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 connections 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).]
I. Trunk or stem.
1. 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.
862. Charter, in O. E. Texts, 438. Ðanne fram langan leaʓe to ðam won stocce.
971. Blickling Hom., 189. He ʓefeol on þone stocc be þære stænenan stræte þe is haten Sacra uia.
11[?]. Fragm. Ælfric’s Gram. (1838), 3. Ligna, driʓe wude, truncus, stoc, stirps.
c. 1250. Owl & Night., 25. Þo stod on old stok þar byside.
c. 1325. Sir Orpheo, 332. Over stok, and over stone.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., V. met. i. (1868), 152. Þe stokkes araced wiþ þe flood [L. vulsi flumine trunci].
c. 1480. Henryson, Orpheus, 179. For seke hir suth I sall, and nouthir stynt nor stand for stok no stone.
1509. Barclay, Ship of Fools, 269 b. Hange vp the scapler … Vpon a tre clene dede, or rottyn stocke.
1590. Spenser, 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.
1704. N. Blundell, Diary (1895), 22. I ploughed with a Culter … to find Stocks.
1706. De 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.].
1727. Swift, Poems Market-Hill, Thorne, 33. The Magpye, lighting on the Stock, Stood chatt’ring with incessant Din.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. vii. O’er stock and rock their race they take.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. IV. vii. Over cliffs, over stock and stone.
1868. Cussans, Heraldry (1893), 104. The Stump of a Tree is sometimes called a Stock.
1877. Stevenson, 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.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Saints’ Lives, xxxi. 856. Þær laʓon stoccas.
c. 1205. Lay., 626. Mid stocken & mid stanen stal fiht heo makeden.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 2076. Ne how the fyr was couched first with stree And thanne with drye stokkes clouen a thre.
1422. Yonge, trans. Secreta Secret., 239. Suche a stomake is like a grete fyre that hath Powere to braunte grete shydis and stokkis.
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 780. Made of stane and noȝt of stok.
c. 1485. Digby Myst., I. 154. I am right wele a-paid, if I do not wele, ley my hed vpon a stokke.
1501. Douglas, Pal. Hon., II. xxvii. Doun on ane stock I set me suddanelie.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 251. A stocke of wood hollowed [for a coffin].
1792. G. Cartwright, Jrnl. Labrador, I. Gloss. p. xv. Stock of Timber, a piece of timber, intended to be sawed.
1806. Pike, 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.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 940. Dowun he smote hys mattok, And fyl hym self ded as a stok.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 3855. Arthour on hors sat stef so stok.
c. 1407. Lydg., Reson & Sens., 6411. As deffe as stok or ston.
c. 1440. Alphabet 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.
1569. Underdowne, Heliodorus, IV. 59. Yee vnhappy people, howe longe will ye sitte still, dombe like stockes?
1594. Spenser, Amoretti, xliii. That nether I may speake nor thinke at all, But like a stupid stock in silence die!
1640. Sir E. Dering, Carmelite (1641), B ij. I am not so credulous to thinke every Stock a Stoicke.
1644. Milton, 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.].
1714. Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Mrs. Hewet, Nov. (1887), I. 35. I am glad she is not such a stock as I took her to be.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, II. (Globe), 344. The Fellow stood mute as a Stock a good while.
1775. Sheridan, Rivals, III. i. What a phlegmatic sot it is! Why, sirrah, you’re an anchorite!—a vile, insensible stock.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, IX. vi. (Rtldg.), 320. I … left him in the street like a stock, staring at my termagant loquacity.
1861. Dickens, Gt. Expect., xxxviii. You stock and stone!… You cold, cold heart!
1888. Barrie, When a Man’s Single, i. Joey Fargus was the stock’s name.
1896. K. 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.’
c. 1000. Ælfric, Deut. xxviii. 36. Ʒe þeouiað fremdum godum, stoccum and stanum.
a. 1225. St. Marher., 1. Heðene mawmez of stockes, ant of stanes, werkes iwrahte.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, III. 589. He swor hir, yis, by stokkes and by stones, And by the goddes that in hevene dwelle.
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 178. How myhre a mannes resoun sein That such a Stock mai helpe or grieve?
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., II. ix. 198. Thei worschipiden ymagis of stoonys or of stockis.
1529. More, Dyaloge, I. Wks. 140/1. Of al our Ladies saith one, I loue best our Lady of Walsingam. And I saith ye 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.
a. 1591. H. Smith, Sinful Mans Search (1592), B 6. That ye be not seduced to offer your petitions to strange gods, as Saints, stockes or stones.
1611. Bible, Jer. iii. 9. Shee [Israel] defiled the land, and committed adultery wiht stones and with stockes. Ibid., Wisd. xiv. 21. For men seruing either calamitie or tyrannie, did ascribe vnto stones, and stockes, the incommunicable Name.
1640. J. Taylor (Water P.), Differing Worships, 4. Imploring aid … From ragges and reliques, stones, and stocks of wood.
1655. Milton, Sonn., xiii. 4. When all our Fathers worship’t Stocks and Stones.
1825. Scott, Talism., xxviii. Those whom we regard as idolaters, and worshippers of stocks and stones.
1874. Sayce, 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.
1675. Brooks, Golden Key, Wks. 1867, V. 244. Adam, like the prodigal son,… quickly lost stock and block, as some speak.
1725. N. Bailey, Fam. Colloq. Erasm. (1733), 236. Before I came Home, I lost all, Stock and Block.
1775. J. Murray, Lett. (1901), 194. Jack Clark … offered to send Providence wagons to move us stock and block to a place of safety.
1809. Malkin, 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.
1753. Chambers’ 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. The trunk or stem of a (living) tree, as distinguished from the root and branches.
† (To sell wood) upon the stock: standing.
a. 1340. Hampole, 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.
1382. Wyclif, Job xiv. 9. His stoc at the smel of water shal burioune.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, III. xxi. (1869), 146. Sumtime the wodieres solden here wode up on the stok.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., I. vi. 28. Tho bowis grewen out of stockis or tronchons, and the tronchons or schaftis grewen out of the roote.
a. 1500. in Arnolde’s Chron., 168. Doo donge medlide with strawe aboute the stoke toward the roete of a good thiknes.
a. 1500[?]. Bollarde, 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.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 43. Of the whiche tree, fayth, hope, & charite, be compared to the stocke, to the barke, & to the sap.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 84/2. The Stock [of a tree is] next to the root.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 264. Strong Stocks of Vines it will in time produce.
1705. trans. 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.
1846. Tennyson, Golden Year, 62. Like an oaken stock in winter woods.
1857. Henfrey, Elem. Bot., § 57. The Stock or caudex is an undivided woody trunk.
fig. 1340. Ayenb., 19. Þe oþer boȝ þet comþ out of þe stocke of prede zuo is onworþnesse.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys, Anna, 110. Of this floure … This gracyous Anne was stoke & rote.
1513. Bradshaw, St. Werburge, I. 3163. The tryed stock of truth and the grounde of grace Is pyteously decayed.
1531. Tindale, Expos. 1 John (1537), 54. As ther is no synne in Christ ye stock, so can ther be none in the quycke membres that lyue & grow in him.
a. 1536. Songs, Carols, etc. (E.E.T.S.), 6. The blessid stoke þat yt on grew, Ytt was Mary, that bare Jhesu.
1647. Cowley, Mistress, Tree, iii. What a few words from thy rich stock did take The Leaves and Beauties all?
1812. Cary, Dante, Parad., IV. 126. Thence doth doubt Spring, like a shoot, around the stock of truth.
1884. trans. Lotze’s Metaphysic, I. iv. 89. The impossibility … of attaining 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.
1629. Orkney Witch Trial, in N. B. Advertiser, Oct., 1894. [He] baid his wyff geve yow thrie or four stokis of kaill.
1783. Burns, Death Poor Mailie, 38. To slink thro’ slaps, an’ reave an’ steal, At stacks o’ pease, or stocks o’ kail.
1913. J. 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.
1831. Macgillivray, trans. 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.
1863. Oliver, 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.
c. 1393. Chaucer, Gentilesse, 1. The firste stok, fader of gentilesse.
a. 1425. Cursor M., 9240 (Trin.). Þus was þe ton þe toþeres stok.
c. 1440. Jacob’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.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 210. Go to y3 stocke of our progeny, & consyder it well.
1583. 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.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 15. Hee that was the stocke of all mankinde.
1620. T. 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.
1667. Milton, P. L., XII. 7. Thus thou hast seen one World begin and end; And Man as from a second stock proceed.
1765. Blackstone, 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.
1871. Freeman, Norm. Conq., xviii. (1876), IV. 249. But one of Swegen’s many sons might well become the stock of a new dynasty.
