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stalk

Pronunciation: /stɔːk/

The English word “stalk” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. The stem or main axis of a plant.
  2. The petiole, pedicel, or peduncle of a plant.
  3. Something resembling the stalk of a plant, such as the stem of a quill.
  4. An ornament in the Corinthian capital resembling the stalk of a plant, from which the volutes and helices spring.
  5. One of the two upright pieces of a ladder.
  6. A stem or peduncle, as in certain barnacles and crinoids.
  7. The narrow basal portion of the abdomen of a hymenopterous insect.
  8. The peduncle of the eyes of decapod crustaceans.
  9. An iron bar with projections inserted in a core to strengthen it; a core arbor.
  10. 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
  11. The penis.
  12. A particular episode of trying to follow or contact someone.
  13. The hunting of a wild animal by stealthy approach.
  14. A haughty style of walking.

verb

  1. To approach slowly and quietly in order not to be discovered when getting closer.
  2. To (try to) follow or contact someone constantly, often resulting in harassment.ᵂᵖ
  3. To walk slowly and cautiously; to walk in a stealthy, noiseless manner.
  4. To walk behind something, such as a screen, for the purpose of approaching game; to proceed under cover.
  5. Of a person's social media activity: to look through thoroughly or obsessively; to keep tabs on, generally avoiding contact.
  6. To walk haughtily.

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”),…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.