Stock sb.1. World English Historical Dictionary

Stock sb.1. World English Historical Dictionary Dictionary Biographies Literary Criticism Welcome Terms of Service ⧏ Previous Next ⧐ Contents Slice Contents Key Bibliographic Record Murray’s New English Dictionary. 1919, rev. 2024. Stock sb.1 Forms: 1 stocc, 1–4, 6 stoc, 2–7 stoke, 3–7 stocke, stok(ke, (5 ? stolke), 5–6 stokk, 7 Sc. stouk, 4– stock. Pl. 3 stocken, 4 stockus, stokez, stokken, stokkus, stoukz, 4–5 stokkez, 4–6 stockys, stokkes, 4–7 stockis, stok(k)is, 5–6 stokkys, 6 stokys, 7 stox. [OE. stoc(c masc., corresp. to OFris. stok tree-trunk, stump, OS. stok (Gallée) stick, pole (MLG. stok stump), (M)Du. stok, OHG., MHG. stoc stick, tree-trunk (mod.G. stock stick), ON. stokk-r tree-trunk, block, log (MSw. stokk-er, Sw. stock, Da. stok stick):—OTeut. *stukko-z. Cf. Du. stuk, G. stück (:—OTeut. *stukkjo-m neut., piece) and OFris. stok stiff. The connections outside Teut. are doubtful: see Kluge, Franck, and Falk & Torp.

1   The Teut. word is the source of OF., Pr. estoc trunk, stump (mod.F. étoc, altered to étau vice), It. stocco rapier (whence OF. estoc).]

2   I.  Trunk or stem.

3   1.  A tree-trunk deprived of its branches; the lower part of a tree-trunk left standing, a stump. Obs. or arch.

4   In this sense (also in b and c) often associated with stone.

5 862.  Charter, in O. E. Texts, 438. Ðanne fram langan leaʓe to ðam won stocce.

6 971.  Blickling Hom., 189. He ʓefeol on þone stocc be þære stænenan stræte þe is haten Sacra uia.

7 11[?].  Fragm. Ælfric’s Gram. (1838), 3. Ligna, driʓe wude, truncus, stoc, stirps.

8 c. 1250.  Owl & Night., 25. Þo stod on old stok þar byside.

9 c. 1325.  Sir Orpheo, 332. Over stok, and over stone.

10 c. 1374.  Chaucer, Boeth., V. met. i. (1868), 152. Þe stokkes araced wiþ þe flood [L. vulsi flumine trunci].

11 c. 1480.  Henryson, Orpheus, 179. For seke hir suth I sall, and nouthir stynt nor stand for stok no stone.

12 1509.  Barclay, Ship of Fools, 269 b. Hange vp the scapler … Vpon a tre clene dede, or rottyn stocke.

13 1590.  Spenser, F. Q., I. ix. 34. All about old stockes and stubs of trees, Whereon nor fruit nor leafe was euer seene.

14 1613.  [Standish], New Direct. Planting, 6. Seldome good Timber groweth of old stockes.

15 1704.  N. Blundell, Diary (1895), 22. I ploughed with a Culter … to find Stocks.

16 1706.  De Foe, Jure Div., XI. 9, note. If the Parliament of England sets the Crown upon that Stock, (pointing to a Stump that stood by) I’ll [etc.].

17 1727.  Swift, Poems Market-Hill, Thorne, 33. The Magpye, lighting on the Stock, Stood chatt’ring with incessant Din.

18 1810.  Scott, Lady of L., I. vii. O’er stock and rock their race they take.

19 1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev., II. IV. vii. Over cliffs, over stock and stone.

20 1868.  Cussans, Heraldry (1893), 104. The Stump of a Tree is sometimes called a Stock.

21 1877.  Stevenson, Will o’ the Mill, i. Only he, it seemed, remained behind, like a stock upon the wayside.

22   † b.  A log, block of wood; occas. wood as a material. Obs.