1886. F. 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.
a. 1616. Beaum. & Fl., Bonduca, V. iii. Brave soldier yeeld; thou stock of Arms and Honor, thou filler of the world with fame and glory.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, III. vii. 391. In some resemblance of the seven Planets, amongst which the Sun, the stock of light, stands in the midst.
1756. Burke, 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.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Sam. xvii. 55. Abner, of what stok descendide [Vulg. de qua stirpe descendit] this ȝong man?
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 693. Of his lynage am I, and his of spryng, By verray ligne, as of the stok roial.
1430–1. Rolls of Parlt., IV. 378/1. All the braunches of the Stok Riall.
1477. Paston 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.
1547. Bk. Marchauntes, e iiij b. A yong child comen of a good stocke and riche kinred.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. LXXII. ix. Eternall Lord, whom Jacobs stock adore.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacræ, III. iv. § 1. They all were originally of the same stock.
1671. Milton, Samson, 1079. Men call me Harapha, of stock renown’d.
1693. G. Stepny, in Dryden’s Juvenal, VIII. (1697), 214. From a mean Stock the Pious Decii came.
a. 1704. T. Brown, On Beauties, Wks. 1730, I. 44. Unite two stocks to form the witty she, Dorinda’s sense, and Flavia’s repartee.
1827. Hallam, Const. Hist., xvii. (1876), III. 341. The national prejudices ran in favour of their ancient stock of kings.
1840. Thackeray, Shabby-genteel Story, i. The Crabbs were of a very old English stock.
1857. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, xviii. 168. That girl comes of the wrong stock to give up anything she has fancied without a struggle.
1870. Bryant, Iliad, II. I. 67. A warrior of the stock of Hercules was leader.
1879. Howells, Lady of Aroostook, iii. An ancestral consumption, his sole heritage from the good New England stock of which he came.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 296. I usually found the stock on both sides to be a highly ‘nervous’ one.
generalized use. 1873. Dixon, Two Queens, I. i. I. 5. Gonzales was of Hebrew stock.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 137. A lady of calm, well-balanced nervous system, well nourished and of healthy stock.
1900. J. 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.
1549. Coverdale, Erasm. Par. Rom. iv. 1. Of whom as father & beginner of theyr stocke, the whole nacion of Jewes are wont specially to crake & glory.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 121. One of Nemethus his progenie, that is, of the Scythian stocke.
1613. Purchas, 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.
1738. Wesley, Psalms, LXXX. x. Thou didst the Heathen Stock expel.
1774. Goldsm., 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.
1813. Prichard, 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.
1815. Elphinstone, Acc. Caubul (1842), I. 405. The languages of the inhabitants were probably all derived from the ancient Persian stock.
1822. Malte-Brun’s Univ. Geog., I. 570–1. The stock or family of the languages of Eastern Asia, or of the Monosyllabic languages, differs entirely from that of the Indo-Germanic languages.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. ii. 272. A population, sprung from the English stock, and animated by English feelings.
1859. Darwin, 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.
1862. Huxley, 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.
1868. Gladstone, Juv. Mundi, ii. (1870), 41. Even this is considerably older than the date of any family which we can connect with … the Hellenic stock.
1911. W. W. Fowler, Relig. Exper. Roman People, iv. 69. When a stock or tribe (populus) after migration took possession of a district, it was beyond doubt divided into clans.
† e. Pedigree, genealogy; a genealogical tree. Obs.
c. 1550. Cheke, Matt. i. 1. (1843), 27. This is ye book of Jesu Christes stock.
1552. Latimer, Serm., Christmas Day (1584), 273. Shee boasted not of her stocke to be of the linage of noble king Dauid.
1615. Chapman, Odyss., XI. 294. When, seuerally All told their stockes [Gr. ἐκάστη ὅν γόνον ἐξαγόρευεν].
1657. Wood, 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).
c. 1450. Lydg. & Burgh, Secrees, 2001. Good breed of whete, fflesh that wel savours, Of tarrage and stok, good and holsom wyne.
1614. Jackson, Creed, III. 101. It would argue either Antichristian blindness not to see, or impudency of no meaner stocke, not to acknowledge that [etc.].
1787. W. 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.
1828. trans. 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.
1866. Alger, 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.
c. 1400. Pylgr. Sowle, IV. ii. (Caxton, 1483), 58. When that this graffe had taken kynde and moysture of this stock on whiche hit was ymped.
a. 1500. in 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.
1577. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., II. 73 b. When you haue thus set in your graffe in the stocke.
1664. Evelyn, 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.
1725. Bradley’s Family Dict., s.v. Grafting, The Stock for Slit-Grafting should be an Inch at least.
1858. Carpenter, 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 expose a large surface of wood and bark.
1903. W. H. Hutton, Infl. Christianity, v. 225. He [S. Godric] … grafted apples upon the wild stocks.
fig. c. 1480. Henryson, Poems (S.T.S.), III. 140. Fals titlaris now growis vp full rank, nocht ympit in the stok of cheretie.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., IV. iii. 250. He was contented to be the stock whereon Wolsey should be graffed.
1754. Sherlock, Discourses, I. vi. 196–7. When once they had grafted the Slips of Superstition upon the Stock of Nature.
1796. Burke, 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.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), III. 233. Þe stok of a man [L. truncus homo] fouȝt wiþ his teeþ as it were a wood beest. Ibid. (1398), Barth. De P. R., V. l. (1495), 168. The stocke of the body begynnyth at the necke and stretchyth to the buttockes.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 32. Þanne he bad, þat þe stok of his [body] schulde be leyde in a carte.
c. 1550. Raynalde, Byrth Mankynde, I. (1565), 43 b. In this first figure is set forth the tronke or stocke of a womans body.
1590. Spenser, 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.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Saints’ Lives, xxvi. 26. Ða sæde se preost him Ic hæbbe of þam stocce þe his heafod on stod.
c. 1275. Lay., 16706. Samuel nam Agag þare king … and lette hime faste to one stocke [c. 1205 stake] bynde.
1294. Exch. Acc., 5/2. Pro wyndase et wyndase stockez xv s. vi d.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xix. (Cristofore), 568. Þane þe fellone tyrand king … behynd his bak his handis bath til a gert stok gert bynd [hym] rath.
1382. Wyclif, Josh. x. 26. And Josue smoot, and slewȝ hem, and hongide vpon fyue stokkis [Vulg. super quinque stipites].
1409–10. in Hudson & Tingey, Rec. Norwich (1910), II. 56. [To William Morton, carpenter, for a] stok.
1548. Latimer, Ploughers (Arb.), 23. He shall lye sycke at theyr doore betwene stocke and stocke.
1599. Peele, Sir Clyomon, xvi. 54. I’ll beat thee like a stock.
1688. R. Holme, 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).
1382. Wyclif, Num. viii. 4. The myddil stok [of the candlestick: Vulg. medius stipes].
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), ii. 5. Þe stock [of the Cross] þat stude in þe erthe … was of cedre.
1463. in Fabric Rolls York Minster (Surtees), 134. Thomæ Spence de Pontesfracto pro j stoke pro le tryndiles, 20 d.
1859. R. 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. 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 was 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.
c. 1325. Gloss. 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.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. IV. 95. Bote Reson haue reuþe of him he resteþ in þe stokkes Also longe as I lyue.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 1186. Bynd hem herde wyþ yre & steel, & pote hem in stokkes of trow.
1503. Act 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.
1533. J. Heywood, Pard. & Frere, 602 (Pollard). Wherfore by saynt John, thou shalt not escape me, Tyll thou hast scouryd a pare of stokys.
1598. Shaks., 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.
1620. Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 784/2. To hald and have stockis, joggis, prissounhousis, pit and gallous.
1620. Rowlands, Nt.-Raven (1872), 3. Whores and Whoremongers trading for the Pox, And reeling Watch-men, carrying Rogues to Stox.
1632. in E. B. Jupp, Carpenters’ Co. (1887), 301. Theis workes … belong vnto the … Carpenters … The makinge of … stocks cages and whipping postes.
1687. Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, IV. i. 45. Constable, watch, stokes, stokes, stokes, murder—.
1769. Blackstone, Comm., IV. xxix. 370. [Other punishments] Such as whipping, hard labour in the house of correction, the pillory, the stocks, and the ducking-stool.
1841. Hood, Tale of Trumpet, 701. Over the Green, and along by The George, Past the Stocks, and the Church, and the Forge.
