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stock (stŏk)
Share:
n.
1. A supply accumulated for future use; a store.
2. The total merchandise kept on hand by a merchant, commercial establishment, warehouse, or manufacturer.
3.
a. All the animals kept or raised on a farm; livestock.
b. All the aquatic animals kept or raised in an aquaculture operation.
c. A population of wild animals, especially of a species that is also farmed: interactions between hatchery fish and wild stocks.
4.
a. A kind of financial security granting rights of ownership in a corporation, such as a claim to a portion of the assets and earnings of the corporation and the right to vote for the board of directors. Stock is issued and traded in units called shares.
b. The stock issued by a particular company: a mutual fund that invests in technology stocks.
c. Chiefly British The money invested in a corporation, including debt and equity.
d. Chiefly British A bond, especially a government bond.
5. The trunk or main stem of a tree or another plant.
6.
a. A plant or stem onto which a graft is made.
b. A plant or tree from which cuttings and slips are taken.
7.
a. The original progenitor of a family line.
b. The descendants of a common ancestor; a family line, especially of a specified character: comes from farming stock.
c. Ancestry or lineage; antecedents.
d. The type from which a group of animals or plants has descended.
e. A race, family, or other related group of animals or plants.
f. An ethnic group or other major division of the human race.
g. A group of related languages.
h. A group of related families of languages.
8.
a. The raw material out of which something is made.
b. Paper used for printing.
9. The broth in which meat, fish, bones, or vegetables are simmered for a relatively long period, used as a base in preparing soup, gravy, or sauces.
10.
a. A main upright part, especially a supporting structure or block.
b. stocks Nautical The timber frame that supports a ship during construction.
c. often stocks A frame in which a horse or other animal is held for shoeing or for veterinary treatment.
11. stocks A device consisting of a heavy timber frame with holes for confining the ankles and sometimes the wrists, formerly used for punishment.
12. Nautical A crosspiece at the end of the shank of an anchor.
13. The wooden block from which a bell is suspended.
14.
a. The rear wooden, metal, or plastic handle or support of a rifle, pistol, or automatic weapon, to which the barrel and mechanism are attached.
b. The long supporting structure and mooring beam of field-gun carriages that trails along the ground to provide stability and support.
15. A handle, such as that of a whip, a fishing rod, or various carpentry tools.
16. The frame of a plow, to which the share, handles, coulter, and other parts are fastened.
17.
a. A theatrical stock company.
b. The repertoire of such a company.
c. A theater or theatrical activity, especially outside of a main theatrical center: a small role in summer stock.
18. Botany Any of several Eurasian and Mediterranean plants of the genus Matthiola in the mustard family, especially M. incana, widely cultivated for its clusters of showy, fragrant, variously colored flowers.
19. Games The portion of a pack of cards or of a group of dominoes that is not dealt out but is drawn from during a game.
20. Geology A body of intrusive igneous rock of which less than 100 square kilometers (40 square miles) is exposed.
21. Zoology A compound organism, such as a colony of zooids.
22.
a. Personal reputation or status: a teacher whose stock with the students is rising.
b. Confidence or credence: I put no stock in that statement.
23.
a. A long white neckcloth worn as part of a formal riding habit.
b. A broad scarf worn around the neck, especially by certain clerics.
24. Rolling stock.
v. stocked, stock·ing, stocks
v.tr.
1. To provide or furnish with a stock of something, especially:
a. To supply (a shop) with merchandise.
b. To supply (a farm) with livestock.
c. To fill (a stream, for example) with fish.
2. To keep for future sale or use.
3. To provide (a rifle, for example) with a stock.
4. Obsolete To put (someone) in the stocks as a punishment.
v.intr.
1. To gather and lay in a supply of something: stock up on canned goods.
2. To put forth or sprout new shoots. Used of a plant.
adj.
1. Kept regularly in stock: a stock item.
2. Repeated regularly without any thought or originality; routine: a stock answer.
3. Employed in dealing with or caring for stock or merchandise: a stock clerk.
4.
a. Of or relating to the raising of livestock: stock farming.
b. Used for breeding: a stock mare.
5.
a. Of or relating to a stock company or its repertoire.
b. Of or being a conventional character or situation that recurs in many literary or cinematic works.
Idioms:
in stock
Available for sale or use; on hand.
out of stock
Not available for sale or use.

[Middle English stok, from Old English stocc, tree trunk. N., sense 18, short for stock-gillyflower (from their woody stems ).]

stockage n.
stocker n.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.