23 c. 1000.  Ælfric, Saints’ Lives, xxxi. 856. Þær laʓon stoccas.

24 c. 1205.  Lay., 626. Mid stocken & mid stanen stal fiht heo makeden.

25 c. 1386.  Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 2076. Ne how the fyr was couched first with stree And thanne with drye stokkes clouen a thre.

26 1422.  Yonge, trans. Secreta Secret., 239. Suche a stomake is like a grete fyre that hath Powere to braunte grete shydis and stokkis.

27 c. 1450.  St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 780. Made of stane and noȝt of stok.

28 c. 1485.  Digby Myst., I. 154. I am right wele a-paid, if I do not wele, ley my hed vpon a stokke.

29 1501.  Douglas, Pal. Hon., II. xxvii. Doun on ane stock I set me suddanelie.

30 1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 251. A stocke of wood hollowed [for a coffin].

31 1792.  G. Cartwright, Jrnl. Labrador, I. Gloss. p. xv. Stock of Timber, a piece of timber, intended to be sawed.

32 1806.  Pike, Sources Mississ. (1810), 61. My men sawed stocks for the sleds.

33   c.  As the type of what is lifeless, motionless, or void of sensation. Hence, a senseless or stupid person.

34 1303.  R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 940. Dowun he smote hys mattok, And fyl hym self ded as a stok.

35 c. 1330.  Arth. & Merl., 3855. Arthour on hors sat stef so stok.

36 c. 1407.  Lydg., Reson & Sens., 6411. As deffe as stok or ston.

37 c. 1440.  Alphabet of Tales, 356. Evur sho talkid vnto hym wurdis to provoce hym to luste of his bodie, and yit be no wyse myght sho induce hym þerto,… he was a stokk, sho sayd, & no man.

38 1569.  Underdowne, Heliodorus, IV. 59. Yee vnhappy people, howe longe will ye sitte still, dombe like stockes?

39 1594.  Spenser, Amoretti, xliii. That nether I may speake nor thinke at all, But like a stupid stock in silence die!

40 1640.  Sir E. Dering, Carmelite (1641), B ij. I am not so credulous to thinke every Stock a Stoicke.

41 1644.  Milton, Educ., 3. I doubt not but ye shall have more adoe to drive our dullest and laziest youth, our stocks and stubbs from the infinite desire of such a happy nurture then we have now [etc.].

42 1714.  Lady M. W. Montagu, Lett. to Mrs. Hewet, Nov. (1887), I. 35. I am glad she is not such a stock as I took her to be.

43 1719.  De Foe, Crusoe, II. (Globe), 344. The Fellow stood mute as a Stock a good while.

44 1775.  Sheridan, Rivals, III. i. What a phlegmatic sot it is! Why, sirrah, you’re an anchorite!—a vile, insensible stock.

45 1809.  Malkin, Gil Blas, IX. vi. (Rtldg.), 320. I … left him in the street like a stock, staring at my termagant loquacity.

46 1861.  Dickens, Gt. Expect., xxxviii. You stock and stone!… You cold, cold heart!

47 1888.  Barrie, When a Man’s Single, i. Joey Fargus was the stock’s name.

48 1896.  K. Snowden, Web of Weaver, xviii. 207. ‘Ye are not fain to see me, then?’ I stood like a stock, letting her think so.

49   d.  Applied contemptuously to an idol or a sacred image. Chiefly in the phrase stocks and stones = ‘gods of wood and stone.’

50 c. 1000.  Ælfric, Deut. xxviii. 36. Ʒe þeouiað fremdum godum, stoccum and stanum.

51 a. 1225.  St. Marher., 1. Heðene mawmez of stockes, ant of stanes, werkes iwrahte.

52 c. 1374.  Chaucer, Troylus, III. 589. He swor hir, yis, by stokkes and by stones, And by the goddes that in hevene dwelle.