1901. Westm. 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.
1905. Ld. Coleridge, Story Devonshire House, ii. (1906), 22. In the churchyard may be seen the time-worn stocks.
const. as sing. 1573. New Custom, II. iii. C iij. Euery stockes should be full, euery prison, and iayle.
1613. [see c].
1853. Lytton, 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.
1382. Wyclif, Job xiii. 27. Thou hast putte in the stoc [Vulg. in nervo] my foot.
c. 1460. Oseney 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.
1387–8. T. Usk, Test. Love, I. iii. (Skeat), 144. Thus strayte, lady, hath sir Daunger laced me in stockes, I leve it be not your wil.
c. 1440. Jacob’s Well, 186. Whanne god settyth þe in stockys of sykenes, or in prisoun of deth-euyll.
1612. Beaum. & Fl., Coxcomb, II. i. Was ever man but I in such a stockes?
1805. A. Knox, Rem. (1834), I. 27. Their feet are, as it were, made fast, in the stocks of appetite and passion.
1848. L. Hunt, Jar of Honey, Pref. 23. Put thine own pride and cruelty in the stocks.
1878. Masque 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.
c. 1430. Lydg., Bochas, VIII. vi. (1554), 180 b/1. This hardy princesse [Zenobia] … with stockes of gold [L. aureis compedibus] was brought to the cite.
c. 1825. Choyce, Log of Jack Tar (1891), 26. They put his neck in the stocks and kept him there until he was sober.
1860. Whittier, 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.
1666. Pepys, Diary, 22 April. Being in the shoemaker’s stockes I was heartily weary.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Shoe-makers-stocks, pincht with strait Shoes.
1831. Mrs. J. Sandford, Woman, xii. (1833), 132–3. 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.].
1823. Grace 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.
1850. J. F. South, Househ. Surg., 259. 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.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2391.
II. A supporting structure.
† 10. The block or table on which a butcher or a fishmonger cuts his goods. Sc. Obs.
1488. Extracts Burgh Rec. Edin. (1869), I. 56. Baith in slaing, and breking as a craftisman honestlie at his stok. Ibid. (1508), 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.
1577. Extracts 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.
a. 1350. Chron. Edw. I. & Edw. II., Ann. Lond. (Rolls, 1882), I. 90. [In 1282 Henry le Waleis built] domos … apud Wolchirchehawe, quae vocantur Hales, Anglice Stockes.
c. 1483. Chron. Lond. (1827), 137. This yere [1450] the stokkes was dividid bitwene fisshmongers and bochers.
1554. Two London Chron. (1910), 38. And at ye Stokes was a great pagaunte made at ye cities cost.
1587. Fleming, Holinshed’s Chron., III. 1348/2. West towards the Stocks market.
1721. Amherst, Terræ Filius, No. 36. 192. A fruiterer’s apprentice at Stocks-market.
1769. De 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.
1831. Scott, Castle 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.
1496. Acc. 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.
1497. Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 246. Elmyn tres … for … makyng or Gonne stokkes for Gonnes belongyng to the seid Ship.
1578. Invent. R. Wardr. (1815), 248. Ane double cannon of fonte … montit upoun ane new stok.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Affuster, as Affuster l’artillerie, to sette the artillerie in the stocke or frame.
1748. Anson’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.]
1525. trans. Brunswyke’s Handywork Surg., lxxi. P ij b. And he must be bounde to .iii. or .iiii. places of ye bedstede and ye hole foote must be bounde to the stock that ye pacyent may not drawe it vp to hym.
1544. Test. Ebor., VI. 213. The bede and the stokes that I lie in.
1562. Richmond Wills (Surtees), 156. Stocks of a bedde and bleckfatts, iiij s.
1629. Z. Boyd, Last Battell, 71 (Jam.). Hezekiah turned his backe to the stocke, and his face to the wall.
1775. Goldsm., 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.
1796. W. 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. pl. The framework on which a ship or boat is supported while in process of construction.
1422. Foreign 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’. Ibid. (1425), 59, m. 22 d. Propter debilitatem et confracciones ejusdem posita fuit in quodam dok supra stokes ibidem de novo construend’.
1615. E. 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.
1627. Capt. 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.
1638. Heywood, Royal Ship, 13. Had not the famous Archimedes devised new Engines to rowle her [the vessel] out of the stocks into the water.
1670. Lond. Gaz., No. 4039/4. There is now upon the stocks an extraordinary large ship of 2500 Tuns.
1704. J. 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.
1755. New-York Mercury, 14 July, 3/1. One of the Gallies [is] planked and compleatly rigged on the Stocks.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780).
1790. Beatson, Nav. & Mil. Mem., II. 34. Having … set upon the stocks two ships.
1810. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp. (1836), VI. 568. Having completed the boats which were on the stocks.
1875. trans. Comte de Paris’ 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.
1669. C. F., Pluto Furens, Ep. Ded. Until my other Play be finished, which is now on the Stocks.
1693. Dryden, Love Triumph., IV. i. Farewel; you know I have other business upon the Stocks.
1765. Foote, Commissary, II. (1782), 45. I made these rhimes into a duet for a comic opera I have on the stocks.
1783. in Virginia Mag. Hist. & Biog. (1898), 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.
1828. P. 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.
1836. J. H. Newman, Lett. (1891), II. 163. I have had a long letter on the stocks for you for the last fortnight.
1868. E. FitzGerald, Lett., I. 315. We shouldn’t go off the stocks easy (pardon nautical metaphors).
1898. Athenæum, 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 sb.2 1.
1592. Warner, Alb. Eng., IX. xlvii. (1612), 218. Cowring ore two sticks a crosse, burnt at a smoakie stocke.
a. 1613. Overbury, 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.
1823. E. Moor, Suffolk Words, Stock, the plate, or place, at the back of the fire, or immediately above it.
1854. Miss 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).
1683. J. 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].
1753. Chambers, 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).
c. 1738. in E. B. Jupp, Carpenters’ Co. (1887), 567. The Brickwork for £5. 10 per Rod and to do the same with Stocks.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 79. To pave the back kitchen … with common stocks, bedded in sand.
1837. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 34/1. Brickwork, consisting of sound, hard, and well-burned square stocks.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Stocks,… the red and grey bricks which are used for the exterior of walls and fronts of buildings.
1892. Daily News, 16 Dec., 2/2. Decorated with red ‘Newbiggin’ stone and picked London stocks.
1905. Pall 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.
1295. Stithistokke [see STITHY sb. 5].
1790. Cowper, Odyss., VIII. 336. To the stock he heaved His anvil huge.
1875. Knight, 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.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 286/2. The large Spinning Wheele … consists in these parts. The Stock standing on four Feet. The Standard [etc.].
1858. W. Arnot, 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.
1737. in 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.]
1575. Turberv., 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 sb. 2.
† 20. An alms-box. [So G. (almosen) stock, Du. (offer) stok. Cf. F. tronc.] Obs.
c. 1400. Love, Bonavent. Mirr. (1907), 188. A coffre hauynge a hole abouen in manere of stokkes that ben now vsed in chirches.
1419. Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 146. Et in sal. unius hominis facientis j stok propter oblac. in le Crudys, 3d. ex convencione.
1504. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., II. 266. Item, to the Kingis offerand in the stock at Sanct Duthois towm, xiiij s.
1527. Churchw. Acc. St. Giles, Reading, 30. Of Willm A Dene for the stokk of the masse xls.
† 21. A trough; a basin; a stoup, esp. one used for holy water. (See holy-water stock, HOLY WATER 2.) Obs.
c. 1450. Maitl. Club Misc., III. 203. Ane crem stok of siluer with ane closour of siluer.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, b viij b. It behouyth that yowre hawke haue a fedyng stokke in hir mewe.
1500. Will of Odingsellis (Somerset Ho.). Holy Water stoke.
1554. in Fuller, Hist. Waltham Abbey (1655), 17. A Stock of brass for the Holy-water.
1591. G. 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.)
1872. Shipley’s Gloss. Eccl. Terms, 334. Oil Box.… Also called Oil Stock.
1877. F. 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. sb.) In a fulling-mill: Originally, the wooden trough or box in which the cloth is placed to be beaten by the ‘faller’ or mallet; hence, this receptacle together with the ‘faller.’ In modern use, stock is often taken to denote the ‘faller’ or mallet itself.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XV. 445. Cloth … is nouȝt comly to were, Tyl it is fulled vnder fote or in fullyng stokkes.
1506–7. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 252. Pro factura de lez stoke 13s. 4d.
1674. Petty, 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.].
1677. 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.
