R. W. Three Ladies Lond. ii. A iiij, Nowe all the Cardes in the stock are delte about. 1895G. J. Manson Sporting Dict., [In Bezique.] Stock, the number of packs of cards corresponding with the number of players, shuffled together and ready to be dealt.
†c. = hand n. 23. Obs.
1637Rutherford Lett. (1836) I. 357 That Kirk and Commonwealth are in his hand, like a stock of cards, and that he dealeth the play to the mourners of Zion [etc.]. c1641Cleveland Smectymnuus Poems (1677) 39 So many Cards ith' Stock, and yet be bilk'd? 1659Shuffling, Cutting & Dealing 6 Shall I not play? My Lord Protector hath given me a Stock, and I'le pack the Cards with all the Cavalier-Gamesters in the Town.
VII. 59. In imitation of compounds like leaning-stock, whipping-stock, where the n. has the sense 1 b or 5, there have been formed many combinations of stock with a preceding vbl. n., which designate a person as the habitual object of some kind of contemptuous or unpleasant treatment. (There is probably in these formations some notion of sense 1 c, the implication being that the person is treated as if incapable of feeling.) Examples, which appear in this Dictionary as main words or under their first element, are floating-, gauring, gazing-, jesting-, laughing-, mocking-, pointing-, sporting-, talking-, torturing-stock; the following quots. contain one or two nonce-words that have not been registered in their alphabetical place.
1545Hen. VIII Sp. Parlt. (1642) A 4, Not to dispute, and make Scripture a railing and taunting-stocke against Priests and Preachers. 1580Lyly Euphues & his England (Arb.) 444 Then shall you be like stars to the wise, who are now but staring stockes to the foolish. 1630B. Jonson New Inn i. vi. (1631) C 2, Therefore [she] might indifferently be made The courting-stock, for all to practise on.
VIII. Combinations.
60. Similatively (with ref. to sense 1 c), as † stock-log; stock-headed, stock-like adjs. Also stock-blind, -dead, -deaf adjs., as blind (etc.) as a stock. Hence perh. stock-full a. rare—1, chock-full, cramfull. Also stock still.[Cf. Du. stokblind, G. stockblind; G. stocktaub stock-deaf; Du. stokstijf, G. stocksteif stiff as a poker; Du. stokoud very old; G. stockdunkel, -finster pitch-dark.] 1675Wycherley Country Wife ii. i. 21 True Lovers are blind, *stockblind. 1802Beddoes Hygeia i. 32 He was stock-blind; so could not judge of me by my exterior.
1662J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 136 A corpulent, fat Man..fell down *stock-dead, as soon as he came to the shrine.
1865Tylor Early Hist. Man. iv. 71 Though he is ‘*stock-deaf’, he has a bodily feeling of music, and different instruments have different effects upon him.
1782F. Burney Cecilia v. xii, I'm sure the garden is so *stock full, that if there was to come many more, I don't know where they could cram 'em.
1904M. Hewlett Queen's Quair ii. vii. 279 That *stock-headed starer out of painted eyes.
1878Browning Poets Croisic lxi, Does he stand *stock-like henceforth?
1689Hickeringill Ceremony-Monger iii. Wks. 1716 II. 408 [My Ceremony-Monger] is the great *Stock⁓logg of the Church, that has neither fire nor heat within.
61. In sense 4, as stock-grower, † stock-head; † stock-grafted a., grafted by means of a slit or cleft in the stock; † stock-grafting, cleft-grafting.
1523–34Fitzherb. Husb. §138 Take toughe cleye.. and ley it vppon the stocke-heed. 1707Mortimer Husb. (1721) II. 265 Medlars may be cleft, or Stock-grafted, on the White Thorn. 1731Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Grafting, Cleft Grafting, which is also call'd Stock or Slit-grafting. 1842Loudon Suburban Hort. 562 As practised by the stock⁓growers in propagating plum and Paradise stocks.
62. In sense 52, as stock † -bill, stock-board, stock-dealer, stock-list, † stock-office, stock-watering; stock certificate, a document issued by the Treasury, entitling the holder to a certain amount of a particular government stock; stock-indicator, -ticker, a telegraphic instrument for recording variations in the price of stock; stock receipt (see quot.); stock split U.S., the division of a stock into an increased number of shares; hence stock splitting; cf. split-up s.v. split-. Also stockbroker, etc.
1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Quality (1809) IV. 80 [He] produced bank and *stock bills to the amount of..five thousand pounds.
1872T. L. Cuyler Heart-Life 123 The reckless gambling operations of *stock-boards or ‘the street’.
1863Act 26 & 27 Vict. c. 28 §6 A *Stock Certificate..shall entitle the Bearer to the Stock therein described.
1902Westm. Gaz. 30 Sept. 10/1 A firm of *stock-dealers.
1891Century Dict., *Stock-indicator.
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Stock-list, a list published daily or periodically, enumerating the leading stocks dealt in; the prices current; the actual transactions, etc.
1737J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. ii. (ed. 33) 171 (South Sea office) Chief Clerk of the *Stock-office.
1901Cordingley Dict. Stock Exch. Terms 86 *Stock Receipt. This is a Receipt, in printed form, filled in by the seller of Consols and other Registered Stocks and given by him to the buyer at the time the transfer is made.
1955Times 6 July 9/3 According to the Associated Press, the directors of General Motors Corporation have to-day recommended a three-for-one *stock split to be voted on by stockholders at a special meeting on September 23. 1967N.Y. Times (Internat. ed.) 11–12 Feb. 9/6 Your first bonus report will be our list of 30 stock split candidates. 1977Dædalus Fall 85 Tests indicate that stock prices quickly adjust to changes in public information (announcements of stock splits, dividend increases, etc.).
1959Economist 28 Feb. 788/1 *Stock splitting (the American equivalent of the British scrip or bonus issue).
1886Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 17 July 2/3 The *Stock Ticker. 1899Westm. Gaz. 20 Apr. 10/2 A narrow strip of paper resembling a stock-ticker tape.
1883Nation (N.Y.) 11 Oct. 307/2 ‘*Stock-watering’ means simply an increase in the number of shares into which the property of a corporation is divided.
63. a. In sense 54, as stock-agent, stock-auction, stock-breeder, stock-breeding, stock-carrying, stock-dealer, stock-driver, stock-driving, stock-farm, stock-farmer, stock-farming, stock-feed, stock-feeding, stock-food, stock-grower, stock-house, † stock-husbandry, stock-inspector, stock-master, stock-minder, stock-owner stock-raiser, stock-raising, stock-ranch, stock-range, stock-rearing, stock-run, stock-sale, stock-station, stock-theft, stock-thief, stock-trader, stock-train, stock-yard; stock-proof adj.; stock and station Austral. and N.Z., used attrib. to designate firms or their employees dealing with farm products and supplies; stock horse Austral., a horse trained to carry a stock-rider; stock-hut Austral., the hut of a stockman; stock-rider Austral., a man employed to ride after cattle on an unfenced station; stock-riding, the occupation of a stock-rider; stock-route Austral., a right of way for travelling cattle through occupied land; stock-whip Austral., a whip for driving cattle; also as v. trans., to beat with a stock-whip. Also stock-car, stockholder, -keeper (etc.), stockman.
1933Press (Christchurch, N.Z.) 9 Sept. 15/7 Dealers and *stock-agents use various terms..to make failing mouthed sheep sound younger. 1977Weekly Times (Melbourne) 19 Jan. 11/3 Barney, the stock agent, was looking him straight in the eye when he said: ‘If I were you, Clarence, I'd sell the lot and run some sheep.’
1881Adelaide Observer 22 Oct. 44/1 He was suspecious of all *stock and station salesmen. 1908in D. J. Gordon Handbk. S. Austral. 327 (Advt.), Bagot, Shakes, & Lewis, Limited. Stock and station agents. 1930L. G. D. Acland Early Canterbury Runs 1st Ser. ii. 13 Ford and Newton, who were the leading Christchurch Stock and Station Agents. 1965G. McInnes Road to Gundagai vii. 113 Here were the big mortgage and stock-and-station houses where wool was finally baled and cleaned for export.
1948W. Faulkner Intruder in Dust (1949) vi. 134 Monday was *stock-auction day at the sales barns behind the Square.
1815Sporting Mag. XLV. 194 Mr. George Flower..Merino *stock-breeder.
1937R. H. Lowie Hist. Ethnological Theory viii. 114 This yields..the sequence of (a) hunting-gathering; hoe-culture; (c) hoe-culture with *stock-breeding; (d) ‘agriculture’. 1957Times Lit. Suppl. 8 Nov. 678/3 Professor Nichols makes a comprehensive review of the genetic basis of modern stockbreeding.
1866J. Murray Descr. Province Southland 9 The *stock-carrying capacity of the natural herbage is of course variable. 1960Farmer & Stockbreeder 12 Jan. 78/1 He brought back the idea of loose-housing..and introduced it at Langhill to cater for the additional stock-carrying capacity of the next-door, buildingless farm then being acquired.
