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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Stalk \Stalk\ (st[add]k), noun [OE. stalke, fr. AS. st[ae]l, stel, a stalk. See {Stale} a handle, {Stall}.]
1. (Bot.) (a) The stem or main axis of a plant; as, a stalk of wheat, rye, or oats; the stalks of maize or hemp. (b) The petiole, pedicel, or peduncle, of a plant.
2. That which resembles the stalk of a plant, as the stem of a quill. --Grew.
3. (Arch.) An ornament in the Corinthian capital resembling the stalk of a plant, from which the volutes and helices spring.
4. One of the two upright pieces of a ladder. [Obs.]
To climb by the rungs and the stalks. --Chaucer.
5. (Zo["o]l.) (a) A stem or peduncle, as of certain barnacles and crinoids. (b) The narrow basal portion of the abdomen of a hymenopterous insect. (c) The peduncle of the eyes of decapod crustaceans.
6. (Founding) An iron bar with projections inserted in a core to strengthen it; a core arbor.
{Stalk borer} (Zo["o]l.), the larva of a noctuid moth ({Gortyna nitela}), which bores in the stalks of the raspberry, strawberry, tomato, asters, and many other garden plants, often doing much injury.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Stalk \Stalk\, verb (used without an object) [imp. & p. p. {Stalked} (st[add]kt); p. pr. & vb. n. {Stalking}.] [AS. st[ae]lcan, stealcian to go slowly; cf. stealc high, elevated, Dan. stalke to stalk; probably akin to 1st stalk.]
1. To walk slowly and cautiously; to walk in a stealthy, noiseless manner; -- sometimes used with a reflexive pronoun. --Shak.
Into the chamber he stalked him full still. --Chaucer.
[Bertran] stalks close behind her, like a witch's fiend, Pressing to be employed. --Dryden.
2. To walk behind something as a screen, for the purpose of approaching game; to proceed under cover.
The king . . . crept under the shoulder of his led horse; . . . ''I must stalk,'' said he. --Bacon.
One underneath his horse, to get a shoot doth stalk. --Drayton.
3. To walk with high and proud steps; -- usually implying the affectation of dignity, and indicating dislike. The word is used, however, especially by the poets, to express dignity of step.
With manly mien he stalked along the ground. --Dryden.
Then stalking through the deep, He fords the ocean. --Addison.
I forbear myself from entering the lists in which he has long stalked alone and unchallenged. --Merivale.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Stalk \Stalk\ (st[add]k), verb (used with an object)
1. To approach under cover of a screen, or by stealth, for the purpose of killing, as game.
As for shooting a man from behind a wall, it is cruelly like to stalking a deer. --Sir W. Scott.
2. To follow (a person) persistently, with or without attempts to evade detection; as, the paparazzi stalk celebrities to get candid photographs; obsessed fans may stalk their favorite movie stars. [PJC]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Stalk \Stalk\, noun
1. A high, proud, stately step or walk.
Thus twice before, . . . With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. --Shak.
The which with monstrous stalk behind him stepped. --Spenser.
2. The act or process of stalking.
When the stalk was over (the antelope took alarm and ran off before I was within rifle shot) I came back. --T. Roosevelt. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
stalk
noun
1: material consisting of seed coverings and small pieces of stem or leaves that have been separated from the seeds [syn: {chaff}, {husk}, {shuck}, {straw}, {stubble}]
2: a slender or elongated structure that supports a plant or fungus or a plant part or plant organ [syn: {stem}]
3: a hunt for game carried on by stalking or waiting in ambush [syn: {stalking}, {still hunt}]
4: the act of following prey stealthily [syn: {stalking}]
5: a stiff or threatening gait [syn: {angry walk}]
verb
1: walk stiffly
2: follow stealthily or recur constantly and spontaneously to; "her ex-boyfriend stalked her"; "the ghost of her mother haunted her" [syn: {haunt}]
3: go through (an area) in search of prey; "stalk the woods for deer"
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
248 Moby Thesaurus words for "stalk": Maypole, amble, anthrophore, axis, baluster, balustrade, banister, bar, barge, base, beat, bole, bowl along, bundle, campaign, cane, carpophore, caryatid, caudex, caulicle, caulis, chase, circuit, clump, colonnade, column, couch, course, creep, culm, dado, die, dog, domiciliary visit, drag, dragnet, drive, droop, excursion, expedition, exploration, falcon, flagstaff, flounce, flush, follow, follow a clue, follow the hounds, follow up, foot, footslog, footstalk, forage, fowl, frisk, funicule, funiculus, gait, gallop, go hunting, grand tour, gumshoe, gun, halt, haulm, haunt, hawk, hippety-hop, hitch, hobble, hop, hound, house-search, hunt, hunt down, hunting, jack, jacklight, jaunt, jog, jolt, journey, jump, junket, lay wait, leafstalk, lie in wait, limp, lock step, lumber, lunge, lurch, lurk, mince, mincing steps, newel-post, nightwalk, nose, nose out, outing, pace, package tour, paddle, peacock, pedestal, pedicel, peduncle, peg, peregrination, perquisition, petiole, petiolule, petiolus, piaffe, piaffer, pier, pilaster, pile, pilgrimage, piling, pillar, pleasure trip, plinth, plod, pole, posse, post, prance, probe, progress, prowl, prowl after, pursue, pussyfoot, queen-post, quest, rack, ransacking, reed, ride to hounds, rod, roll, round trip, rubberneck tour, rummage, run, run down, run to earth, safari, sally, sashay, saunter, scape, scuff, scuffle, scuttle, search, search party, search warrant, search-and-destroy operation, searching, seedstalk, shadow, shaft, shamble, shikar, shoot, shuffle, sidle, single-foot, skip, skulk, slink, slither, slog, slouch, slowness, smell out, sneak, sniff out, socle, spear, spike, spire, sport, staff, stagger, stalking, stamp, stanchion, stand, standard, start, steal, stem, step, stick, still hunt, still-hunt, stipe, stock, stomp, straddle, straggle, straw, stride, stroll, strolling gait, strut, stump, subbase, surbase, swagger, swank, swash, swashbuckle, swing, tail, tigella, tiptoe, tittup, toddle, tongue, totem pole, totter, tour, trace, trace down, track, track down, trail, traipse, tread, trek, trip, trot, trudge, trunk, turn, turning over, upright, velocity, voyage, waddle, walk, wamble, wiggle, wobble
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