1844. G. 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.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 342. By steeping the cloth in alkaline liquor, and beating it in the fulling stocks.
23. Tanning. (See quot. 1885.)
1882. Paton, 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.
1885. H. 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. The heavy cross-bar (originally wooden) of an anchor.
1346. Exch. Acc., 25/7. Pro ij hankerstokkes duorum ancor’ ejusdem navis.
1407. MS. Acc. Exch. K. R., 44/11 (1) m. 3. In duobus ancrestokes inde faciendis.
1485. Cely Papers (Camden), 185. Item pd by me for iij hanker stolkes … xv d.
1497. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 379. Item, for thre geestis to be stokkis to ankyrris, and other grath to the schippis, —s.
1615. E. S., Britain’s Buss, in Arber, Eng. Garner, III. 628. And so the four anchors, and their four stocks will come to £18 0 0.
1688. R. Holme, 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.
1748. Anson’s Voy., III. vi. 345. To fix two … anchors into one stock.
1825. H. B. Gascoigne, Path Nav. Fame, 50. The circling Capstan merrily runs round, Until the Stock a proper height is found.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 45. The stock of the anchor is made of oak.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 657.
b. Naut. phrase, stock and fluke.
1825. Cobbett, 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.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Stock and Fluke, the whole of anything.
25. The block of wood from which a bell is hung.
1474–5. in Swayne, Churchw. Acc. Sarum (1896), 20. It’ in tymber for the stokke and uphongyng of the same [bell] xxij d.
1526–7. Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905), 340. For mendyng of the Stokke of the Saunctus bell iiij d.
1706. in J. Watson, Jedburgh Abbey (1894), 91. [To see if the bells] be sound in their hanging upon the stocks.
1871. 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.’
1906. J. J. Raven, Bells, 291. The bells are rung from the stock, without wheel or rope.
26. The ‘hub’ of a wheel.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 268/1. Modiolus rotæ,… the stocke or naue wherein the spokes be fastened.
1876. Voyle & Stevenson, Milit. Dict., 409/2. Stock, the nave of a wooden wheel.
1879. Cassell’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.
1497. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 372. Item, agane Ȝule, to turs our the Month, for ane stok of ane sadil. Ibid. (1553), X. 175. Item,… for making of the stok and sadill heirto.
28. The wooden portion of a musket or fowling-piece; the handle of a pistol.
1541. Act 33 Hen. VIII., c. 6 § 2. Any handgune … shalbe in the stock and gonne of the lenghe of one hole Yarde.
1591. Garrard, Art of Warre, 10. Raising up the crooked end of the stocke to his breast.
1641. J. Langton, in Lismore Papers, Ser. II. (1888), V. 8. Our men … knocked some of them in the heade with the stocks of theire peeces.
1664. Evelyn, Sylva, viii. § 4 (1679), 50. Walnut … is of singular account … with the Gunsmith for Stocks.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. (Globe), 261. The Captain … knock’d him down with the Stock of his Musket.
1741. Compl. Family-Piece, II. i. 320. As for Stocks, Walnut-Tree or Ash are very good for Use.
1830. Hobart Town Almanack, 115. My trusty Manton, which falling under his right side,… was broken in the handsome stock.
1860. All Yr. Round, No. 71. 500. The stock is divided into the nose-cap, the upper, middle, and lower bands, the swell [etc.].
1879. Martini-Henry Rifle Exerc., 42. Grasping the stock with the left hand.
b. Phrase, stock, lock and barrel (also lock, stock and barrel: see LOCK sb.2 5): the whole of a thing; also advb., every whit, entirely.
1830. Galt, Lawrie T., II. viii. (1849), 66. Even the capital likewise—stock, lock, and barrel, all went.
1868. E. Yates, Rocks Ahead, III. iii. ‘Cut the whole concern, stock, lock and barrel,’ said his lordship.
1905. Times, 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.).
1695. Lond. Gaz., No. 3044/4. All sorts of Whips, the Stocks of the best Greenland Whalebone.
1787. T. Best, Angling (ed. 2), 9. The best manner of making … Rods. The best time to provide stocks is in the winter solstice.
1882. Stevenson, 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.
1711. Lond. Gaz., No. 4815/4. Two Seals with Gold Stocks.
31. The part of a plow to which the share is attached.
1578. Knaresb. Wills (Surtees), I. 133. One new stocke and two plow cloutes, [etc.].
1733. W. 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 sb.2 6.
1794. Rigging & 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.
1812. P. Nicholson, Mech. Exerc., 126. Stock and Bits.
1858. Simmonds, 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.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 6139. Wrought-iron welded tubes; stocks, taps, and dies.
1902. P. 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.
1815. J. 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.
1857. W. Binns, Elem. Orthogr. Projection, i. (1862), 6. Place the stock of the Ｔ square against the left hand side of the drawing-board.
1902. P. 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.
1639. in J. J. Cartwright, Chapters Hist. Yorks. (1872), 339. They let runne the stock wth ye hatchet in.
1815. J. 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.
1835. Ure, 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.
1837. Whittock, 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.
1833. Loudon, 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).
1776. A. Young, Tour Irel. (1780), I. 313. Two beetling cylinders,… a pair of stocks, a washing wheel.
1860. Ure’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.
c. 1175. Lamb. 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.
1456–7. in Fabric Rolls York Minster (Surtees), 208. Meam subtuniculam de harden cloth, cum stokkes de correo.
1530. Privy Purse Exp. Hen. VIII. (1827), 94. Euery one of them ij payer of hosen and ij payer of stockis.
1546. Acc. 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.
1564. Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 308. Ane pair of almany stokkis of blak sating, drawin out with taffeteis.
1577–87. Hooker, Chron. Irel., 89/2, in Holinshed. He hit vpon the letter, bare it awaie in the heele of his stocke.
a. 1592. Greene, Vision, Wks. (Grosart), XII. 209. His legs were small, Hosd within a stock of red.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., III. ii. 67. With a linnen stock on one leg, and a kersey boot-hose on the other.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., XVI. 350. Before the costly Coach, and silken stock came in.
1876. Mid-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 connection is doubtful on account of the difference in sense. Cf. however quot. 1675, where the word appears to have the Du. sense.]
1568. MS. 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.
1577. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., IV. 177 b. You may soone learne where theyr [sc. bees’] stockes [L. examina] be.
1649. Ogilby, Virg. Georg., II. (1684), 89. In rugged Bark the Bees conceal their Stocks [L. examina].
1675. Gedde, New Discov. Bee-houses, 30. A stock full of Bees and Honey.
1679. M. Rusden, Further Discov. Bees, 68. A swarm in May, or June, is called a Stock at Michaelmas.
1793. Trans. Soc. Arts, V. 287. The greatest number of Stocks of Bees, not fewer than thirty.
42. The portion of a tally that 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.
a. 1601. Sir 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.
1642. C. 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.
1671. E. 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 the Royal Exchange, like Stocks and Tallies.
43. [Short for STOCK-GILLIFLOWER.] a. Any plant of the cruciferous genus Matthiola. b. Virginian stock: the cruciferous plant Malcolmia maritima, having flowers somewhat resembling those of the stock-gilliflower.
1664. in Verney Mem. (1907), II. 208. To smell the sucklins and the stocks and to see the new trees grow.
1728–46. Thomson, Spring, 533. The … lavish stock that scents the garden round.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 328. Stock, Virginian, Hesperis.
1796. C. Marshall, Gardening, xix. (1813), 347. The French stock is very floriferous, and most apt to come double.
1844. Lady G. Fullerton, Ellen Middleton (1854), III. xx. 49. The delicate lilac flowers of the Virginian Stock.
1866. M. Arnold, Thyrsis, vii. And stocks in fragrant blow.
1894. Bridges, Garden Sept., Poems (1912), 305. Stocks Of courtly purple, and aromatic phlox.
1908. R. Bagot, A. Cuthbert, xix. 237. The sweet night-flowering stock.
44. 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.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, June 1645. They [the Venetian nobility] also weare their collar open to shew the diamond button of the stock of their shirt.
1731. Gentl. Mag., I. 454. He lay in his Stock, which was so tight about his Neck, that it near strangled him.
1742. Whyte’s Poems, in Fairholt, Costume (1860), 596. The stock with buckle made of plate Has put the cravat out of date.
1753. Lond. Mag., Oct., 480/2. Let the stock be well plaited, in fanciful forms.
1755. Johnson, Stock, something made of linen; a cravat; a close neckcloth.
1764. Boston Evening Post, in Alice M. Earle, Costume Colonial Times (1894), 169. Newest fashion’d plaited Stocks.
1781. Cowper, Lett. 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.
1802. C. 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.
1806. Sir R. Wilson, Jrnl., 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!
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, i. He had the same … suit of light brown clothes,… the same stock, with its silver buckle.