1885Manch. Exam. 17 Mar. 5/2 Duties on live meat in Germany fail in protecting *stockdealers.
1851Lyttelton (N.Z.) Times 19 Apr., A settlement of whale-fishers and *stock-drivers. 1871Republican Rev. (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 27 May 1/3 M. Maloney..arrived here on Thursday, being sent ahead to employ stock drivers.
1867H. Phillips Jrnl. Rockwood 29 Sept. 88 (typescript), T.A.P. & I.I. *stock driving. 1874J. C. McCoy Hist. Sk. Cattle Trade 92 [The farm] is allowed to lay awaste, whilst its owner has turned to stock-driving.
1806Sydney Gaz. in O'Hara Hist. N.S. Wales (1817) 289 Well adapted either to an arable or *stock farm. 1848Senate Rep. 30th U.S. Congr. 1 Sess. No. 75. 29 Some five hundred head of beef cattle were taken from the government stock farm. 1912M. Nicholson Hoosier Chron. 27, I own a stock farm near Lexington.
1768Ann. Reg. 149 The *stock farmers have greatly suffered, as the lambs were much hurt. 1894Harper's Mag. Apr. 676/2 ‘Crit’ Marston, the young blue-grass stock-farmer, is a favorite throughout all that section.
1865Trollope Belton Est. xvi. 183 In *stock-farming the chief thing is not to have too many beasts.
1915Edin. Rev. Jan. 83 The Ana (or Aana) tree..is said to give the best *stock-feed in the whole world. 1960Farmer & Stockbreeder 15 Mar. 113/1, I am growing ten acres each of stockfeed peas and beans. 1970Oxford Times 30 Oct. 14 Demand for stockfeed potatoes would be far greater than usual.
1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. III. 37 Crops used for *stock-feeding.
1894Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. Dec. 646 A proportion of the produce grown is retained on the farm, as *stock-food or litter.
1876Chamb. Jrnl. 30 Dec. 845/1 The experience of *stock-growers from all sections for the last few years has proved [etc.].
1846H. Weekes in Rutherford & Skinner New Plymouth Settlement (1940) i. vi. 124 ‘Peter’ was an excellent *stock-horse, would follow cattle like a dog. 1865H. Kingsley Hillyars & Burtons l, An aged stockhorse, which I had bought very cheap.
1808Sydney Gaz. in O'Hara Hist. N.S. Wales (1817) 317 To be sold..with a good dwelling-house, barn, stable, *stock-houses, and a capital stock-yard.
1801Farmer's Mag. Aug. 285 The general run of the soil of this tract..renders it very eligible for what is called the *stock-husbandry.
1828P. Cunningham N.S. Wales (ed. 3) II. 30 They..paid a visit to a *stock hut inhabited by three freemen, at Putty.
1888Century Mag. Feb. 507/1 At every shipping point..*stock inspectors..jealously examine all the brands on the live animals or on the hides of the slaughtered ones. 1930L. G. D. Acland Early Canterbury Runs 1st Ser. iii. 47 He then became Stock Inspector in the North Island, but quarrelled with his superiors. 1948V. Palmer Golconda ii. 15 He might have been a country teacher or a stock-inspector.
1864Intell. Observer Jan. 390 Veterinarians, sheep-breeders, *stock⁓masters, and others practically acquainted with the diseases of our domesticated animals.
1859Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 2) 451 *Stock-minder, one who takes care of cattle on the great prairies.
1865Daily Tel. 18 Oct. 6/4 The Belgian Government has conferred a great boon..on its *stock⁓owners [by checking a cattle plague].
1915N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. 20 Feb. 190 If the long shoots of this plant [sc. Eleagnus] are interlaced while the hedge is growing it makes a close and excellent *stock-proof fence. 1960Farmer & Stockbreeder 15 Mar. 123/2 The Monmouthshire style of hedging..gives a real stock-proof fence.
1874Raymond 6th Rep. Mines 314 A part..of the large grant..on which numerous ranch-men and *stock-raisers are said to have settled.
1868Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 148 Study of plants, meadows, and *stock-raising. 1876Chamb. Jrnl. 30 Dec. 845/1 Eventually the stock-raising interests will be driven to the northern buffalo grass region.
1871in S. De Vere Americanisms (1872) 129 An estancia or *stock⁓ranch.
1859Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 2) 451 *Stock-range, the prairie or plain where cattle range or graze. 1882Century Mag. Aug. 511/1 The hill country is all open as a stock⁓range.
1915Chambers's Jrnl. Jan. 47/2 A son of his anticipated this kind of *stock-rearing many years ago in Manitoba. 1960Farmer & Stockbreeder 29 Mar. 12/3 An 81-acre Northants stock-rearing and feeding farm has been sold for {pstlg}9,800.
1862Cornhill Mag. Jan. 31 Broke in by one of my *stock-riders up to fifteen stone. 1908E. J. Banfield Confessions of Beachcomber ii. iii. 314 A stockrider..in..flash riding-boots. 1973Parade (Melbourne) Sept. 30/2 The authorities were able to choose exactly the sort of men they wanted from the hundreds of adventurers, prospectors, settlers and stock-riders who offered their services.
1872Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. 108/1 The Grant brothers had been doing some very tidy bits of *stock-riding too. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer xviii, The stock-riding contingent.
1886P. Clarke ‘New Chum’ in Austral. 197, I saw it on the *stock-route to Bathurst. 1901M. Franklin My Brilliant Career xxxiv. 286 An overgrown old orchard, skirting one of the great stock-routes. 1977Meanjin (Austral.) XXXVI. i. 69 Cattle cross on the stockroutes.
1828P. Cunningham N.S. Wales (ed. 3) II. 147 You oblige the settler to improve the grant, instead of keeping it as a mere *stock-run.
1948W. Faulkner Intruder in Dust (1949) vi. 134 *Stock-sale day unlike Sunday was a man's time.
1843J. Backhouse Narr. Visit Austral. Colonies xxiii. 264 Accompanied by the Agricultural Superintendent, we walked to a *stock-station..where three men are placed in charge of some cattle. 1847A. Harris Settlers & Convicts xiii. 252 It was..not till noon..that we succeeded in finding the nearest stock-station. 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Stock-station, a district for rearing and herding cattle.
1904Transvaal Agric. Jrnl. July 573 *Stock theft has always been a great source of worry and trouble to the farming community of this country. 1955L. G. Green Karoo xvii. 199 Crime in the karoo usually means stock-theft.
Ibid. ix. 112 The hunt for a *stock-thief who fled into the poort. 1958Johannesburg Sunday Times 28 Sept. 14/9 A quiet-spoken, slightly-built man has become the terror of stock-thieves in the Evaton and Losberg areas.
1942W. Faulkner Go Down, Moses 248 A back-street *stock-trader's boarding house. 1948― Intruder in Dust (1949) vi. 134 The men with their stock-trader walking-sticks not even stopping.
1859Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 2) 451 *Stock-train, a train of railroad cars loaded with cattle. 1906in J. V. Allen Cowboy Lore (1971) i. 19 Another train run in to my stock train. 1961R. P. Hobson Rancher takes Wife xiv. 171 By the time the stock train pulled in..we had a count on the herd.
1852Harper's New Monthly Mag. Dec. 25/1 The Australian ‘stockman’ is a sort of Europeanized Tartar... His food is beef and ‘damper’... In his ‘run’ the stockman is king: his cattle are his subjects; his saddle is his throne; his sceptre is the *stock-whip. 1853J. Rochfort Adventures of Surveyor in N.Z. iv. 42 If the natives had not lent her [sc. the mare] to me he would have gone over and stock-whipped them. 1857W. Howitt Tallangetta l. 100 The stock-whip, with a handle about half a yard long and a thong of three yards long, of plaited bullock-hide, is a terrible instrument in the hands of a practised stockman. 1901M. Franklin My Brilliant Career i. 4 Father came to my rescue, despatching the reptile with his stock-whip. 1936I. L. Idriess Cattle King vi. 53 Wrap me in my stock whip and blanket, And bury me deep. 1955J. Cleary Justin Bayard viii. 111 He tried to hit me, and old Thaddeus stockwhipped him. 1958R. Stow To Islands i. 17 What's the use of holding it against Mr. Heriot that he used to be a handy man with a stockwhip?
1802Barrington's Hist. N.S. Wales x. 373 A young ox was missed from the *stock⁓yard at Toongabbe. 1858R. S. Surtees Ask Mamma lxvi. 300 The first result we see of a gentleman farming being the increase of the size of his stock-yard.
