Now dial. [? ad. OF. estoquier, estoquer, to strike with the edge or point of a weapon. Cf. STOCK sb.3 and STOKE v.1]
† 1. trans. To strike or hit with a thrust of a pointed weapon. Obs. rare–1.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Love’s Cure, III. iv. In my young daies A Chevalier would stock a needles point, Three times together.
2. Of a bird: To peck, peck at; to make (a hole) by pecking. Also, to root up with the beak (cf. STOCK v.1 6). Also intr. To peck away (at).
1653. Baxter, Chr. Concord, 24. Some Birds first make their way into a hard tree by stocking a hole in it.
1674. Flavel, Husb. Spiritualized, xiii. 115. Corn … but slightly covered is stockt up as soon as it begins to sprout by Rooks and other devouring fowls.
1843. Zoologist, I. 368. Rooks have at times seriously injured fields of young grass, by stocking up the red clover plants.
1844. E. Jesse, Sc. & T. Country Life, I. 213. He observed a young cock … stock with his beak the mice as fast as they fell to the ground.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., iii. (ed. 2), 57. The Polyborus Chimango … injures the potato-crops in Chiloe by stocking up the roots when first planted.
1890. Glouc. Gloss., Stock, to peck; of a bird pulling up seed corn.
1893. [D. Jordan], in Cornhill Mag., Nov., 505. There were the old rooks stocking away at the grubs and chafers, croaking now and then, because they have to work hard for small returns.
