stalk
Meanings
- The stem or main axis of a plant.
- The petiole, pedicel, or peduncle of a plant.
- Something resembling the stalk of a plant, such as the stem of a quill.
- An ornament in the Corinthian capital resembling the stalk of a plant, from which the volutes and helices spring.
- One of the two upright pieces of a ladder.
- A stem or peduncle, as in certain barnacles and crinoids.
- The narrow basal portion of the abdomen of a hymenopterous insect.
- The peduncle of the eyes of decapod crustaceans.
- An iron bar with projections inserted in a core to strengthen it; a core arbor.
- Informally, a construction which generalizes that of the notion of the ring of germs of functions near a point to the context of arbitrary sheaves. Formally, given a sheaf ℱ on a space X, and a point x in X, the direct limit of the sections of F on the open neighborhoods of x ordered by reverse inclusion. See Stalk (sheaf) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- The penis.
- To approach slowly and quietly in order not to be discovered when getting closer.
- To (try to) follow or contact someone constantly, often resulting in harassment.ᵂᵖ
- To walk slowly and cautiously; to walk in a stealthy, noiseless manner.
- To walk behind something, such as a screen, for the purpose of approaching game; to proceed under cover.
- Of a person's social media activity: to look through thoroughly or obsessively; to keep tabs on, generally avoiding contact.
- A particular episode of trying to follow or contact someone.
- The hunting of a wild animal by stealthy approach.
- To walk haughtily.
- A haughty style of walking.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English stalke, stelke, stalk, perhaps from Old English *stealc, *stielc, *stealuc, from Proto-West Germanic *staluk, *stalik, from Proto-Germanic *stalukaz, *stalikaz, diminutive of Proto-Germanic *stalô, *staluz (“support, stem, stalk”), from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to place, stand; be stiff; stud, post, trunk, stake, stem, stalk”). Cognates Cognate with Dutch staal (“sample”), steel (“stem”), German Stiel (“stalk”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål stilk (“stalk, stem”), Faroese stjølur (“bottom part of a sheaf”), Icelandic stilkur (“stalk, stem”), Norwegian Nynorsk stilk, stylk (“stalk, stem”), styl (“lower part of a straw”), Swedish stjälk (“stalk, stem”), Albanian shtalkë (“crossbeam, board used as a door hinge”), Welsh telm (“frond”), Ancient Greek στειλειή (steileiḗ, “beam”), Old Armenian ստեղն (stełn, “trunk, stalk”).