Noun

stalk (plural stalks)Category:English lemmas#STALKCategory:English nouns#STALKCategory:English countable nouns#STALKCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#STALKCategory:Pages with entries#STALKCategory:Pages with 2 entries#STALK

1. The stem or main axis of a plant.

   a stalk of wheat, rye, or oats;  the stalks of maize or hempCategory:English terms with usage examples#STALK

   • 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy), pages 377–378:

     Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with […] on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.

     Category:English terms with quotations#STALK

2. The petiole, pedicel, or peduncle of a plant.

   Synonym: footstalk

   grape stalksCategory:English terms with usage examples#STALK

3. Something resembling the stalk of a plant, such as the stem of a quill.
   • 1681, Nehemiah Grew, Musæum Regalis Societatis. Or A Catalogue & Description of the Natural and Artificial Rarities Belonging to the Royal Society and Preserved at Gresham Colledge. […], London: […] W. Rawlins, for the author, →OCLC:

     they appear to be made up of little Bladders , like those in the Plume or Stalk of a Quill

     Category:English terms with quotations#STALK

4. (architectureCategory:en:Architectural elements#STALK) An ornament in the Corinthian capital resembling the stalk of a plant, from which the volutes and helices spring.
5. One of the two upright pieces of a ladder.
6. (zoologyCategory:en:Zoology#STALK)
   1. A stem or peduncle, as in certain barnacles and crinoids.
   2. The narrow basal portion of the abdomen of a hymenopterous insect.
   3. The peduncle of the eyes of decapod crustaceans.
7. (metalworkingCategory:en:Metalworking#STALK) An iron bar with projections inserted in a core to strengthen it; a core arbor.
8. (mathematicsCategory:en:Mathematics#STALK, sheaf theory) Informally, a construction which generalizes that of the notion of the ring of germs of functions near a point to the context of arbitrary sheaves. Formally, given a sheaf ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {F}}}$ on a space ${\displaystyle X}$, and a point ${\displaystyle x}$ in ${\displaystyle X}$, the direct limit of the sections of ${\displaystyle F}$ on the open neighborhoods of ${\displaystyle x}$ ordered by reverse inclusion. See Stalk (sheaf) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
9. (slangCategory:English slang#STALK) The penis.

Verb

stalk (third-person singular simple present stalks, present participle stalking, simple past and past participle stalked)Category:English lemmas#STALKCategory:English verbs#STALKCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#STALKCategory:Pages with entries#STALKCategory:Pages with 2 entries#STALK

2. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#STALK) To approach slowly and quietly in order not to be discovered when getting closer.
   • 1822, [Walter Scott], Peveril of the Peak. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:

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

     Category:English terms with quotations#STALK

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     But they had already discovered that he could be bullied, and they had it their own way; and presently Selwyn lay prone upon the nursery floor, impersonating a ladrone while pleasant shivers chased themselves over Drina, whom he was stalking.

     Category:English terms with quotations#STALK

3. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#STALK) To (try to) follow or contact someone constantly, often resulting in harassment.^Wp

   My ex-girlfriend is stalking me.Category:English terms with usage examples#STALK

   villages stalked by the threat of famineCategory:English terms with usage examples#STALK

   (figurative)

4. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#STALK) To walk slowly and cautiously; to walk in a stealthy, noiseless manner.
   • 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar: Or, the Double Discovery. […], London: […] Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act IV, page 53:

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

     Category:English terms with quotations#STALK

   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

     O ay, stalk on, stalk on, the fowl sits

     Category:English terms with quotations#STALK

5. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#STALK) To walk behind something, such as a screen, for the purpose of approaching game; to proceed under cover.
   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], Apophthegmes New and Old. […], London: […] Hanna Barret, and Richard Whittaker, […], →OCLC:

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

     Category:English terms with quotations#STALK

   • 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion:

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

     Category:English terms with quotations#STALK

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6. (Internet slangCategory:English internet slang#STALK, transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#STALK) Of a person's social media activity: to look through thoroughly or obsessively; to keep tabs on, generally avoiding contact.

   Coordinate term: lurk

   • 2016 April 8, @JVCKJ, Twitter‎:

     Hate when I'm stalking someone's Insta and I like one of their old pics. Makes me wanna burrow underground n' hibernate for a season or two.

     Category:English terms with quotations#STALK

Noun

stalk (plural stalks)Category:English lemmas#STALKCategory:English nouns#STALKCategory:English countable nouns#STALKCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#STALKCategory:Pages with entries#STALKCategory:Pages with 2 entries#STALK

1. A particular episode of trying to follow or contact someone.
2. The hunting of a wild animal by stealthy approach.
   • 1885, Theodore Roosevelt, Hunting Trips of a Ranchman:

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

     Category:English terms with quotations#STALK

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Derived terms

References

Verb

stalk (third-person singular simple present stalks, present participle stalking, simple past and past participle stalked)Category:English lemmas#STALKCategory:English verbs#STALKCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#STALKCategory:Pages with entries#STALKCategory:Pages with 2 entries#STALK

1. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#STALK) To walk haughtily.
   • 1697, Virgil, “The Tenth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     With manly mien he stalked along the ground.

     Category:English terms with quotations#STALK

   • 1704, Joseph Addison, Milton's Stile Imitated, in a Translation of a Story out of the Third Aeneid:

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

     Category:English terms with quotations#STALK

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   • 1850, Charles Merivale, History of the Romans Under the Empire:

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

     Category:English terms with quotations#STALK

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Noun

stalk (plural stalks)Category:English lemmas#STALKCategory:English nouns#STALKCategory:English countable nouns#STALKCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#STALKCategory:Pages with entries#STALKCategory:Pages with 2 entries#STALK

1. A haughty style of walking.