1869Bradshaw's Railway Man xxi. 428 Expended... Union stock yards Chicago..§100,000. 1911C. E. W. Bean ‘Dreadnought’ of Darling xv. 145 The wind..piled it uselessly, over every fence and stockyard. 1929K. S. Prichard Coonardoo iv. 51 They wandered from the stock-yards to the shade-miah. 1958L. Durrell Mountolive viii. 162 The mauve-veiled evening voices of Alexandrians uttering stockyard quotations. 1963Times 16 Jan. 6/6 Born in the stockyards district (where he still lives) and where as a ‘stockyards cowboy’ he once herded cattle from pen to pen. 1978D. Greig Daisy v. 54 In Chicago we stayed at the Hotel on Lake Michigan, near the famous Stockyards where, as they used to say, the unfortunate animals went in whole at one end and came out the other processed into fifty different products.
b. Indicating an animal that is chosen or kept for breeding purposes, as stock carp, stock dog, stock mare, etc. Also stock-getter.
1785J. Woodforde Diary 20 Oct. (1926) II. 211 Mr. Townshend..sent me 20 brace and ½ of stock Carp. 1801Farmer's Mag. Apr. 222 The season throughout has been remarkably favourable to stock sheep. 1851–61Mayhew Lond. Labour III. 15/2 A black tan terrier..which was the greatest stock dog in London of that day. 1854Poultry Chron. II. 404 The purchase of fowls intended for stock⁓birds should not now be delayed. 1862Cornhill Mag. Jan. 31 A handsome little stock-mare. 1862H. H. Dixon Scott & Sebright iii. 165 Till within the last three years he [a stallion] was a very sure stock-getter. 1886C. Scott Sheep-Farming 74 It..is only advisable with some very special stock-ram, whose progeny are valuable. 1891Century Dict., Stock-fish,..fish adapted or used for stocking rivers, ponds, lakes, etc. 1909Westm. Gaz. 13 Feb. 16/2 Another hundred good stock trout have been placed in the Henley waters. 1909Chamb. Jrnl. Apr. 219/1 It is very difficult to get good stock-ducks of the pure Aylesbury strain.
64. In names of birds: stock annet, the common sheldrake, Tadorna cornuta; stock drake [cf. Da. stok-, Norw. stokk-, Sw. stock-and], duck, the mallard or wild duck, Anas boscas; stock eagle, -eekle, etc. [hickwall] dial., the green woodpecker; stock owl, the eagle owl, Bubo ignavus; stock pigeon = stock-dove; stock whaup, the curlew, Numenius arquata.
1852Macgillivray Brit. Birds V. 22 Tadorna Vulpanser... *Stockannet.
1772Forster in Phil. Trans. LXII. 419 Mallard Drake... It is called *Stock Drake at Hudson's Bay.
1805G. Barry Hist. Orkney Isl. 301 The Mallard,..our *stockduck.
1884Upton-on-Severn Gloss., *Stock⁓eekle, a woodpecker. 1899A. H. Evans Birds (Camb. Nat. Hist.) 463 With which name [sc. ‘Log-cocks’] may be compared that of ‘Stock-eagle’, i.e. ‘Stump-eagle’, given in the West of England to the Greater Spotted Woodpecker.
a1688J. Wallace Descr. Isl. Orkney (1693) ii. 16 Sometime the *Stock-oul and Bittern have been seen in this Country. 1805G. Barry Hist. Orkney Isl. 312 The Eagle Owl.., our katogle or stock-owl.
1783Latham Gen. Synopsis Birds II. ii. 604 *Stock Pigeon, Columba ænas.
1813G. Low Fauna Orcad. 80 The larger curlew, called here *Stock-Whap.
65. Miscellaneous special comb.: stock account Book-keeping (see 50 b); stock beer, beer that is stored for ripening before being drunk; stock-board, (a) the wooden board which forms the bottom of a brick-mould; (b) in an organ, the upper board of a soundboard, above the sliders, on which the pipes immediately rest; (c) see 62; stock book, a book in which an account is kept of goods in stock; also spec. a book in which a record is kept of the animals which make up the stock of a farm; † stock-bow, a crossbow; stock-boy, (a) Austral., an Aboriginal employed to look after cattle or other stock; (b) U.S., a boy employed by a business firm to look after stock; stock-brick [cf. sense 15], a hard solid brick, pressed in the mould; stock-brush, a brush with the bristles set in a flat stock or head; † stock-buckle, a buckle used to secure the stock or cravat; stock-building = stock piling vbl. n.; stock-company, (a) ? a joint-stock company; (b) a company the capital of which is represented by stock; stock control (see quot. 1943); stock cube, a cube of concentrated, dehydrated meat stock sold for use in making soups, stews, etc.; stock culture, an uncontaminated culture of a micro-organism maintained continuously and available as a source of experimental material; † stockis-dynt Sc. = stingis-dint (see sting n.1 4); † stock-drawers, stockings; stock-father, the progenitor of a stock or race; † stock-fowler, a kind of cannon or mortar (cf. stock-gun and fowler 3); stock-frost local, ground-ice; stock-gang, a ‘gang’ or set of mill-saws arranged to cut a log into boards at one passage through the machine; † stock-gold Theatr., ‘property’ gold; † stock-gun (cf. stock-fowler); † stock-honey (see quot.); † stock-hose, hose of stout material worn over thinner hose; † stock-house, a prison where offenders were set in the stocks; stock-ice local = stock-frost; stock knife, (a) a knife for cutting wood, esp. one used by a clogger for shaping the soles of clogs; (b) a cutting instrument pivoted on a block (cf. stock-shave); (c) a stockman's knife; stock-maker, a maker † (a) of gun-carriages; (b) of musket-stocks; (c) see quot. 1858; † stock-nail [cf. MDu. stoknagel], a thick nail; stock-nut, the hazel-nut; stock-pot, a pot in which stock for soups is boiled and kept; also fig.; † stock-punished pa. pple., punished by being set in the stocks; stock-purse, a fund kept for the common purposes of a group of persons; stock rail Railways, each of the outer fixed rails at a set of points; stock-room, (a) a room in which reserve stock is stored; (b) a room in a hotel in which commercial travellers display their samples; stock-saddle, † (a) Sc. ? a saddle with a wooden tree; (b) in the Western U.S., a saddle with a heavy tree and steel horn to give resistance in using a lariat; stock-saw, a saw used in a stock-gang; stock-shave (see quot.); stock-shears (see quot.); † stock-sleeve (see quot.); † stock-starve v. trans., to keep (a tradesman) short of stock; stock-stone, a flat stone fixed in a handle, used for scouring and stretching leather; stock-tackle Naut., a tackle used for raising the stock of an anchor perpendicular; stock-trail, used attrib. to designate a gun-carriage in which the trail at the end of the stock rests upon the ground when the gun is unlimbered for firing; † stock-tree Sc., ? a wooden saddle-tree; † stock-wheel Sc., ? a wheel for a gun-carriage.
1771Encycl. Brit. I. 589/2 *Stock-accompt..contains, upon the Dr side, the debts due by the merchant when the books were begun. The Cr side contains his ready money, effects and debts due to him at the same time.
1826Art of Brewing (ed. 2) 64 Keep some *stock beer for flavouring your best ale. 1836Penny Cycl. V. 404/2 The beer is by this means also rendered flat, which is necessary for stock or store beer that is to be kept some time before coming into use.
1850E. Dobson Bricks & Tiles i. 33 The brick mould is placed on a *stock board, which is made to fit the bottom of the mould. 1875Knight Dict. Mech., Stock-board [in an organ].
1835J. F. Cooper Monikins i. ii. 32 Love was a sentiment much too pure and elevated for one whose imagination dwelt habitually on the beauties of the *stock-books. 1847A. Harris Settlers & Convicts xiii. 260 Outside the yard..is..set a table with the stock book, pens, and ink, and in that the cattle are registered. 1882W. D. Hay Brighter Britain! I. viii. 202 We keep a stock-book, in which every beast is entered. 1901Westm. Gaz. 27 Aug. 2/1 The President..seats himself, pen in hand, at the [canteen] stock-book, while the subalterns run over the different articles.
1598Florio, Balista,..a crosse-bow, a *stock-bow or tillar. [1887Kent. Gloss., Stock-bow, a cross-bow.]
1937E. Hill Great Austral. Loneliness xli. 305 In Kimberley and the Territory lubras are even to-day recognised as the best ‘*stock-boys’. 1955J. Cleary Justin Bayard iv. 58 The stockboys had roped the piebald now and thrown a saddle on him. 1972R. Milner in W. King Black Short Story Anthol. 376 This receptionist thought I had come about a stock-boy job, you dig. 1979D. Anthony Long Hard Cure x. 86 He owns a chain of department stores..one of those self-made men, who went to work at fourteen as a stockboy.
1683J. Houghton Collect. Lett. Improv. Husb. II. vi. 186 We make two sorts of Bricks, Viz. *Stock-Bricks and Place-Bricks; the Stock-Bricks are made solid, strong, and..hard. 1703R. Neve City & C. Purchaser 42 Stock-bricks..are made upon a Stock, viz. The Mold is put on a Stock, after the manner of Molding, or Striking of Tiles. 1883Specif. Alnwick & Cornhill Rlwy. 3 The whole of the bricks for the face of any work..of the arches are to be stock bricks.
