stalk

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

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (US, cot–caught merger):

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• Homophones: stork (non-rhotic); stock (cot–caught merger)
• Rhymes: -ɔːk

From Middle English stalke, stelke, stalk, perhaps from Old English *stealc, *stielc, *stealuc, from Proto-West Germanic *staluk, *stalik, from Proto-Germanic *stalukaz, *stalikaz, diminutive of Proto-Germanic *stalô, *staluz (“support, stem, stalk”), from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to place, stand; be stiff; stud, post, trunk, stake, stem, stalk”).

stalk (plural stalks)

1. The stem or main axis of a plant.

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

   • 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.

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

   Synonym: footstalk

   grape stalks

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

4. (architecture) An ornament in the Corinthian capital resembling the stalk of a plant, from which the volutes and helices spring.
5. One of the two upright pieces of a ladder.
6. (zoology)
   1. A stem or peduncle, as in certain barnacles and crinoids.
   2. The narrow basal portion of the abdomen of a hymenopterous insect.
   3. The peduncle of the eyes of decapod crustaceans.
7. (metalworking) An iron bar with projections inserted in a core to strengthen it; a core arbor.
8. (mathematics, 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. (slang) The penis.

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

Alternate etymology connects Proto-Germanic *stalkōną to a frequentative form of *stelaną (“to steal”).

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

2. (transitive) 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.

   • 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.

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

   My ex-girlfriend is stalking me.

4. (intransitive) 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.

   • 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

5. (intransitive) 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.

   • 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion:

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

stalk (plural stalks)

1. A particular episode of trying to follow or contact someone.
2. 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.

• stalker

Attested 1530 in the sense "to walk haughtily", perhaps from Old English stealc (“steep”), from Proto-Germanic *stelkaz, *stalkaz (“high, lofty, steep, stiff”); see above.

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

1. (intransitive) To walk haughtily.
   • 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.

   • 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.

   • 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.

stalk (plural stalks)

1. A haughty style of walking.

• Kastl, talks

• Audio:

  (file)

stalk

1. inflection of stalken:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative