stock

Noun

stock (countable and uncountable, plural stocks)

1. A store or supply.
   1. (operations) A store of goods ready for sale; inventory.

      We have a stock of televisions on hand.

   2. A supply of anything ready for use.

      Lay in a stock of wood for the winter season.

   3. Railroad rolling stock.
   4. (card games, in a card game) A stack of undealt cards made available to the players.
   5. Farm or ranch animals; livestock.
   6. The population of a given type of animal (especially fish) available to be captured from the wild for economic use.
2. (finance) The capital raised by a company through the issue of shares. The total of shares held by an individual shareholder.
   1. The price or value of the stock for a company on the stock market.

      When the bad news came out, the company's stock dropped precipitously.

   2. (figuratively) The measure of how highly a person or institution is valued.

      After that last screw-up of mine, my stock is pretty low around here.

   3. Any of several types of security that are similar to a stock, or marketed like one.
3. The raw material from which things are made; feedstock.
   1. (uncountable, countable) Broth made from meat (originally bones) or vegetables, used as a basis for stew or soup.
   2. The type of paper used in printing.

      The books were printed on a heavier stock this year.

   3. Undeveloped film; film stock.
   4. Plain soap before it is coloured and perfumed.
4. Stock theater, summer stock theater.
5. The trunk and woody main stems of a tree. The base from which something grows or branches.
   • Bible, Job xiv. 8,9

     Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground, yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.

   1. (horticulture) The plant upon which the scion is grafted.
      • (Can we date this quote?) Francis Bacon

        The scion overruleth the stock quite.

   2. lineage, family, ancestry.
      1. (linguistics) A larger grouping of language families: a superfamily or macrofamily.
6. Any of the several species of cruciferous flowers in the genus Matthiola.
7. A handle or stem to which the working part of an implement or weapon is attached.
   1. (firearm) The part of a rifle or shotgun that rests against the shooter's shoulder.
      • 2013, Tom Turpin, Modern Custom Guns: Walnut, Steel, and Uncommon Artistry, 2nd edition, Iola, Wis.: Gun Digest Books, →ISBN, page 47:

        The most underrated component in building a custom gun is the metalsmithing. Stock work immediately attracts attention. Fancy checkering patterns, meticulously executed, are sure to elicit oohs and ahhs.

   2. The handle of a whip, fishing rod, etc.
8. Part of a machine that supports items or holds them in place.
   1. The headstock of a lathe, drill, etc.
   2. The tailstock of a lathe.
9. A bar, stick or rod.
   1. A ski pole.
   2. (nautical) A bar going through an anchor, perpendicular to the flukes.
   3. (nautical) The axle attached to the rudder, which transfers the movement of the helm to the rudder.
   4. (geology) A pipe (vertical cylinder of ore)
10. A type of (now formal or official) neckwear.
    1. A necktie or cravat, particularly a wide necktie popular in the eighteenth century, often seen today as a part of formal wear for horse riding competitions.
       • 1915, W. Somerset Maugham, "Of Human Bondage", chapter 116:

         He wore a brown tweed suit and a white stock. His clothes hung loosely about him as though they had been made for a much larger man. He looked like a respectable farmer of the middle of the nineteenth century.

       • 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 417:

         His grey waistcoat sported pearl buttons, and he wore a stock which set off to admiration a lean and aquiline face which was almost as grey as the rest of him.

    2. A piece of black cloth worn under a clerical collar.
11. A bed for infants; a crib, cot, or cradle
12. (folklore) A piece of wood magically made to be just like a real baby and substituted for it by magical beings.
13. (obsolete) A cover for the legs; a stocking.
14. A block of wood; something fixed and solid; a pillar; a firm support; a post.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Milton

      All our fathers worshipped stocks and stones.

    • (Can we date this quote?) Fuller

      Item, for a stock of brass for the holy water, seven shillings; which, by the canon, must be of marble or metal, and in no case of brick.

15. (by extension, obsolete) A person who is as dull and lifeless as a stock or post; one who has little sense.
    • (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare

      Let's be no stoics, nor no stocks.

16. (Britain, historical) The longest part of a split tally stick formerly struck in the exchequer, which was delivered to the person who had lent the king money on account, as the evidence of indebtedness.
17. (shipbuilding, in the plural) The frame or timbers on which a ship rests during construction.
18. (Britain, in the plural) Red and grey bricks, used for the exterior of walls and the front of buildings.
19. (biology) In tectology, an aggregate or colony of individuals, such as as trees, chains of salpae, etc.
20. The beater of a fulling mill.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

Verb

stock (third-person singular simple present stocks, present participle stocking, simple past and past participle stocked)

1. To have on hand for sale.

   The store stocks all kinds of dried vegetables.

2. To provide with material requisites; to store; to fill; to supply.

   to stock a warehouse with goods

   to stock a farm, i.e. to supply it with cattle and tools

   to stock land, i.e. to occupy it with a permanent growth, especially of grass

3. To allow (cows) to retain milk for twenty-four hours or more prior to sale.
4. To put in the stocks as punishment.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

5. (nautical) To fit (an anchor) with a stock, or to fasten the stock firmly in place.
6. (card games, dated) To arrange cards in a certain manner for cheating purposes; to stack the deck.

Adjective

stock (not comparable)

1. Of a type normally available for purchase/in stock.

   stock items

   stock sizes

2. (racing, of a race car) Having the same configuration as cars sold to the non-racing public, or having been modified from such a car.
3. Straightforward, ordinary, just another, very basic.

   That band is quite stock

   He gave me a stock answer

See also

• DJIA
• foodstock

Noun

stock (plural stocks)

1. A thrust with a rapier; a stoccado.

Derived terms

• stockdividend n

Derived terms

• stocker
• stockage

Further reading

• “stock” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.

Declension

Related terms

• ekstock
• stocka
• stockeld
• Stockholm
• stockning
• timmerstock

See also

• balk
• bjälke
• flottning
• stam
• stuga
• timmer
• virke