1693Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 249 Brishes, of three sorts, viz. A *Stock Brish, a Round Brish, and a Pencil. With these Brishes, they wet old Walls before they mend them. 1876Encycl. Brit. IV. 403/2 Brushes with the tufts placed side by side on flat boards, as plasterers' brushes, are called stock-brushes.
1748Smollett Rod. Rand. xliv, A diamond *stock-buckle. 1815Scott Guy M. xxxvii, A well-brushed black suit, with very clean shoes and gold buckles and stock-buckle.
1967A. Battersby Network Analysis (ed. 2) xiii. 221 They will be high during the first few months because of retail *stock-building. 1977Financial Results of Oil Majors 1976 (Shell Internat. Petroleum Co.) 8 The increase in demand, combined with some stock-building at the end of the year in anticipation of a significant rise in oil prices, raised oil production outside the USSR, Eastern Europe and China to 47 million barrels daily in 1976.
1827― Surg. Dau. Pref., Half-ashamed,..yet half-proud of the literary *stock-company, in which he has got a share. 1905Outlook 7 Oct. 471/1 Within the last two years there have been three exposures of gigantic stock-company frauds [in America].
1943Princ. Production Control (B.S.I.) 7 *Stock control, the means by which the correct quantity and quality of material and components are made available according to the production plan, and excessive stocks avoided. 1962A. Battersby Guide to Stock Control v. 48 The calculations can conveniently be summarized on the Stock Control Form..and a specimen set of figures is shown. 1976J. Lund Ultimate iii. 29 They talked..on the economics of warehousing and stock control.
1965Listener 26 Aug. 317/2 Add enough water to almost cover the meat, and the *stock cubes. 1979Times 29 Sept. 15/5 Do you keep a stockpot..and boil it daily?.. Cookery books..have a sneaky way of implying that stock cubes will never do.
1903Jrnl. Hygiene III. 2 Gelatin plates were then made from the broth culture; if only a single species developed, agar tube-cultures were prepared and used as the *stock-cultures of the organism. 1979Jrnl. Appl. Bacteriol. XLVII. 381 The maintenance of stock cultures of lactic acid bacteria in small microbiological laboratories may present a technical problem.
14..Burgh Lawis xvii. in Anc. Laws Scot. (Burgh Rec. Soc.) 10 It is to wyt at in burgh sall nocht be herde bludewyt na yit *stockisdynt na merchet [etc.].
1676Coles Dict., *Stock-drawers, stockings.
1600Holland Livy v. xxiv. 196 Romulus..the first *Stockefather and beginner of the cittie of Rome. c1640J. Smyth Lives Berkeleys (1883) I. 207 Hee is the stock-father of that honored family of the Berkeleys of Wymondham. 1895W. P. W. Phillimore in New Eng. Gen. Hist Register Oct. 450 Edward Garfield, of Watertown, Mass., the stock⁓father of the American family.
1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag. i. ii. 19 See that our Murtherers and *Stockfowlers have their Chambers fill'd with good Powder. 1688Holme Armoury iii. xviii. (Roxb.) 138/1 They are of some called Murthers and slings, or sling peeces, because they are slung in their holds to turne any way. Some call them Stock⁓fowlers; and Fowlers or Foulers.
1856N. & Q. Ser. ii. I. 151/2 *Stock-frost... The watermen of Norfolk unanimously believe in the possibility of the water freezing at the bottom of a river. 1908Nature 30 Jan. 295/2 What is locally called ‘stock frost’..is known to the scientific world..as ‘ground ice’.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Stock-gang. 1880Lumberman's Gaz. Jan. 28 They [i.e. the rafts] are then cut into boards by ‘stock gang’ saws.
1713Guardian No. 95 ⁋1 Fourscore Pieces of *Stock-Gold, and thirty Pieces of Tin-Silver.
1465Paston Lett. III. 436 Item, a *stokke gonne with iij. chambers.
1750W. Ellis Mod. Husb. V. i. 106 (E.D.S.) Those bees that swarmed the year before, we take up now, and then it is called *stock-honey.
1638Junius Paint. Ancients 155 They afterwards begun to use hose, drawing over them some thicker kind of *stock-hose.
1553in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford (1880) 215 They..had him..to Bocardo, and did sette him in the *stocke howse. 1725Lond. Gaz. No. 6403/4 Prisoner in the Stockhouse or Goal of Kingstone.
1879Hardwicke's Sci.-Gossip XV. 142/2 What are the phenomena which go, in the Norfolk district at least, by the name..of ‘stock-frost’, ‘*stock-ice?’
1583Rates Custom Ho. C viij, Kniues called *stock kniues course vngilt the dosen, xvi.s. viii. d. 1799J. Wood Princ. Mech. iv. (ed. 2) 93 Those [levers] in which the forces act on contrary sides of the center of motion,..and those in which they act on the same side, as the stock knife. 1955R. P. Hobson Nothing too Good for Cowboy i. 16 He cut the moosehide wrapping with his stock knife. 1968J. Arnold Shell Bk. Country Crafts 105 The shaping of clogs from these clefts is done with a stock knife... It consists of a stout blade with a long projecting handle. 1978Lancashire Life Apr. 49/2 The tools a sole-cutter used were three in number—stock-knife, hollower and gripper.
1579Reg. Privy Council Scot. III. 205 Wrichtis, *Stokmakaris and Quheill makaris. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. III. v. vi, Deft Stock-makers do gouge and rasp. 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Stock-maker, a manufacturer of stiff neck-bands worn by men.
1596Shuttleworths' Acc. (Chetham Soc.) 107 Stone nales, *stocke nailes, clagge nales.
1833R. Walker Flora Oxfordsh. 284 Corylus Avellana. Common Hazel-nut or *Stock-nut.
1845E. Acton Mod. Cookery i. 3 Never..set the soup by in it, but strain it off..and fill the *stock-pot immediately with water. 1853A. Soyer Pantroph. 260 The Chief of the cooks, the Archimagirus,..embraces at a single glance the series of stock-pots and brick stoves. 1891Ainger in Edith Sichel Life & Lett. (1906) 253 The schoolboy verses..will at once go into the Lamb ‘Stock⁓pot’—my Commonplace Book. 1917Harrods Gen. Catal. 964/1 Extra heavy bellied Stockpot, enamelled Pearl Grey outside and in. 1928‘O. Douglas’ Eliza for Common x. 128 Some quite dull books read like that—as if the author had simply thrown everything in, a sort of stock-pot of a book. 1931R. Campbell Georgiad i. 18 His melancholy recipes for ‘happiness’..How to ‘rechauffe’ the stock-pot of desire. 1960E. David French Provincial Cooking 158 The pot..is usually a tall straight-sided or slightly bulbous stock-pot made of earthenware, copper, enamelled iron, or heavy aluminium. 1982Daily Tel. 14 Jan. 15/5 Put..chine bone into stockpot, cover with water,..and simmer.
1605Shakes. Lear iii. iv. 140 (Qos.) Who is whipt from tithing to tithing, and *stock-punisht and imprisoned.
a1665W. Guthrie Serm. in Tweedie Sel. Biog. (Wodrow Soc.) II. 75 We have all one common profession, interest, *stockpurse. 1802C. James Milit. Dict., Stock Purse, a certain saving which is made in a corps, and which is applied to regimental purposes. 1832G. Downes Lett. Cont. Countries I. 67 A small stock⁓purse is maintained, for the support of the enfeebled and superannuated.
1850Civil Engin. & Archit. Jrnl. XIII. 270/1 The top of the switch not being mitred into the underside of the bearing surface of the *stock rail, it is not liable to be locked by the barbing over of the stock from the pressure of the wheels. 1890W. H. Cole Notes on Permanent-Way Material i. 20 The points or switches are..so adjusted to their respective stock-rails that when one switch is pressed against its stock-rail the other is drawn away, and thus one line of metals or the other is made continuous. 1935E. Beal Railway Modelling in Miniature ii. 36 Then solder the stock-rail for the other track.
1825Hansard Typogr. 243 Another large and convenient room, denominated the *Stock-room, in which the trading business of the [Stationers'] Company is transacted. 1877‘The Road’: Leaves Sk.-bk. Commerc. Trav. 53 The Commercial-Room is ample; there are dining, coffee, bath and stock rooms. 1888Jacobi Printers' Vocab. 133 Stock room, the department allotted to the storing of paper or printed stock.
1537–8Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. VI. 380 For thre quarteris of fyne gray clath to cover ane *stok sadill to the Kingis grace. 1888T. Roosevelt in Century Mag. Apr. 863/2 For a long spell of such work a stock-saddle is far less tiring than the ordinary Eastern or English one.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Stock-saw.
1794Rigging & Seamanship I. 152 *Stock-shave, a large sharp⁓edged cutting knife, with a handle at one end and a hook at the other, by which it hooks in a..staple..driven in an elm block; it is used to pare off the rough wood from the shells of blocks, &c.
1688Holme Armoury iii. 386/2 Two other working Tools of the Needle-makers. The first is their *Stock-Shears, with these they cut the Wyer to that length as the Needle is to bear.
