a. [f. STOCK sb.1 + -Y.]
† 1. Made of a stock, made of wood. Obs. rare–1.
Misprinted stokly in Min. P. Vernon MS. (E.E.T.S.).
a. 1400. Disp. Mary & Cross, 518, in Leg. Rood. On a stokky stede [i.e., the Cross] He Rod we Rede.
2. Of a plant: Of stout and sturdy growth; not ‘drawn up,’ ‘weedy’ or spindling.
1622. Drayton, Poly-olb., xxvii. 303. Those scattered trees … send from their stocky bough, A soft and sappy Gum.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 20. The plants so taken out must be planted on another compartment at the same distance, and they will come to full stocky hearts in April and May.
1883. W. Robinson, Eng. Flower Garden, II. 109. Vigorous stocky shoots from the buried joints of the plant.
1898. F. W. Card, Bush Fruits, 360. lt is generally believed that stockier and better plants are obtained from cuttings.
b. Of a root: Woody, as distinguished from fibrous.
1915. Times, 25 Sept., 9/5. Take up some of the outer runners with good fibrous roots and replant them carefully at once. Old plants with stocky roots will not move well.
3. Of a person, animal, etc.: Of stout and sturdy build; short and thick-set.
1676. Poor Robin’s Intell., 23–30 May, 1/1. A well-set Fellow of very good natural parts, having a broad back, and a stocky leg. [etc.].
1711. Lond. Gaz., No. 4917/4. Lost…, a stockey bright bay Gelding.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 433, ¶ 6. They had no Titles of Honour among them, but such as denoted some Bodily Strength or Perfection, as such an one the Tall, such an one the Stocky.
1725. Brice’s Weekly Jrnl., 5 Nov., 4. He is a fair stocky Fellow.
1826. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), II. 174. A particular race of sheep, called the Cotswold breed…. They are short and stocky.
1864. Daily Tel., 13 Aug., 3/2. Well-built stocky horses, for artillery and other military work, were sold to army contractors at full rates.
1888. C. King, in Harper’s Mag., April, 783/1. Sturdy and stocky as a Jersey bull.
1900. W. R. Moody, Life D. L. Moody, vii. 69. A young man … short and stocky in figure.
Comb. 1905. Gunter, Conscience of a King, vi. 90. A rather thickset stocky built woman.
b. fig. of a quality.
1882. H. E. Scudder, Noah Webster, i. 3. His square, upright tombstone stands in the village graveyard, and commemorates the stocky virtues of integrity and piety.
4. dial. ? Not amenable to control, intractable; full of spirits, boisterous.
1836. W. D. Cooper, Sussex Gloss., Stockey, irritable, headstrong, and contrary, combined.
1856. Geo. Eliot, Scenes, I. 86. Little Dickey, a boisterous boy of five … was squatting quiet as a mouse at her knee…. He was a boy whom Mrs. Hackit, in a severe mood, had pronounced ‘stocky.’..; but seeing him thus subdued into goodness, she smiled at him.
1866. Mrs. H. Wood, Elster’s Folly, II. xiii. 323. Afore that drownding of his Lordship last year, Davy was the boldest and stockiest rip going.
5. Of manner, etc.: Stiff, severe.
1876. Jane E. Hopkins, Rose Turquand, ii. ‘Good morning, Rose,’ said Mrs. Adair, in her stockiest tones, touching it with two frosty fingers.
Hence Stockily adv., Stockiness.
1890. Christian World Pulpit, XXXVIII. 359/1. The stockiness and sturdiness of coming generations.
1892. P. Bigelow, in Harper’s Mag., LXXXIV. 530/1. A pair of stockily built horses.