53 1390.  Gower, Conf., II. 178. How myhre a mannes resoun sein That such a Stock mai helpe or grieve?

54 c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., II. ix. 198. Thei worschipiden ymagis of stoonys or of stockis.

55 1529.  More, Dyaloge, I. Wks. 140/1. Of al our Ladies saith one, I loue best our Lady of Walsingam. And I saith ye other our Lady of Ippiswitch. In whiche woordes what meneth she but her … affeccion to the stocke yt standeth in the chapel of Walsingam or Ippiswiche.

56 a. 1591.  H. Smith, Sinful Mans Search (1592), B 6. That ye be not seduced to offer your petitions to strange gods, as Saints, stockes or stones.

57 1611.  Bible, Jer. iii. 9. Shee [Israel] defiled the land, and committed adultery wiht stones and with stockes. Ibid., Wisd. xiv. 21. For men seruing either calamitie or tyrannie, did ascribe vnto stones, and stockes, the incommunicable Name.

58 1640.  J. Taylor (Water P.), Differing Worships, 4. Imploring aid … From ragges and reliques, stones, and stocks of wood.

59 1655.  Milton, Sonn., xiii. 4. When all our Fathers worship’t Stocks and Stones.

60 1825.  Scott, Talism., xxviii. Those whom we regard as idolaters, and worshippers of stocks and stones.

61 1874.  Sayce, Compar. Philol., viii. 332. There was a worship of nature instead of stocks and stones.

62   † e.  (To lose) stock and block: everything, one’s whole possessions. Obs.

63 1675.  Brooks, Golden Key, Wks. 1867, V. 244. Adam, like the prodigal son,… quickly lost stock and block, as some speak.

64 1725.  N. Bailey, Fam. Colloq. Erasm. (1733), 236. Before I came Home, I lost all, Stock and Block.

65 1775.  J. Murray, Lett. (1901), 194. Jack Clark … offered to send Providence wagons to move us stock and block to a place of safety.

66 1809.  Malkin, Gil Blas, XII. vi. (Rtldg.), 431. I had taken it for granted that … the verb-grinders … to whom I had given the plant of this Genoese bastard would lose stock and block.

67   † f.  Stock and stovel (Law): see quot. 1753. Obs.

68 15[?].  Charter, in Blount’s Law Dict. (1691), s.v. Stoc, Præterea si homines de Stanhal dicti Abbatis inventi fuerint in bosco prædicti W. cum forisfacto ad Stoc & ad Stovel,… malefactor pro delicto, qui taliter inventus est, reddet tres solidos.

69 1753.  Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., Stoc and Stovel, in our old writers, a forfeiture where any one is taken carrying stipites and pabulum out of the woods.

70   2.  The trunk or stem of a (living) tree, as distinguished from the root and branches.

71   † (To sell wood) upon the stock: standing.

72 a. 1340.  Hampole, Pr. Consc., I. 676. What es man in shap bot a tre Turned up þat es doun,… Þe stok nest þe rot growand Es þe heved with nek folowand.

73 1382.  Wyclif, Job xiv. 9. His stoc at the smel of water shal burioune.

74 c. 1430.  Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, III. xxi. (1869), 146. Sumtime the wodieres solden here wode up on the stok.

75 c. 1449.  Pecock, Repr., I. vi. 28. Tho bowis grewen out of stockis or tronchons, and the tronchons or schaftis grewen out of the roote.

76 a. 1500.  in Arnolde’s Chron., 168. Doo donge medlide with strawe aboute the stoke toward the roete of a good thiknes.

77 a. 1500[?].  Bollarde, in Turner, Dom. Archit. (1851), I. 144. Take many rype walenottes, and water hem a while,… and ther shalbe grawe therof a grett stoke, that we calle masere.

78 1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 43. Of the whiche tree, fayth, hope, & charite, be compared to the stocke, to the barke, & to the sap.

79 1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, II. 84/2. The Stock [of a tree is] next to the root.

80 1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 264. Strong Stocks of Vines it will in time produce.

81 1705.  trans. Bosman’s Guinea, 291. The Stock of these Trees, if they deserve that name, grow to once and a half or twice Man’s height.

82 1846.  Tennyson, Golden Year, 62. Like an oaken stock in winter woods.

83 1857.  Henfrey, Elem. Bot., § 57. The Stock or caudex is an undivided woody trunk.

84   fig.  1340.  Ayenb., 19. Þe oþer boȝ þet comþ out of þe stocke of prede zuo is onworþnesse.

85 1447.  Bokenham, Seyntys, Anna, 110. Of this floure … This gracyous Anne was stoke & rote.

86 1513.  Bradshaw, St. Werburge, I. 3163. The tryed stock of truth and the grounde of grace Is pyteously decayed.

87 1531.  Tindale, Expos. 1 John (1537), 54. As ther is no synne in Christ ye stock, so can ther be none in the quycke membres that lyue & grow in him.

88 a. 1536.  Songs, Carols, etc. (E.E.T.S.), 6. The blessid stoke þat yt on grew, Ytt was Mary, that bare Jhesu.

89 1647.  Cowley, Mistress, Tree, iii. What a few words from thy rich stock did take The Leaves and Beauties all?

90 1812.  Cary, Dante, Parad., IV. 126. Thence doth doubt Spring, like a shoot, around the stock of truth.

91 1884.  trans. Lotze’s Metaphysic, I. iv. 89. The impossibility … of attaining the manifold of change by a merely outward tie to the unchangeable stock of the Thing.

92   b.  The hardened stalk or stem of a plant. (Jam.) Chiefly Sc.

93 1629.  Orkney Witch Trial, in N. B. Advertiser, Oct., 1894. [He] baid his wyff geve yow thrie or four stokis of kaill.

94 1783.  Burns, Death Poor Mailie, 38. To slink thro’ slaps, an’ reave an’ steal, At stacks o’ pease, or stocks o’ kail.

95 1913.  J. G. Frazer, Golden Bough (ed. 3), Balder, II. xi. 193. One … gave him several severe blows with the stock of a plant.

96   c.  Bot. = RHIZOME.

97 1831.  Macgillivray, trans. A. Richard’s Elem. Bot., ii. 47. The Stock or Rhizoma. This name has been given to the subterranean and horizontal stems of perennial plants, entirely or in part concealed under ground.

98 1863.  Oliver, Bot. (1873), 5. A portion of the stem, which is thickened and more or less buried underground,… is called the stock.

99   3.  Figurative uses developed from sense 2.

100   a.  The source of a line of descent; the progenitor of a family or race. In Law, the first purchaser of an estate of inheritance.

101 c. 1393.  Chaucer, Gentilesse, 1. The firste stok, fader of gentilesse.

102 a. 1425.  Cursor M., 9240 (Trin.). Þus was þe ton þe toþeres stok.

103 c. 1440.  Jacob’s Well, 49. In ony of þise thre lynes afore-seyd, go to þe stok, þat is fadyr or modyr, & noumbre noȝt hem, but þe first persone, þat comyth of þat stok is þe first degre.

104 1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 210. Go to y3 stocke of our progeny, & consyder it well.

105 1583.  Melbancke, Philotimus, D iij. If a man should desire an herauld to sift out her pettigree,… her stock would be found to be the maine sea, wereof she is nothing but the ouerture and ofscombe.

106 1594.  T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 15. Hee that was the stocke of all mankinde.

107 1620.  T. Granger, Div. Logike, 292. The common stocke in a Kindred, or Tribe, is the Father, and Mother from whence the whole progeny, or issue is deriued.

108 1667.  Milton, P. L., XII. 7. Thus thou hast seen one World begin and end; And Man as from a second stock proceed.