1611Cotgr. s.v. Lombard, Manche Lombarde, a *stocke-sleeue; or fashion of halfe-sleeue, whose vpper part is raised, and full of plaits, or gathers.
1727De Foe Eng. Tradesm. (1732) I. vi. 67 Those adventures..*stock-starve the Tradesman, and impoverish him in his ordinary business.
1875Knight Dict. Mech., *Stock-stone.
1815Falconer's Dict. Marine (ed. Burney), *Stock-Tackle.
1860A. Mordecai Rep. Mil. Comm. Europe (1861) 62 (Funk) These were no doubt designed for firing with larger charges..than the *stocktrail carriage admits of.
1470York Memo. Bk. (Surtees) I. 92 That..no saddiller..make any sadelles of trees that er calde *stokke trees or Scottes trees.
1547Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. IX. 103 For tua botis..hir *stoke quhelis and necessaris.
B. adj. (usu. in attributive use). That is kept in stock (see A. 56 c).
1. a. Kept regularly in stock for sale, as stock book, stock lot, stock model; stock-type adj.; stock shot Cinemat. = library shot s.v. library1 4; stock size, a size (of ready-made garments) regularly kept in stock; used attrib. or predicatively to designate a person whom such a size fits.
a1625Fletcher Nice Valour v. iii, For they begin already to engross it, And make it a *Stock-book. 1858Cooper Ath. Cantabr. I. 249 The Sick Man's Salve was long a stockbook with the Stationers' company.
1898W. J. Greenwood Commerc. Corresp. (ed. 2) 31 We particularly wish to call your attention to the *stock lots as per particulars noted at foot.
1926Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 4 July 3/1 (Advt.), The car was a *stock model in every respect except for a 48-gallon gasoline tank and changes in the top, back seat and tire carrier.
1941B. Schulberg What makes Sammy Run? vi. 93 A shoe-string producer told him he had bought the *stock shots from Hell's Angels. 1974Radio Times 14 Mar. 11/4 Processed chases up and down stock-shot ski slopes.
1897Daily News 9 Jan. 6/3 The happy woman who possesses what we may call a *stock-size figure. 1900Ibid. 28 July 6/7 Those who are fortunate enough to be a ‘stock’ size can save many shillings by buying these ready-made articles. 1952M. Laski Village xix. 262 Margaret was lucky, she was stock-size, not like Wendy herself who had always had to have everything made for her. 1980Country Life 3 July 78/2 Our model girl was stock size and everything was too big for her.
1958Spectator 1 Aug. 170/1 A *stock-type Vauxhall Velox.
b. Designating a medicinal or chemical preparation which is kept ready for use, or the vessel in which such a preparation is stored.
1863J. Hughes Pract. Photogr. (1866) 11 When you have done for the day, return what [collodion] remains back into the stock-bottle. 1882Encycl. Brit. XIV. 390/1 These [chemicals] are mixed together in one large stock tank. 1898Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 424 If the specific gravity is to be lowered, this stock solution is diluted with water. 1907J. A. Hodges Elem. Photogr. (ed. 6) 49 It is better to keep both the stock gold and the stock platinum solutions in the dark.
2. Theatr. stock author, stock burlesque, stock comedy, stock star; stock actor, etc., a member of a stock company, or one who acts in stock pieces; also stock actress; stock character, a dramatic character representing a type in a conventional manner and recurring in many works; (cf. sense 3 a below); stock company, a company who regularly act together at a particular theatre; stock piece, play, etc., one which forms part of a répertoire.
1839Marryat Diary Amer. 2nd Ser. II. xiii. 121 The American *stock actors, as they term those who are not considered as stars. 1865W. Donaldson Recoll. Actor 95 A large proportion of the stock actors were..without talent or experience.
1921E. O'Neill Diff'rent ii. 243 She resembles some passé *stock actress of fifty made up for a heroine of twenty.
1824J. Decastro Mem. 154 T. Dibdin, esq., succeeded him..as the *stock author of that theatre. 1864‘P. Paterson’ Glimpses of Real Life xxv. 240 Jones keeps a stock author, and does not rely on outsiders.
1916Variety 27 Oct. 12/1 *Stock burlesque at the Lyric is moderately successful.
1864H. Morley Jrnl. 16 Jan. (1866) 325 The gracioso was a popular addition made by Lope de Vega to the *stock characters of a Spanish play. 1893[see cloak n. 6]. 1976Country Life 12 Feb. 346/1 In Albert Herring, Britten took stock characters—pompous mayor, stolid policeman,..overbearing lady of the manor.
1812Dramatic Censor 1811 27/1 Among all the *stock comedies which the Theatres are in the habit of representing, this is, in our idea, one of the very best. 1830G. Colman Random Rec. II. 6 Miss Lee's ‘Chapter of Accidents’, long and justly rated as a stock Comedy.
1864P. Paterson Glimpses Real Life 37, I..being at the time one of the *stock company of the Beverley Theatre, New York.
1782D. E. Baker Biogr. Dramatica II. 84/2 The Way to keep him..still stands on the *stock-list of the theatre.
1887T. A. Trollope What I remember II. xii. 209, I subsequently took Sir Anthony [in ‘The Rivals’] which remained my *stock part for years.
1804W. Cooke Mem. C. Macklin 408 It was always one of the *stock pieces which he engaged himself to perform. 1805Southey in Ann. Rev. III. 76 Their classical stock pieces. 1843Ainsworth Mag. IV. 135 His..acting contributed greatly to the success of the drama, though it had not sufficient stamina to become ‘a stock piece’.
1708L. Downes Roscius Anglicanus 8 Note, That these being their Principal Old *Stock Plays. 1761Victor Theatres Lond. & Dublin I. 65 Time..wasted in rehearsing old Stock Plays, for the Sake of the new Performers to be introduced in them. 1807Director I. 260 The Beggars Opera is what is termed a stock play with us.
1856A. C. Ritchie Mimic Life i. ii. 44 As the ‘*stock star’ of a popular theatre, in Boston, she had shone several years in the dramatic firmament.
1847Theatr. Times 11 Sept. 283/2 Mr. Gustavus V. Brooke is perhaps the greatest favourite in the provinces, as a *stock tragedian.
3. fig. in reference to intellectual or literary topics: Kept in stock for use; commonly used or brought forward, constantly appearing or recurring, in conversation, discussion, or composition; belonging to a staple or stock-in-trade of subjects, arguments, phrases, quotations, etc.; hence, commonplace, trite, conventional. Also with reference to fictional characters of a standardized or conventional type (cf. stock character, sense 2 above); also transf.
1738Swift Pol. Conversat. Introd. 40 The old Stock-Oaths. 1803M. Edgeworth Pop. Tales, To-morrow i, A line which has become a stock line among writing-masters' copies. 1835Dickens Sk. Boz, Mr. Watkins Tottle ii. The master of the house, who was burning to tell one of his seven stock stories. 1853Kingsley Hypatia ix. 109 The humble stock-phrases in which they talked of their labours of love. 1861Mill Utilit. ii. 36 The stock arguments against utilitarianism. 1865M. Arnold Ess. Crit. v. 172 Heine's..utter rejection of stock classicism and stock romanticism. 1871Morley Crit. Misc., Vauvenargues 14 The stock moralist, like the commonplace orator of the pulpit, fails to touch the hearts of men. 1895Bookman Oct. 26/2 The history has been sadly confused and distorted by stock quotations from the fathers. 1940W. S. Maugham Books & You p. xii, The characters..are not very interesting, and most of them are the stock figures of Victorian fiction. 1951M. McLuhan Mech. Bride (1967) 118/2 The ‘good girl’ is the nineteenth-century stock model which has long been merged with the mother image. 1960[see exurbanite a.]. 1963[see cliché 3]. a1963L. MacNeice Astrol. (1964) vi. 200 Catering for stock-type ‘individuals’ (all humanity being divided into 12 groups). 1980J. Gardner Garden of Weapons ii. vii. 185 A man full of bounce, like the stock uncle known to all large families.
b. Special collocations: stock bowler Cricket, a reliable but unspectacular bowler; hence stock bowling; stock response, an automatic and superficial reaction to a literary device (see quot. 1939); also transf. and fig.
1968Listener 11 July 61/2 Connolly, in 1964 a strenuous but pedestrian fast bowler, has reduced his pace, developed swing and cut, and become an admirably steady *stock-bowler. 1976J. Snow Cricket Rebel 37, I could no more be regarded as a stock bowler relying on line and length to keep the scoring in check.
Ibid. 77 Only occasionally did he call upon me to do a *stock bowling job with the intention of closing the game up.