1825. Sir H. Cockburn, Memor., ii. 131. The disclosure of the long neck by the narrow bit of muslin stock.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., ii. An old stock, without a vestige of shirt collar, ornamented his neck.
1840. J. P. Kennedy, Quodlibet, x. (1860), 137. His shirt collar was turned down over a narrow horse-hair stock.
1868. Queen’s Regul. Army, § 604 g. The wearing of Stocks may be dispensed with on the line of March.
1892. Kipling, 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.
1883. Offic. 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.
1608. Topsell, 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 sb.
1741. Compl. Fam. 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.
1876. Surrey Gloss.
1883. Hampsh. Gloss.
VI. A fund, store.
The senses grouped under this head are not found in the other Teut. languages except hy 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.
1463. Bury Wills (Camden), 17. A stoke to fynde yerly ij taperis lyght.
1547–8. in E. Green, Somerset Chantries (1888), 10. Redy money gyven by Robte Holcombe to remayne in stocke to the saide use [sc. lights].
1548. in Hudson & Tingey, Rec. Norwich (1910), II. 120. All guylde stockis whatsoeuer their be withyn this citie shalbe employde towardes the fyndyng feyeng of the rever of the same citie.
c. 1550. Yorksh. Chantry Surv. (Surtees), II. 478. There is a stoke of xxij s. yeven to the finding of a light in the said chapell.
1553. Inv., in Ann. Dioc. Lichf. (1863), 7. xxj s. which remayned as a stoke to finde tapers in the churche.
1589. Nashe, 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.].
1638. R. Baker, trans. Balzac’s Lett. (vol. III.), 156. I feare mee, the Stocke that was appoynted for paying of me, will goe some other way.
1645. in Arber, Transcr. Stationers’ Reg. (1875), I. 590. The Committee … resolved upon the Companies sudden setting upon the printing the Bible by a new Stock.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, b 3. Venturing a stock to fetch Aurum Horizontale from the East Indies.
1676. Earl 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.
1690. Andros Tracts, II. 42. To make a Voluntary Subscription for a stock to bear the Charges of a Triall at Law.
1718. Hickes & Nelson, J. Kettlewell, II. xxv. 127. He set aside for a standing Stock … One Hundred Pound.
[1881. C. 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 capital sum to trade with or to invest; capital as distinguished from revenue, or principal as distinguished from interest. Obs.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 28 b. This rychesse he hath gyuen to vs as a stocke to occupy in our dayly exercyse, for the profyte of our owne soules.
1546. J. Heywood, Prov., II. ix. (1867), 77. How can ye now get thrift, the stocke beyng gone? Which is thonely thing to reise thrift vpon.
1561. 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.
1573. New Custom, II. iii. C iij b. The heyre Had substanciall reuenewes, his stocke also was faire.
1581. Reg. 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.
1613. J. White, Two Serm. (1615), 69. Prisoners, and distressed housholders, yong tradesmen that want stocks: must be thought on.
1614. Raleigh, 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.
1677. 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.
1681–6. J. 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.
1694. E. Phillips, trans. Milton’s Lett. State, 287. Lest he should lose his Ship and Lading, together with his whole principal Stock.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 13 Aug. 1641. The reson of this store of pictures and their cheapness proceedes from their want of land to employ their stock.
1760. Cautions & 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. 1595. Daniel, Civ. Wars, II. iv. And on the Hazard of a bad Exchange Have ventur’d all the Stock of Life beside.
a. 1652. J. 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.
1665. Howard, Ind. Queen, II. i. Why shou’d you waste the Stock of those fair Eyes That from Mankind can take their Liberties?
† b. To spend upon the stock: to trench on one’s capital. Obs.
1617. Moryson, Itin., I. 199. And lest by spending upon the stocke, my patrimony should be wasted I [etc.].
1662. 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.
1527. Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc.), I. 17. Item to hyr son Justinean xxll to make hym a stokke wt.
1581. Mulcaster, Positions, v. (1837), 34. To write and read wel which may be iointly gotten is a prety stocke for a poore boye.
1605. Lond. Prodigal, V. i. 400. Why this is well, and toward faire Luce’s stocke, heres fortie shillings.
c. 1639. Cowley, Misc., To Ld. Falkland, 32. Whilst we like younger Brothers, get at best But a small stock, and must work out the rest.
1685–6. Stillingfl., 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.)
1648. in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 256. In regard yt ye Colledge is wholey out of stocke,… ye 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.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., VI. § 229. Which [help] they had no hope to procure but upon the stock of alteration of the government of the Church.
1649. Jer. 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.
1692. South, 12 Serm. (1697), I. 275. Few practical Errors in the world are embraced upon the Stock of Conviction, but Inclination.
1821. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. My First Play. The theatre became to me, upon a new stock, the most delightful of recreations.
† 49. An estate or property that produces income; a person’s total property. Obs.
1552. Latimer, 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.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., July, 192. They han great store and thriftye stockes.
1587. Turberv., Trag. Tales (1837), 22. Whose land and fee descended orderly Unto the Sonne, with store of other stocks.
1646. Crashaw, Steps, 97. The steward of our growing stocke.
c. 1665. Mrs. Hutchinson, Mem. Col. Hutchinson (1885), I. 185. But they, having stocks and families, were not willing to march as far as the army.
a. 1687. Petty, 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.].
1771. Beattie, 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.
1663. Patrick, Parab. Pilgrim (1687), 115. A poor Widow, who had cast all her living into the publick stock.
1701. W. Wotton, Hist. Rome (Marcus), iv. 60. The Public Stock was well near exhausted by Verus’s Prodigality.
c. 1710. Celia Fiennes, Diary (1888), 92. They have a great publick stock belonging to ye Corporation.
1770. Langhorne, Plutarch (1879), I. 184/2. It appears … that the public stock of the Athenians amounted to 9700 talents.
c. Movable property.
1776. Adam 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.
1640. Pym, in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 22. By which means the Stock of the Kingdom is diminished.
1719. W. Wood, Surv. Trade, 154. There is not any thing more certain, than that our West-India Trade has greatly enlarged our Stock.
1729. Swift, Modest Proposal, 12. The Nation’s stock will be thereby encreased fifty thousand pounds per Annum.
1796. Burke, 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.
1825. McCulloch, Pol. Econ., II. ii. 92. The whole produce of industry belonging to a country is said to form its stock.
† 50. The business capital of a trading firm or company. In stock (said of a person): in the position of a partner. Obs.
c. 1600. Henslowe, Diary (1845), 276. A Note of all suche bookes as belong to the Stocke.
1613. Tapp, Pathw. Knowledge, 233. Two Marchants are in Company, B putteth in 200 li more then A, B continueth in stocke 5 moneths, and A 7 moneths 1/2, they gaine one as much as the other; the question is [etc.].
1669. W. 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.
1694. J. 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.
1697. Lond. Gaz., No. 3303/3. Each Member having Five hundred Pounds in the Stock of the Bank.
1798. Hutton, Course Math. (1806), I. 124. They admit K as a third partner, who brought into stock 2800l.
1844. H. 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.
1588. Mellis, Briefe Instr., D vij. Then for your Creditor goe to the letter S. and there enter stocke as followeth: Stocke is in folio 2.
1674. J. 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.].
1732. J. 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.
1771. Encycl. 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. Ibid. (c. 1789), (ed. 3), III. 368/2. Thirdly, Accounts of Stock, Profit, and Loss.
1828–32. Webster, Stock, in book-keeping, the owner or owners of the books.
1852. B. 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.
c. 1645. Howell, 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.
1647. Clarendon, 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.
1685. Caldwell 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. 1686. Goad, 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.
1710. Steele, 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. 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.
a. 1692. Pollexfen, Disc. Trade (1697), A 4 b. Whether any profit can arise to the Nation by the advance of Stocks.
1708. Swift, Abol. Chr. Misc. (1711), 181. The Bank, and East-India Stock, may fall at least One per Cent.
1714. J. Macky, 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.
a. 1763. W. King, Pol. & Lit. Anecd. (1819), 105. Sir William. had a fair estate in land, a large sum of money in the stocks, and [etc.].
1777. Sheridan, Sch. Scand., III. i. He is forced to sell stock at a great loss.
1781. D. Hartley, Consid. Renewal Bank Charter, 18. One hundred pounds of Bank stock is now worth about 110l.
1784. Cowper, Task, IV. 16. The fall of stocks.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXIII. 71/2. Stocks, a term applied to the various ‘Funds’ which constitute the national debt.
