Definition of stock

• n. - The stem, or main body, of a tree or plant; the fixed, strong, firm part; the trunk.
• n. - The stem or branch in which a graft is inserted.
• n. - A block of wood; something fixed and solid; a pillar; a firm support; a post.
• n. - Hence, a person who is as dull and lifeless as a stock or post; one who has little sense.
• n. - The principal supporting part; the part in which others are inserted, or to which they are attached.
• n. - The wood to which the barrel, lock, etc., of a musket or like firearm are secured; also, a long, rectangular piece of wood, which is an important part of several forms of gun carriage.
• n. - The handle or contrivance by which bits are held in boring; a bitstock; a brace.
• n. - The block of wood or metal frame which constitutes the body of a plane, and in which the plane iron is fitted; a plane stock.
• n. - The wooden or iron crosspiece to which the shank of an anchor is attached. See Illust. of Anchor.
• n. - The support of the block in which an anvil is fixed, or of the anvil itself.
• n. - A handle or wrench forming a holder for the dies for cutting screws; a diestock.
• n. - The part of a tally formerly struck in the exchequer, which was delivered to the person who had lent the king money on account, as the evidence of indebtedness. See Counterfoil.
• n. - The original progenitor; also, the race or line of a family; the progenitor of a family and his direct descendants; lineage; family.
• n. - Money or capital which an individual or a firm employs in business; fund; in the United States, the capital of a bank or other company, in the form of transferable shares, each of a certain amount; money funded in government securities, called also the public funds; in the plural, property consisting of shares in joint-stock companies, or in the obligations of a government for its funded debt; -- so in the United States, but in England the latter only are called stocks, and the former shares.
• n. - Same as Stock account, below.
• n. - Supply provided; store; accumulation; especially, a merchant's or manufacturer's store of goods; as, to lay in a stock of provisions.
• n. - Domestic animals or beasts collectively, used or raised on a farm; as, a stock of cattle or of sheep, etc.; -- called also live stock.
• n. - That portion of a pack of cards not distributed to the players at the beginning of certain games, as gleek, etc., but which might be drawn from afterward as occasion required; a bank.
• n. - A thrust with a rapier; a stoccado.
• n. - A covering for the leg, or leg and foot; as, upper stocks (breeches); nether stocks (stockings).
• n. - A kind of stiff, wide band or cravat for the neck; as, a silk stock.
• n. - A frame of timber, with holes in which the feet, or the feet and hands, of criminals were formerly confined by way of punishment.
• n. - The frame or timbers on which a ship rests while building.
• n. - Red and gray bricks, used for the exterior of walls and the front of buildings.
• n. - Any cruciferous plant of the genus Matthiola; as, common stock (Matthiola incana) (see Gilly-flower); ten-weeks stock (M. annua).
• n. - An irregular metalliferous mass filling a large cavity in a rock formation, as a stock of lead ore deposited in limestone.
• n. - A race or variety in a species.
• n. - In tectology, an aggregate or colony of persons (see Person), as trees, chains of salpae, etc.
• n. - The beater of a fulling mill.
• n. - A liquid or jelly containing the juices and soluble parts of meat, and certain vegetables, etc., extracted by cooking; -- used in making soup, gravy, etc.
• v. t. - To lay up; to put aside for future use; to store, as merchandise, and the like.
• v. t. - To provide with material requisites; to store; to fill; to supply; as, to stock a warehouse, that is, to fill it with goods; to stock a farm, that is, to supply it with cattle and tools; to stock land, that is, to occupy it with a permanent growth, especially of grass.
• v. t. - To suffer to retain milk for twenty-four hours or more previous to sale, as cows.
• v. t. - To put in the stocks.
• a. - Used or employed for constant service or application, as if constituting a portion of a stock or supply; standard; permanent; standing; as, a stock actor; a stock play; a stock sermon.