1925I. A. Richards Princ. Lit. Crit. xxv. 203 Against these *stock responses the artist's internal and external conflicts are fought, and with them the popular writer's triumphs are made. 1939Brooks & Warren Understanding Poetry 639 Stock response, the general uncritical response made on conventional or habitual grounds to a situation, subject, phrase, or word in literature. Advertisers frequently attempt to appeal to stock responses. 1957A. Thwaite Home Truths 40 Or will it seem Merely the self-duped mind's harangue at Death, The stock-response still raging in the shroud? 1961K. Tynan Curtains i. 8 The stock response of terror in the face of matricide has vanished. 1966‘K. A. Saddler’ Gilt Edge ix. 128 ‘Well,’ he said continuing, and just in time as I was running out of stock responses. 1975Times 20 Sept. 6/3 If Agatha Christie works almost entirely with what the critics call ‘stock responses’, she knows..how to take advantage of our responding in a stock way to..stock situations.
4. In non-attrib. use.
1966Listener 25 Aug. 288/3 The authors gave us sharply observed characters—stock, but none the worse for it. 1977Hot Car Oct. 88/2 The diesel stock with a servo. 1979Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts Nov. 776/2 The stereotypes are used in a relatively straightforward way, as stock as the London brick.
Senses A. 39–64 in Dict. become A. 40–65. Add: [A.] [IV.] 39. On a set of bagpipes, any of the wooden sockets, fixed in holes in the bag, into which the pipes and chanter fit. orig. Sc.
1876D. MacPhee Compl. Tutor for Highland Bagpipe in Bagpipe Wks. (1978) p. iv, In doing this it is necessary to take off the cover and cork the Stocks securely. 1906‘H. Foulis’ Vital Spark xiv. 102 There's nothing will put a pipe bag in trum but some treacle poured in by the stock. 1925W. A. Cocks Tutor for Northumberland Half-Long Bagpipes 7 A few spoonfuls are warmed and poured into the bag after removing the drones and chanter and corking up the stocks. 1966F. Collinson Trad. Mus. Scotl. 169 The small-pipes, both Lowland and Highland, are alike in other respects, and all have drones in one stock. 1984New Grove Dict. Mus. Instruments I. 99/1 The chanter, drones and blowpipes are attached to the bag by being inserted into tubular wooden stocks which are tied into apertures in the leather.
▪ II. † stock, n.2 Sc. Obs.
[ONorthumbrian stocc, a. (O)Irish stoc (Gael. stoc), a trumpet. In Sc. the word seems to have been taken up afresh from Gaelic and associated with stock n.1
Initial st is very rare in native Irish words, and stoc is commonly believed to be a loan-word; but it occurs in early Middle Irish, so that adoption from English is improbable.]
a. OE. A trumpet.
b. Sc. In the combs. stock-horn, stock-in-horn, stock-and-horn, a wind instrument formerly used in Scotland (see quots.).
a.c950Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. vi. 2 Bema vel stocc [gl. tuba].
b.1597Skene De Verb. Sign. s.v. Menetum, To blaw ane stock horne, quhilk commounlie is maid of Timmer & wood, or tree, with circles & girds of the same, quhilk is zet vsed in the Hie-lands and Iles of this realme. 1725Ramsay Gentle Sheph. i. i, When I begin to tune my stock and horn. 1815Notes to Pennecuik's Descr. Tweeddale 96 (Jam.) The original genuine Scottish pastoral pipe, consisting of a cow's horn, a bower-tree stock, from stoc, in Gaelic, a pipe, called the Stock-in-horn, with stops in the middle, and an oaten reed at the smaller end for the mouth piece. 1827Hone's Every-day Bk. II. 20 The kythels, or stock-and-horn, a musical instrument made of the thigh bone of a sheep and the horn of a bullock. 1844Ayrsh. Wreath 170 The first instrument he played on was a stock and horn.
▪ III. † stock, n.3 Obs.
[a. F. estoc, ad. It. stocco, prob. of Teut. origin: cf. stock n.1]
1. A thrusting sword. Also comb. stock-sword.
1513Douglas æneis vii. xii. 59 Wyth round stok suerdis faucht thai in melle, Wyth poyntalis, or wyth stokkis Sabylyne. 1536Bellenden Cron. Scot. x. xvi. (1821) II. 176 Thay..had..stok swerdis, quhom na armour micht resist. a1572Knox Hist. Ref. Wks. 1846 I. 177 A stog sweard.
2. Fencing. A thrust with a pointed weapon.
1598Shakes. Merry W. ii. iii. 36 To see thee passe thy puncto, thy stock, thy reuerse, thy distance, thy montant. 16022nd Pt. Ret. fr. Parnass. i. ii. (1606) B 3, Here is a fellow Iudicio that carried the deadly stocke [MS. variant stockado] in his pen. 1602Marston Antonio's Rev. i. iii. B 2, And if a horned diuell should burst forth, I would passe on him with a mortall stocke. 1604― Malcontent ii. ii. C 4, The close stock, o mortall wench.
▪ IV. stock, n.4 Mining and Geol.|stɒk|
[a. G. stock (lit. ‘stick’).]
a. (See quots.)
1882Geikie Text-bk. Geol. iv. ix. §2. 597 The cavernous spaces dissolved out in some rocks..may be filled with..ores. Irregular metalliferous masses of this kind have long been known in Germany by the name of Stocks (Stöcke). 1901Ransome in Ann. Rep. U.S. Geol. Surv. ii. 255 Stocks are those ore bodies commonly referred to as ‘chimneys’.
b. A discordant intrusion of igneous rock which has a roughly oval cross-section and steep sides, and is smaller than a batholith.
1898Jrnl. Geol. VI. 706 It will be found advantageous to discriminate between bysmalith and stock by limiting the term stock to such bodies as occupy nearly vertical tubes or funnels of indefinite depth in rocks of any and all kinds..and which maintain such a relation to them as to appear to belong to the category of dikes. 1916Yukon Territory (Canada Dept. Interior) iii. 35 Occasional pebbles derived from the various dikes and stocks outcropping along the valleys. 1944[see laccolith]. 1955,1957[see intrude v. 5]. 1977A. Hallam Planet Earth 69/1 The upper surface [of a batholith] is generally irregular, with upwardly projecting stocks and dikes that may be the only surface clue to the much larger body at depth.
▪ V. stock, v.1|stɒk|
Forms: 4–6 stok(ke, 6 stoke, 5–7 stocke, 6– stock.
[f. stock n.1 (Independent formations relating to various senses of the n.) Cf. Du. stokken, G. stocken, Sw. stocka, to provide (an anchor) with a stock, to hive (bees), to provide with sticks or props; intr. to stop flowing, come to a stop. Also G. stöcken to put in the stocks, to provide with sticks.]
I. Senses relating to material senses of the n.
†1. trans. To set in the stocks; to punish by confining the feet (occas. the hands) in stocks; in early use, to subject to rigorous imprisonment. Obs.
c1325Gloss. W. de Bibbesw. in Wright Voc. 163 E pur co ke seygnur fet coingner [glossed stokken] Soun neif en ceps pur chastier. 1338R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 121 Scho stokked [ad fet mettre en ceppes] Kyng Steuen. c1374Chaucer Troylus iii. 380 Rather deye I wolde,..stokked in presoun. 1430–40Lydg. Bochas i. xv. (1554) 32 To liue in prison..And to be stocked under key and locke. c1440Promp. Parv. 476/2 Stokkyn, or settyn in stokkys, cippo. 1451Paston Lett. I. 190 They stokked hym and hese sone at Swafham. 1534More Comf. agst. Trib. iii. Wks. 1245/2 He neither nedeth to coller vs nor to stocke vs for any feare of scaping away. 1571Life J. Story in Morgan Phoenix Brit. (1732) I. 292 Some were stocked in both Feet and Arms; some also were stocked by both their Feet and by both their Thumbs, and so did hang in the Stocks. 1641G. Raleigh Albania 13 She came by a Constable stocking the Drunkard. a1661Fuller Worthies, Yorks. (1662) 191 The Hand steals, the Feet are stocked. 1694Penn Rise & Progr. Quakers v. 85 Being often Stockt, Stoned, Beaten, Whipt and Imprisoned.
†b. transf. and fig. Obs.
1591Sylvester Du Bartas i. vi. 77 The Dragon..doth fold About his fore-legs, fetter'd in such order, That stockéd there he now can stir no further. a1618― Job Triumph. ii. 333 In his Ruffe, and at his greatest height, Hee shall be stocked in full many a Strait.
¶ with allusion to stock n.1 2.
a1637B. Jonson Sad Sheph. ii. i, Whilst shee (poor Lasse) is stock'd up in a tree: Your brother Lorells prize!
†c. ? To fasten or confine (the tongue) as a punishment. Obs.
1568V. Skinner tr. Gonsalvius' Sp. Inquisit. 51 b, Streight way the felow should be sure to haue his mouth gagged, or his toung stocked, to teach him to be quiet.
2. To fasten to or fit with a stock: esp.a. To fix (a bell) to its stock.
1483–4in Swayne Churchw. Acc. Sarum (1896) 34 The lytell Belle that was newe stokyt. 1600–1in Garry Churchw. Acc. St. Mary's, Reading (1893) 86 Item to Richard hames for stoking the Belles & hanginge them, vijs. vjd. 1679in Trans. Shropsh. Arch. Soc. Ser. iii. (1908) VIII. 37 For stocking of y⊇ Treble Bell..6. 8. 1857Lukis Church Bells 28 The heavy expense..of taking the bell down to be stocked afresh.
b. To fit (a gun, crossbow) with a stock.
