† 1. ? An official in charge of a stock or fund of money (with jocular allusion to the punishment of the stocks). Obs.
1589. [Nashe], Pasquil’s Return, B iij b. The stocke-keeper of the Bridewel-house of Canterburie; he must carrie the purse, to defray their charges.
2. a. One who keeps cattle; a stock-farmer.
1912. Times, 19 Oct., 7/4. Stock-keepers on both sides of the Channel had begun to hope that the necessary period of quarantine for Irish cattle might soon be at an end.
b. Austral., etc. A herdsman or shepherd; = STOCKMAN 1.
1806. Sydney Gaz., in O’Hara, Hist. N. S. Wales (1817), 264. Anthony Size, stock-keeper at Prospect.
1821. in E. Curr, Van Diemen’s Land (1824), 154. Prisoner servants employed … as stock keepers.
1881. Instr. Census Clerks (1885), 37. Agricultural Labourer … Stock Keeper.
3. One who is in charge of the stock of a warehouse.
1902. Daily Chron., 9 Dec., 9/6. (Advt.), Situation in a London warehouse … as checker, stockkeeper, or clerk.
So Stock-keep v., nonce-wd., to tend cattle, etc. Stock-keeping vbl. sb.
1886. C. Scott, Sheep-Farming, 30. Where … the farmer understands the business of stock-keeping and stock-feeding.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer, x. [I can] drive bullocks, stock-keep, plough.
1907. M. C. F. Morris, Nunburnholme, 252. Stock-keeping was but little understood.