1845. McCulloch, 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.].
1889. Act 52 & 53 Vict., c. 32 § 9. The expression ‘stock’ shall include fully paid-up shares.
1898. W. 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.
1913. Times, 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.
1878. Masque of Poets, 216. All which I do most potently believe, Taking large stock in Natural Selection.
1883. Homiletic Rev., Aug., 134. Educated, and I believe scientific men, took stock in it [Blue Glass theory of cure].
1891. Bret Harte, First Family Tasajara, v. I never took stock of that story.
1902. Daily Chron., 1 April, 6/3. There are many tales of the manifestation of natural gas in Sussex, which I do not take much stock in.
53. 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.
1519. N. C. Wills (Surtees, 1908), I. 106. That my sonne … have my ferme of Lenwyke … with the stocke theruppon.
a. 1676. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man. (1677), 214. The Stock being exhausted one Year, left little for the supply of Tillage, Husbandry, or Increase for the next.
1788. Priestley, Lect. Hist., V. xliv. 324. Cattle … bear a much lower price than corn, which requires more art, labour, and stock to raise it.
1826. Art 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.
1836. [Mrs. Traill], Backwoods of Canada, 26. Live and dead stock that go or are taken on board.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., III. 246. The tenant was to find his own stock and tools.
1851. Greenwell, 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.
1863. H. 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.
1574. in 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.
1588. Reg. Privy Council Scot., IV. 280. Baith stok and teind thairof.
[1651. in Agnew, Hered. Sheriffs Galloway (1893), II. 73. Salcharie pays in stock and teind thretty bolls victual, 300 marks money.]
54. spec. = LIVE STOCK; the animals on a farm; also, a collective term for horses, cattle and sheep bred for use or profit.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., 39. It is conuenient, that he rere two oxe calues, and two cowe calues at the least, to vpholde his stocke.
1608. Rowlands, Humors Looking Glasse (1872), 15. This poore man had a Cow twas all his stocke.
1649. Milton, Eikon., 220. The people he accounts his Heard, his Cattell, the Stock upon his ground.
1660. F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 348. They keep stocks of tame Deer.
1744. M. Bishop, Life & Adv., 4. I frequently rode out with him in a Morning to look at his Stock.
1796. W. H. Marshall, Yorksh. (ed. 2), II. 347. Stock; livestock.
1801. Farmer’s Mag., April, 228. Drovers are now buying lean stock briskly at good prices.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xliv. The proofs he had given of his skill in managing stock.
1851. H. 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.
1828–32. Webster, Stock, in the West Indies, the slaves of a plantation.
1837. Ht. 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 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.
1638. Rous, Heav. Acad., i. 4. Let him gather a stock of them, and lay them up for his use.
1639. Fuller, 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.
a. 1662. Heylin, Laud (1668), 391. By making this agreement with them he put them into such a stock of Reputation, that [etc.].
1693. C. Dryden, Juvenal’s Sat., VII. 200. But oh, what stock of Patience wants the Fool, Who wastes his Time and Breath in teaching School!
1711. in 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.
1728. Gay, Lett. to Swift, 16 May. I … am in hopes to lay in a stock of health.
1738. Common 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.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 109, ¶ 1. You have not yet exhausted the whole stock of human infelicity.
1771. Franklin, Autobiog., Wks. 1840, I. 18. I wanted a stock of words.
1774. Goldsm., 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.].
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., Wks. 1808, V. 273. That stock of general truth, for the branches of which they contended with their blood.
1804. Med. 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.
1812. Shelley, 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.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xii. III. 228. The stock of cannon balls was almost exhausted.
1907. J. 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.
1674. T. Lower, in Jrnl. Friends Hist. Soc. (1913), July, 144. Seeinge such stockes of Quakers did resort to him.
1690. Child, 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.)
1709. T. 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.
1886. G. P. Merrill, in Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst., II. (1889), 525. Stock, the useful rock taken from a quarry.
1909. Century Dict., Suppl., Stock, the material removed from a quarry which is of suitable size to be worked into marketable articles.
56. 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.
1696–7. Act 8 & 9 Will. III., c. 7 § 10. The several Stockes of Paper Parchment Pastboard or Vellum.
1736. Gentl. Mag., VI. 591/2. They all brew great Quantities, which they keep by them as a Stock in Hand.
1814. Scott, Lett., 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.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Loom & Lugger, II. ii. 21. She might look through her father’s stock many times.
1833. J. 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.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxxv. The sculptors of those days had stocks of such funereal emblems in hand.
1851. Hawthorne, Ho. Sev. Gables, v. (1852), 59. ‘We must renew our stock, Cousin Hepzibah!’ cried the little saleswoman.
1868. M. Pattison, Academ. Org., v. 167. We have not cared to keep on hand a larger stock than we could dispose of in the season.
1881. W. S. Gilbert, Foggerty’s Fairy, I. (1895), 35. You are in trade?… So am I. Wholesale. What’s your stock? Tal. Mine’s cheese.
1885. Manch. Exam., 3 June, 5/3. The market is reported to be glutted, and the production has of late been largely going into stock.
1899. Daily 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.
1736. Country 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?
1825. Coleridge, 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.
1826. New 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.’
1840. Macaulay, 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.].
1857. Borrow, Romany 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.
1865. Slang Dict., 247. To take stock of one, to scrutinize narrowly one whom you have reason to suspect.
1867. W. 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.
1877–81. Voyle & 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.
1883. Froude, Short Stud., IV. II. i. 166. It is, perhaps,… occasionally well to take stock of our mental experience.
1885. Miss 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?
1893. Times, 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.
1896. N. & 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.
1618. in J. Charnock, Hist. Mar. Archit. (1801), II. 237. There will remaine in stock at Deptford 738 t. 14 c. 0 q. 9 lb.
1891. Law Rep., Weekly Notes, 44/1. The defendant had about forty copies of the impression in stock which he desired to sell.
1898. W. J. Greenwood, Commerc. Corresp. (ed. 2), 3. I intend to dispose of the whole of the goods in stock.
57. The liquor made by boiling meat (with or without vegetables, etc.) and used as a foundation for soup.
1764. Eliz. Moxon, Eng. Housew. (ed. 2), 119. You must make your stock the day before you use it.
1844. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 169. Its decoction forms an excellent stock for various dishes.
1870. Dickens, E. Drood, vi. Stock for soup became fragrant in the air of Minor Canon Corner.
1886. Sat. Rev., 6 March, 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.
1873. E. Spon, 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.
1875. Paper-stock [see PAPER sb. 12].
1882. Encycl. Brit., XIV. 384/2. In these the stock is exposed to the strongest tanning liquors.
58. Card-playing. a. In certain games, the portion of the pack of cards that 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.]
1584. R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., XIII. xxvii. (1886), 273. Throw upon the Stocke the nether card.
1607. Heywood, Wom. Killed w. Kindn. (1617), E 2 b. This Queene I haue more then mine owne, you see. Giue me the stocke.
1674. Cotton, 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.
1732. Swift, Poems, Beasts’ Confess., 193. He heard there was a club of cheats, Who … Could change the stock, or cog a dye.
1830. Hardie, Hoyle, 44. (Piquet) Talon, or stock, is the eight remaining cards, after twelve are dealt to each person.
1878. H. 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).
1584. R. W., Three Ladies Lond., II. A iiij. Nowe all the Cardes in the stock are delte about.
1895. G. 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 sb. 23. Obs.
1637. Rutherford, 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.].
c. 1641. Cleveland, Smectymnuus, Poems (1677), 39. So many Cards ith’ Stock, and yet be bilk’d?
1659. Shuffling, 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 sb. has the sense 1 b or 5, there have been formed many combinations of stock with a preceding vbl. sb., 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.
1545. Hen. VIII., Sp. Parlt. (1642), A 4. Not to dispute, and make Scripture a railing and taunting-stocke against Priests and Preachers.
1580. Lyly, Euphues & his England (Arb.), 444. Then shall you be like stars to the wise, who are now but staring stockes to the foolish.
1630. B. 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, -like adjs. Also stock-blind, -dead, -deaf adjs., as blind (etc.) as a stock. Hence perh. stock-full a. rare–1, chock-full, cram-full. 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.]
1675. Wycherley, Country Wife, II. i. 21. True Lovers are blind, *stockblind.
1802. Beddoes, Hygëia, I. 32. He was stock-blind; so could not judge of me by my exterior.
1662. J. Davies, trans. Olearius’ Voy. Ambass., 136. A corpulent, fat Man … fell down *stock-dead, as soon as he came to the shrine.
1865. Tylor, 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.
1782. Miss 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.
1904. M. Hewlett, Queen’s Quair, II. vii. 279. That *stock-headed starer out of painted eyes.
1878. Browning, Poets Croisic, lxi. Does he stand *stock-like henceforth?
1689. Hickeringill, Ceremony-Monger, iii. Wks. 1709, 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, † -head; † stock-grafted a., grafted by means of a slit or cleft in the stock; † stock-grafting, cleft-grafting.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 138. Take toughe cleye … and ley it vppon the stocke-heed.
1707. Mortimer, Husb. (1721), II. 265. Medlars may be cleft, or Stock-grafted, on the White Thorn.
1731. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Grafting, Cleft Grafting, which is also call’d Stock or Slit-grafting.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 562. As practised by the stock-growers in propagating plum and Paradise stocks.
62. In sense 52, as stock †-bill, -board, -dealer, -list, † -office, -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.). Also STOCKBROKER, etc.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Quality (1809), IV. 80. [He] produced bank and *stock bills to the amount of … five thousand pounds.
1872. T. L. Cuyler, Heart-Life, 123. The reckless gambling operations of *stock-boards or ‘the street.’
1863. Act 26 & 27 Vict., c. 28 § 6. A *Stock Certificate … shall entitle the Bearer to the Stock therein described.
1902. Westm. Gaz., 30 Sept., 10/1. A firm of *stock-dealers.
1891. Century Dict., *Stock-indicator.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Stock-list, a list published daily or periodically, enumerating the leading stocks dealt in; the prices current; the actual transactions, etc.
1737. J. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., II. (ed. 33), 171. (South Sea office) Chief Clerk of the *Stock-office.
1901. Cordingley, 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.
1886. Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 17 July, 2/3. The *Stock Ticker.
1899. Westm. Gaz., 20 April, 10/2. A narrow strip of paper resembling a stock-ticker tape.
1883. Nation (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. In sense 54, as stock-breeder, -car, -dealer, -farm, -farmer, -farming, -feed, -feeding, -food, -grower, -house, † -husbandry, -master, -minder, -owner, -raiser, -raising, -ranch, -range, -run, -station, -train, yard; 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 STOCKHOLDER, -KEEPER (etc.), STOCKMAN.
1815. Sporting Mag., XLV. 194. Mr. George Flower … Merino *stock-breeder.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2390. *Stock-car, a railway-car for carrying cattle, horses, sheep, hogs, etc.
1898. Kipling, Day’s Work, 222. There were oil-cars, and hay-cars, and stock-cars full of lowing beasts.
1885. Manch. Exam., 17 March, 5/2. Duties on live meat in Germany fail in protecting *stockdealers.
1806. Sydney Gaz., in O’Hara, Hist. N. S. Wales (1817), 289. Well adapted either to an arable or *stock farm.
1768. Ann. Reg., 149. The *stock farmers have greatly suffered, as the lambs were much hurt.
1865. Trollope, Belton Est., xvi. 183. In *stock-farming the chief thing is not to have too many beasts.
1915. Edin. Rev., Jan., 83. The Ana (or Aana) tree … is said to give the best *stock-feed in the whole world.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., III. 37. Crops used for *stock-feeding.
1894. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., Dec., 646. A proportion of the produce grown is retained on the farm, as *stock-food or litter.
1876. Chamb. Jrnl., 30 Dec., 845/1. The experience of *stock-growers from all sections for the last few years has proved [etc.].
1865. H. Kingsley, Hillyars & Burtons, l. An aged *stockhorse, which I had bought very cheap.
1808. Sydney 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.
1801. Farmer’s Mag., Aug., 285. The general run of the soil of this tract … renders it very eligible for what is called the *stock-husbandry.
1828. P. Cunningham, N. S. Wales (ed. 3), II. 30. They … paid a visit to a *stock hut inhabited by three freemen, at Putty.
1864. Intell. Observer, IV. Jan., 390–1. Veterinarians, sheep-breeders, *stock-masters, and others practically acquainted with the diseases of our domesticated animals.
1859. Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), 451. *Stock-minder, one who takes care of cattle on the great prairies.
1865. Daily Tel., 18 Oct., 6/4. Thus, by promptitude, the Belgian Government has conferred a great boon on its people, and especially on its *stock-owners [by checking a cattle plague].
1874. Raymond, 6th Rep. Mines, 314. A part … of the large grant … on which numerous ranch-men and *stock-raisers are said to have settled.
1868. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 148. Study of plants, meadows, and *stock-raising.
1876. Chamb. Jrnl., 30 Dec., 845/1. Eventually the stock-raising interests will be driven to the northern buffalo grass region.
1871. in S. De Vere, Americanisms (1872), 129. An estancia or *stock-ranch.
1859. Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), 451. *Stock-range, the prairie or plain where cattle range or graze.
1882. E. V. Smalley, in Century Mag., Aug., 511/1. The hill country is all open as a stock-range.
1862. Cornhill Mag., Jan., 31. Broke in by one of my *stock-riders up to fifteen stone.
1872. Routledge’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.
1886. P. Clarke, ‘New Chum’ in Austral., 197. I saw it [a colt] on the *stock-route to Bathurst.
1828. P. 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.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Stock-station, a district for rearing and herding cattle.
1859. Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), 451. *Stock-train, a train of railroad cars loaded with cattle.
1857. W. Howitt, Tallangetta, I. 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.
1802. Barrington’s Hist. N. S. Wales, x. 373. A young ox was missed from the *stock-yard at Toongabbe.
1858. R. 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.
b. Indicating an animal that is chosen or kept for breeding purposes, as stock dog, mare, etc. Also stock-getter.
1801. Farmer’s Mag., April, 222. The season throughout has been remarkably favourable to stock sheep.
1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, III. 15/2. A black tan terrier … which was the greatest stock dog in London of that day.
1854. Poultry Chron., II. 404. The purchase of fowls intended for stock-birds should not now be delayed.
1862. Cornhill Mag., Jan., 31. A handsome little stock-mare.
1862. H. H. Dixon, Scott & Sebright, iii. 165. Till within the last three years, he [a stallion] was a very sure stock-getter.
1886. C. Scott, Sheep-Farming, 74. It is only advisable with some very special stock-ram, whose progeny are valuable.
1891. Century Dict., Stock-fish,… fish adapted or used for stocking rivers, ponds, lakes, etc.
1909. Westm. Gaz., 13 Feb., 16/2. Another hundred good stock trout have been placed in the Henley waters.
1909. H. W. C. Newte, in Chamb. Jrnl., April, 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.
1852. Macgillivray, Brit. Birds, V. 22. Tadorna Vulpanser.… *Stockannet.
1772. Forster, in Phil. Trans., LXII. 419. Mallard Drake…. It is called *Stock Drake at Hudson’s Bay.
1805. G. Barry, Hist. Orkney Isl., 301. The Mallard,… our *stockduck.
1884. Upton-on-Severn Gloss., *Stock-eekle, n. A woodpecker.
1899. A. 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.
a. 1688. J. Wallace, Descr. Isl. Orkney (1693), ii. 16. Sometime the *Stock-oul and Bittern have been seen in this country.
1805. G. Barry, Hist. Orkney Isl., 312. The Eagle Owl…, our katogle or stock-owl.
1783. Latham, Gen. Synopsis Birds, II. II. 604. *Stock Pigeon, Columba ænas.
1813. G. 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 that forms the bottom of a brick-mold; (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; † stock-bow, a crossbow; stock-brick [cf. sense 15], a hard solid brick, pressed in the mold; 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-company, (a) ? a joint-stock company; (b) a company the capital of which is represented by stock; † stockis-dynt Sc. = stingis-dint (see STING sb.1 3); † 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; (b) a cutting instrument pivoted on a block (cf. stock-shave); 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-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.
1771. Encycl. 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.
1826. Art of Brewing (ed. 2), 64. Keep some *stock beer for flavouring your best ale.
1836. Penny 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.
1850. E. Dobson, Bricks & Tiles, I. 33. The brick mould is placed on a *stock board, which is made to fit the bottom of the mould.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Stock-board [in an organ].
1901. Westm. 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.
1598. Florio, Balista,… a crosse-bow, a *stock-bow or tillar.
[1887. Kent. Gloss., Stock-bow, a cross-bow.]
1683. J. 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.
1703. R. 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.
1883. Specif. Alnwick & Cornhill Rlwy., 3. The whole of the bricks for the face of any work … of the arches are to be stock bricks.
1693. Moxon, 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.
1876. Encycl. Brit., IV. 403/2. Brushes with the tufts placed side by side on flat boards, as plasterers’ brushes, are called stock-brushes.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., xliv. A diamond *stock-buckle.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxxvii. A well-brushed black suit, with very clean shoes and gold buckles and stock-buckle. Ibid. (1827), Surg. Dau., Pref. Half-ashamed,… yet half-proud of the literary *stock-company, in which he has got a share.
1905. Outlook, 7 Oct., 471/1. Within the last two years there have been three exposures of gigantic stock-company frauds [in America].
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.].
1676. Coles, Dict., *Stock-drawers, stockings.
1600. Holland, Livy, V. xxiv. 196. Romulus … the first *Stocke-father and beginner of the cittie of Rome.
c. 1640. J. Smyth, Lives Berkeleys (1883), I. 207. Hee is the stock-father of that honored family of the Berkeleys of Wymondham.
1895. W. P. W. Phillimore, in New Eng. Gen. Hist. Register, Oct., 450. Edward Garfield, of Watertown, Mass., the stock-father of the American family.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., I. ii. 19. See that our Murtherers and *Stockfowlers have their Chambers fill’d with good Powder.
1688. R. Holme, 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 Stockfowlers; and Fowlers or Foulers.
1856. N. & 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.
1908. Nature, 30 Jan., 295/2. What is locally called ‘stock frost’ … is known to the scientific world … as ‘ground ice.’
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Stock-gang.
1880. Lumberman’s Gaz., Jan., 28. They [i.e., the rafts] are then cut into boards by ‘stock gang’ saws.
1713. Guardian, No. 95, ¶ 1. Fourscore Pieces of *Stock-Gold, and thirty Pieces of Tin-Silver.
1465. Paston Lett., III. 436. Item, a *stokke gonne with iij. chambers.
1750. W. 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.
1638. Junius, Paint. Ancients, 155. They afterwards begun to use hose, drawing over them some thicker kind of *stock-hose.
1553. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford (1880), 215. They … had him … to Bocardo, and did sette him in the *stocke howse.
1725. Lond. Gaz., No. 6403/4. Prisoner in the Stockhouse or Goal of Kingstone.
1879. Hardwicke’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?’
1583. Rates Custom Ho., C viij. Kniues called *stock kniues course vngilt the dosen, xvi.s. viii. d.
1799. J. Wood, Princ. Mechanics, 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.
1579. Reg. Privy Council Scot., III. 205. Wrichtis, *Stokmakaris and Quheill makaris.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. V. vi. Deft Stock-makers do gouge and rasp.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Stock-maker, a manufacturer of stiff neck-bands worn by men.
1596. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 107. Stone nales, *stocke nailes, clagge nales.
1833. R. Walker, Flora Oxfordsh., 284. Corylus Avellana. Common Hazel-nut or *Stock-nut.
1853. Soyer, Pantroph., 260. The Chief of the cooks, the Archimagirus,… embraces at a single glance the series of *stock-pots and brick stoves.
1891. Ainger, in Edith Sichel, Life & Lett. (1906), 253. They [the schoolboy verses of Lamb] will at once go into the Lamb ‘Stock-pot’—my Commonplace Book.
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. iv. 140 (Qos.). Who is whipt from tithing to tithing, and *stock-punisht and imprisoned.
a. 1665. W. Guthrie, Serm., in Tweedie, Sel. Biog. (Wodrow Soc.), II. 75. We have all one common profession, interest, *stockpurse.
1802. C. James, Milit. Dict., Stock Purse, a certain saving which is made in a corps, and which is applied to regimental purposes.
1832. G. Downes, Lett. Cont. Countries, I. 67. A small stockpurse is maintained, for the support of the enfeebled and superannuated.
1825. Hansard, Typographia, 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.
1888. Jacobi, Printers’ Vocab., 133. Stock room, the department allotted to the storing of paper or printed stock.
1537–8. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., VI. 380. For thre quarteris of fyne gray clath to cover ane *stok sadill to the Kingis grace.
1888. T. Roosevelt, in Century Mag., April, 863/2. For a long spell of such work a stock-saddle is far less tiring than the ordinary Eastern or English one.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Stock-saw.
1794. Rigging & 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.
1688. R. Holme, 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.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Lombard, Manche Lombarde, a *stocke-sleeue; or fashion of halfe-sleeue, whose vpper part is raised, and full of plaits, or gathers.
1727. De Foe, Eng. Tradesm. (1732), I. vi. 67. Those adventures … *stock-starve the Tradesman, and impoverish him in his ordinary business.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Stock-stone.
1815. Falconer’s Dict. Marine (ed. Burney), *Stock-Tackle.
1860. A. Mordecai, Rep. Mil. Comm. Europe, 62 (Funk). These were no doubt designed for firing with larger charges, and at higher elevations than the *stocktrail carriage admits of.
1470. York Memo. Bk. (Surtees), I. 92. That … no saddiller … make any sadelles of trees that er calde *stokke trees or Scottes trees.
1547. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., IX. 103. For tua botis … hir *stoke quhelis and necessaris.
B. adj. (in attributive use only). That is kept in stock (see A 56 c).
1. Kept regularly in stock for sale, as stock book, lot; 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.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Nice Valour, V. iii. For they begin already to engross it, And make it a *Stock-book.
1858. Cooper, Ath. Cantabr., I. 249/2. The Sick Man’s Salve was long a stockbook with the Stationers’ company.
1898. W. J. Greenwood, Commerc. Corresp. (ed. 2), 31. We particularly wish to call your attention to the *stock lots as per particulars noted at foot.
1897. Daily News, 9 Jan., 6/3. The happy woman who possesses what we may call a *stock-size figure. Ibid. (1900), 28 July, 6/7. Those who are fortunate enough to be a ‘stock’ size can save many shillings by buying these ready-made articles.
b. Designating a medicinal or chemical preparation that is kept ready for use, or the vessel in which such a preparation is stored.
1863. J. Hughes, Pract. Photogr. (1866), 11. When you have done for the day, return what [collodion] remains back into the stock-bottle.
1882. Encycl. Brit., XIV. 390/1. These [chemicals] are mixed together in one large stock tank.
1898. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 424. If the specific gravity is to be lowered, this stock solution is diluted with water.
1907. J. A. Hodges, Elem. Photogr. (ed. 6), 49. It is better to keep at both the stock gold and the stock platinum solutions in the dark.
2. Theatr. stock piece, play, etc., one which forms part of a répertoire; stock company, a company who regularly act together at a particular theater; stock actor, etc., a member of a stock company, or one who acts in stock pieces.
1865. W. Donaldson, Recoll. Actor, 95. A large proportion of the *stock actors were … without talent or experience.
1830. G. Colman, Random Rec., II. 6. Miss Lee’s ‘Chapter of Accidents,’ long and justly rated as a *stock Comedy.
1864. P. Paterson, Glimpses Real Life, 37. I … being at the time one of the *stock company of the Beverley Theatre, New York.
1782. D. E. Baker, Biogr. Dramatica, II. 84/2. The Way to keep him … still stands on the *stock-list of the theatre.
1887. T. A. Trollope, What I remember, II. xii. 209. I subsequently took Sir Anthony [in ‘The Rivals’] which remained my *stock part for years.
1805. Southey, in Ann. Rev., III. 76. Their classical *stock pieces.
1761. B. Victor, Theatres Lond. & Dublin, I. 65. If Time was to be wasted in rehearsing old *Stock Plays, for the Sake of the new Performers to be introduced in them.
1807. Director, I. 260. The Beggars Opera is what is termed a stock play with us.
1847. Theatr. 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.
1738. Swift, Pol. Conversat., Introd. 40. The old Stock-Oaths.
1803. Mar. Edgeworth, Pop. Tales, To-morrow, i. A line which has become a stock line among writing-masters’ copies.
1835. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Mr. Watkins Tottle, ii. The master of the house, who was burning to tell one of his seven stock stories.
1853. Kingsley, Hypatia, ix. 109. The humble stock-phrases in which they talked of their labours of love.
1861. Mill, Utilit., ii. 36. The stock arguments against utilitarianism.
1865. M. Arnold, Ess. Crit., v. 172. Heine’s … utter rejection of stock classicism and stock romanticism.
1871. Morley, Crit. Misc., Vauvenargues, 14. The stock moralist, like the commonplace orator of the pulpit, fails to touch the hearts of men.
1895. Bookman, Oct., 26/2. The history has been sadly confused and distorted by stock quotations from the fathers.