1539in Archæologia XI. 436 A fowler of iron stokked and bounde with iron. 1541Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. VIII. 119 Gevin to Johnne Drummond to stok ane grete culvering witht,..xviij s. 1634W. Wood New Eng. Prosp. (1865) 19 Our Gunnes that are stocked with English Wallnut. 1649in W. M. Myddelton Churk Castle Acc. (1908) 27 For stocking a crosse bow. 1747Gentl. Mag. XVII. 101 A fine gun, which he forged, stocked, made, and completed himself. 1832Westm. Rev. XVII. 327 Shungie the great warrior..succeeded in stocking one of his musquets in a very elegant manner. 1904Field 6 Feb. 209/3 There is..no other plan of efficiently stocking a ready-made gun.
c. Naut. To fix the stock upon (an anchor).
1769Cook Jrnl. 1st Voy. (1893) 86 The Carpenter employ'd in stocking the Anchors. 1803T. Netherton in Naval Chron. XV. 214 Those employed in..stocking anchors.
d. (See quot.)
1911Webster, Stock..3{ddd}to secure, by or to a stock; as, two plows stocked to one frame.
e. Naut. to stock to: to haul (an anchor) into a perpendicular position by means of a stock-tackle.
1815Falconer's Dict. Marine (ed. Burney), To Stock-to the Anchor. c1860H. Stuart Seaman's Catech. 57 It is then stocked to, and lashed, and the stock tackle is un⁓hooked. 1867Smyth Sailor's Word-bk.
†3.
a. ? To cover (the leg) with a stock or stocking. rare—1.
b. To cover (hose) with some stronger material; to strengthen (stockings) with pieces of cloth sewn on. Obs.
1430–40Lydg. Bochas ix. x. (1554) 201 b, Their breche enbroudred after y⊇ guise of old, Fret with pearle, legge stocked to the kne. 1520in Archæologia XXV. 435 A yerd of black to stock my master's hose. 1545–6Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. VIII. 443 Ane pair of hois of his gracis stokkit witht blew velvot. 1691Lond. Gaz. No. 2633/4 Grey Breeches, and grey Stockings newly stock'd.
†4. ? To make a stock of, use as a stock for grafting. Obs. rare—1.
1528Tindale Wicked Mammon G viij, God..planteth them in the garden of his mercye, and stocketh them & graffeth the spiryte of Chryst in them.
5. Leather-manuf. To beat (hides) in the stocks.
1883R. Haldane Workshop Rec. Ser. ii. 367/1 When the skins are dry, they are ‘stocked’ with oil again.
II.
6. To root up, pull up by the roots (trees, stumps, weeds, etc.); to extirpate by digging or grubbing; to fell (a tree) by digging round and cutting its roots with a mattock or similar instrument. a. simply.
c1440Pallad. on Husb. x. 92 This tyme is to be stocked euery tre. 1612Drayton Poly-olb. xiv. 57 The painfull laborers hand shall stock the roots, to burne. 1686Plot Staffordsh. 210 Two able workmen were 5 days in stocking or felling it down. 1733W. Ellis Chiltern & Vale Farm. 300 Stocking them [sc. thistles] with an Iron Paddle. 1790W. H. Marshall Rur. Econ. Midl. I. 102 Three methods of felling are here in use. Stocking, Axe-grubbing, and Axe-falling. 1839Sir G. C. Lewis Gloss. Heref., To stock,..To strike and wrench with an axe having a flat end. 1881Leicest. Gloss., Stock, to cut off the branches from the trunk, or the long roots from the stump of a tree.
b. with up (very frequent); rarely out.
1458Anc. Deed A. 7587 (P.R.O.), To stokke and hewe vppe to be þe Rotes alle maner of Busshes þornes and trees. 1523Fitzherb. Surv. 4 b, Demeyne woode..whereof the lorde at his pleasure may assert, stocke vp by the rootes [etc.]. 1678Bp. H. Croft Second Call 47 The Husbandman finding but a few Thistles and Briars in his Meadow, stocks them up. 1733W. Ellis Chiltern & Vale Farm. 134 The Root..should not be sawed or cut down at bottom, but stock'd and grub'd entirely up. 1798J. Middleton Agric. Middlesex 119 This tract of land..abounded with trees and bushes, which seemed to make it necessary for the cultivator to..stock out the roots. 1839Ure Dict. Arts, etc. 1194 Instead of stocking up his rattoons, holing, and planting the land anew, the planter suffers the stoles to continue in the ground. 1881Leicest. Gloss., Stock-up, to stub up, grub up.
fig.1579Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 765/1 He saith wee must stocke vp all the thorns that are in vs. 1609Holland Amm. Marcell. xxx. iii. 381 That the occasion of discord might not possibly bee stocked up by the rootes, without [etc.]. 1643Trapp Comm. Gen. xxvi. 10 The Apostle Paul so strives to stock up by the roots that wretched opinion. 1674J. B[rian] Harv. Home vii. 47 A root of bitter gall, And wormwood, never stockt up wholly.
c. transf. To pull up (stones, a fence); to break or loosen (the surface of the ground with a pick). Usually with up.
1802W. Hutton Life 78 At the foot of this artificial hill stood the castle. The people of the country have stocked up the stones to the very foundation for building and the roads. 1879T. Codrington Macadamised Roads 91 The practice of picking up or loosening the surface of a road with a pick, sometimes called ‘stocking’. Ibid. 92 Picking or stocking up the surface before laying fresh materials. 1907Gentl. Mag. July 38 This waste land would be only gradually stocked, or grubbed up.
III. To check in growth; to stiffen.
7. To stunt, check in growth (a plant or animal). Chiefly in pa. pple. stocked (mod. dial. also stocken, stoken). Also intr., to be stunted in growth. dial.
1607Markham Caval. i. 88 If anye of them [sc. mares]..eyther through want of milke, or the doggednes of some vn⁓naturall quality, shall stocke and starue their foales. 1652R. Robinson Christ all & in all xvii. (1656) 362 The husbandman useth to say of his corne in a time of long drought, that it is stocked, yet that corne when the raine comes, will shoot up. 1712J. Morton Nat. Hist. Northamptonsh. 385 The Corn that's thus discolour'd, is usually stock'd, as the Husbandmen call it, that is, does not come up to the Strength and Perfection of the rest that escapes this Injury. 1848A. B. Evans Leicestersh. Words 91 Stocked, stopped in growth. ‘The lambs are almost stocked by the cold weather.’ 1851[see 9]. 1853Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XIV. ii. 452 The most profitable mode of bringing young or store stock to market is, never to allow them to ‘stock’, or be impeded in their growth. 1879G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., Stoken, stunted in growth; impoverished in condition; said of animals that have been badly fed and attended to.
†8. refl. ? To be stubborn, refuse obedience; to render oneself callous or incapable of feeling. Obs.
1610J. Robinson Justif. Separ. i. 23 We must so enioy experienced good things, as we stock not our selves in respect of other things, as yet vntryed. 1634Canne Necess. Separ. 107 Sound comfort flowes from sincere obedience: and therefore whosoever stocks himselfe in any the least parts of the revealed will of God, he is as Iehu, rotten at the best, even when he manifesteth most shew of Religion.
9. local. To indurate (stone) by exposure to the weather. ? Obs.
1712J. Morton Nat. Hist. Northamptonsh. 489 Should the [Slate] Stones lie expos'd to Sun and Wind, before the Frosts appear, it would in such manner set or stock the Vein, as the Workmen speak, that they wou'd not cleave. 1851Sternberg Northampt. Dial. 106 Some kinds of stone are said to be stocked, when, by exposure to the weather, they become indurated. Wheat, also, is said to be stocked when its growth has been checked by an analogous cause.
10. intr. Sc. (See quot.)
1808Jamieson, Stock, to become stiff, to be benumbed{ddd}we say that one stocks, or that the limbs stock, from cold or want of exercise.
† IV. 11. pass. To have place in a stock or genealogy. Obs. rare—1.
1611B. Jonson Catiline iii. F 4, A person both of Blood and Honor, stock't In a long race of vertuous Ancestors.
V. To supply with a ‘stock’, fund, or store.
12. trans. To supply or provide with stock or with a stock; e.g. to furnish (a farm, estate, etc.) with live or dead stock; to fill (a pond, river) with fish; to furnish (a shop) with a stock-in-trade; to store or supply with goods, commodities, appliances, etc.
c1622Fletcher Prophetess v. iii, He has bought the great Farm..And stock'd it like an Emperour. 1648Hunting of Fox 41 Your Cattell that should stocke your grounds. 1670Covel in Early Voy. Levant (Hakl. Soc.) 120 There were several sorts of fruit brought to us..with which we stock't ourselves. 1683[R. North] Discourse Fish & Fish-ponds xiii. (1713) 48 The Fish wherewith you stock the Waters. 1707Freind Peterborow's Cond. Spain 164 Your Lordship knows how well stock'd with Mony you left us. 1727De Foe Eng. Tradesm. (1732) I. vi. 61 Some Tradesmen are fond of seeing their shops well stock'd, and their warehouses full of goods. 1776Gibbon Decl. & F. xiv. (1782) I. 504 The country was plentifully stocked with provisions. 1812Crabbe Tales xxi. 180 Here, take my purse..('Tis fairly stock'd). 1832H. Martineau Hill & Valley iv. 64 Some laid out their earnings in stocking a little shop. 1857Livingstone Trav. iv. 85 Many of his cattle burst away from him... He stocked himself again among the Batleti. 1857Trollope Barchester T. xxxix, Instead of putting his money by to stock farms for his sons. 1899Lady M. Verney Verney Mem. IV. 29 The cellar was stocked with Rhenish Wine.
b. in general, transferred, and figurative uses.
1623Massinger Bondman iii. iv, Shee from the magazine of her proper goodnesse, Stock'd me with vertuous purposes. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. iii. 29 With many such memorable passages, the reader may stock himself from the pens of the civil Historians. 1695J. Edwards Perfect. Script. 353 Here..occurs such a plenty..as is able to stock an antiquary of the first size. a1701Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 45 Sidon is stockt well enough with Inhabitants. 1751Affecting Narr. of Wager 9 The Island is thoroughly stock'd with Churches and Chapels. 1818Scott Br. Lamm. xxx, Those legendary heroines, with whose adventures, for want of better reading, her memory had become stocked. 1829S. H. Cassan Bps. Bath & Wells 134 It looks not well, to see a Cathedral or diocese stocked with relatives and family connections. 1864McLauchlan Scott. Ch. (1865) 416 David changed the priory into an abbey and stocked it with monks from Canterbury in 1124. 1885Truth 28 May 841/1 The office is stocked with the scions of the families or the friends of Judges.
†13. To provide with capital or funds. Obs.
1615E. S. Britaines Busse E 1 b, The First yeares cleare Gaine will stocke him or them so sufficiently for the use of this busse, as [etc.]. 1654H. L'Estrange Chas. I (1655) 123 Never King had a greater mind to the work, then King Charles, had he been stockt for it: but poverty..kept him short.
†14. To invest (money). Also with in, out. Obs.
1683Repr. Advantages Manuf. Woollen-cloath 20 Each Member drawes a lot for every 100 Pound he Stocks in. 1710in W. M. Morison Dict. Decis. (1817) 16187 Watson..bequeathed..the sum of 5,400 marks Scots to be stocked in a responsible debtor's hand. 1794Cases Court Sess. 70 Although this minister is to sell the marl, he does not apply the price to his own use; it is to be stocked out for the benefit of the incumbent.
15. To lay up in store; to form a stock or supply of (a commodity). Also with up.
1700T. Brown Amusem. Ser. & Com. 114 Every day a Crop is gather'd, and every Night stockt up in Baskets. 1735Dyche & Pardon Dict., Stock,..also to lay in a large Quantity of any sort of Goods, &c. 1755–73Johnson (ed. 4), Stock..to lay up in store; as, he stocks what he cannot use. 1823Scott Quentin D. xviii, The wine was stocked in the deep vaults of Bracquemont, by my great-grandfather.
b. esp. To keep (goods) in stock for sale.
1884Bookseller 1178/1 To refuse to stock the goods of the publishers who supply these cutters out. 1886Cyclist 6 Oct. 1324/1 It will be perfectly safe to stock a well-considered variety of this style of machine. 1888Spectator 21 July 1016 (Advt.), All the..Wholesale Houses regularly Stock it.
16. absol. To provide stock; to lay in a stock or supply. Also with up.
1850Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XI. ii. 613 Although my land is of very inferior quality, I stock heavily. 1876Callis Cutlery (Brit. Manuf. Industr.) 173 His fellow, who works for a house that does not ‘stock,’ has to collect the material from half a dozen warehouses. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Squatter's Dream vii. 68, I shall decide to stock up as soon as the fences are finished. 1897Howells Landlord at Lion's Head 416 She was over to Lovewell stockin' up for Thanksgivin'. 1908Nation 22 Aug. 734/1 They ‘stock’ year by year: but they do so with fish reared from native spawn.
VI. Various technical and dial. senses.
17. pass. Of a female animal: To be impregnated.
1478,1490[see stocked 2]. 1894West Sussex. Gaz. (advt.), Three-year-old Jersey Cow, stocked March 5th.
18. trans. To leave (a cow) unmilked in order that she may make a good show at market.
1683Tryon Way to Health 485 Neither do our leathern Dublets stock their Cows, that is [etc.]. 1798J. Lawrence Treat. Horse II. 156 There is also a cruel folly prevalent among cow-jobbers, namely that of stocking the cows, as it is called. 1847[see stocking vbl. n. 4].
19. intr. Of corn, grass, etc.: To send out shoots, sprout, tiller. ? Now only Sc.
1574R. Scot Hop Garden (1578) 18 The Hoppe never stocketh kindelye vntyll it reache higher than the Poale. 1577Googe tr. Heresbach's Husb. i. 37 b, Yf you mingle Otes with the seede of Medica, and sowe them, they wyll cause them to stocke very well. 1799J. Robertson Agric. Perth 164 Land in good order ought to be sown thin, because the grain will stock, the straw will be strong [etc.]. 1825Jamieson. 1856Morton Cycl. Agric., Provincialisms, Stocking (Scot.), the tillering of grain crops in spring. a1882Scotsman (O.) About two months ago broad blanks were to be seen on many oatfields, and though they have stocked a little, the crop is yet far too thin.
20. trans. To sow (land) with grass or clover. Also with down: To lay down to grass, etc. U.S.
1828–32Webster, Stock..to supply with seed; as, to stock land with clover or herdsgrass. American farmers. 1870Daily News 16 Apr., In the following year it is sown to oats, and ‘stocked down’ with clover and grass seed. 1891Century Dict., Stock..to furnish with a permanent growth, especially with grass: as, to stock a pasture. 1911Webster, Stock down, Agric., to sow, as plowed land, with seed of grass or other permanent forage crop.
b. Of weeds: ? To overrun, choke (land) with their growth.
1765Museum Rust. IV. 187 If they are suffered to seed, they will soon stock the land.
21. To cause to be cropped or eaten by cattle; to use (land) as pasture.
1794Vancouver Agric. Cambridge 188 The first year of the new grass it is stocked very hard with sheep. 1863Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XXIV. 625 There is a limit to the extent to which we can stock and crop land. Ibid. 636 The best plan was to place them upon old grass-land, which had not been stocked with sheep through the previous part of the year. 1886W. Somerset Word-bk. s.v., It is common to let pasture ‘only to be stocked’—i.e. depastured, not to be mown for hay. 1909Nation 18 Sept. 881/1 Fields of dry grey uneaten bennets that have been too sparsely stocked.
22. intr. Of live stock: To bear being crowded on pasture land.
1863Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XXIV. 477 The Shropshires [i.e. sheep] upon the rich and heavy land of the Vales have this peculiar merit: they will stock thickly.
23. trans.
a. To put (playing cards) together in a pack.
b. To arrange or shuffle fraudulently.
1735Dyche & Pardon Dict., Stock,..in Gaming, to put the Cards together again without playing them. 1828–32Webster, Stock ..4. To pack; to put into a pack; as, to stock cards. 1865Slang Dict. 247 To stock cards, is to arrange cards in a certain manner for cheating purposes. 1894[see stocked a. 7].
▪ VI. stock, v.2 Now dial.|stɒk|
[? ad. OF. estoquier, estoquer, to strike with the edge or point of a weapon. Cf. stock n.3 and stoke v.1]
†1. trans. To strike or hit with a thrust of a pointed weapon. Obs. rare—1.
a1625Fletcher Love's Cure iii. iv, In my young daies A Chevalier would stock a needles point, Three times together.
2. Of a bird: To peck, peck at; to make (a hole) by pecking. Also, to root up with the beak (cf. stock v.1 6). Also intr. To peck away (at).
1653Baxter Chr. Concord 24 Some Birds first make their way into a hard tree by stocking a hole in it. 1674J. Flavel Husb. Spiritualized xiii. 115 Corn..but slightly covered is stockt up as soon as it begins to sprout by Rooks and other devouring fowls. 1843Zoologist I. 368 Rooks have at times seriously injured fields of young grass, by stocking up the red clover plants. 1844E. Jesse Sc. & T. Country Life I. 213 He observed a young cock..stock with his beak the mice as fast as they fell to the ground. 1845Darwin Voy. Nat. iii. (ed. 2) 57 The Polyborus Chimango..injures the potato-crops in Chiloe by stocking up the roots when first planted. 1890Glouc. Gloss., Stock, to peck; of a bird pulling up seed corn.. 1893Cornhill Mag. Nov. 505 There were the old rooks stocking away at the grubs and chafers. |