109 1765.  Blackstone, Comm., I. iii. 210. The title to the crown is … not quite so absolutely hereditary as formerly; and the common stock or ancestor, from whom the descent must be derived, is also different. Formerly the common stock was king Egbert; then William the conqueror.

110 1871.  Freeman, Norm. Conq., xviii. (1876), IV. 249. But one of Swegen’s many sons might well become the stock of a new dynasty.

111 1886.  F. W. Maitland, in Law Q. Rev., Oct., 485. To constitute a new stock of descent a very real possession was necessary.

112   † b.  The original from which something is derived. Obs.

113 a. 1616.  Beaum. & Fl., Bonduca, V. iii. Brave soldier yeeld; thou stock of Arms and Honor, thou filler of the world with fame and glory.

114 1650.  Fuller, Pisgah, III. vii. 391. In some resemblance of the seven Planets, amongst which the Sun, the stock of light, stands in the midst.

115 1756.  Burke, Subl. & B., I. v. (1759), 57. The delight which arises from the modifications of pain confesses the stock from whence it sprung.

116   c.  A line of descent; the descendants of a common ancestor, a family, kindred.

117 1382.  Wyclif, 1 Sam. xvii. 55. Abner, of what stok descendide [Vulg. de qua stirpe descendit] this ȝong man?

118 c. 1386.  Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 693. Of his lynage am I, and his of spryng, By verray ligne, as of the stok roial.

119 1430–1.  Rolls of Parlt., IV. 378/1. All the braunches of the Stok Riall.

120 1477.  Paston Lett., III. 190. I … ame better content nowe, that he sholde have hyr, than any other,… consyderyd hyr persone, hyr yowthe, and the stok that she is comyn offe.

121 1547.  Bk. Marchauntes, e iiij b. A yong child comen of a good stocke and riche kinred.

122 c. 1586.  C’tess Pembroke, Ps. LXXII. ix. Eternall Lord, whom Jacobs stock adore.

123 1662.  Stillingfl., Orig. Sacræ, III. iv. § 1. They all were originally of the same stock.

124 1671.  Milton, Samson, 1079. Men call me Harapha, of stock renown’d.

125 1693.  G. Stepny, in Dryden’s Juvenal, VIII. (1697), 214. From a mean Stock the Pious Decii came.

126 a. 1704.  T. Brown, On Beauties, Wks. 1730, I. 44. Unite two stocks to form the witty she, Dorinda’s sense, and Flavia’s repartee.

127 1827.  Hallam, Const. Hist., xvii. (1876), III. 341. The national prejudices ran in favour of their ancient stock of kings.

128 1840.  Thackeray, Shabby-genteel Story, i. The Crabbs were of a very old English stock.

129 1857.  G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, xviii. 168. That girl comes of the wrong stock to give up anything she has fancied without a struggle.

130 1870.  Bryant, Iliad, II. I. 67. A warrior of the stock of Hercules was leader.

131 1879.  Howells, Lady of Aroostook, iii. An ancestral consumption, his sole heritage from the good New England stock of which he came.

132 1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 296. I usually found the stock on both sides to be a highly ‘nervous’ one.

133   generalized use.  1873.  Dixon, Two Queens, I. i. I. 5. Gonzales was of Hebrew stock.

134 1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 137. A lady of calm, well-balanced nervous system, well nourished and of healthy stock.

135 1900.  J. Hutchinson, in Archives Surg., XI. 210. Most local inflammations of the skin which are definitely blue, occur to those who are of gouty stock.

136   d.  A race, ethnical kindred; also, a race or family (of animals or plants); a related group, ‘family’ (of languages). Also (cf. a, b), an ancestral type from which various races, species, etc., have diverged.

137 1549.  Coverdale, Erasm. Par. Rom. iv. 1. Of whom as father & beginner of theyr stocke, the whole nacion of Jewes are wont specially to crake & glory.

138 1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit. (1637), 121. One of Nemethus his progenie, that is, of the Scythian stocke.

139 1613.  Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 152. They haue Priests of the posteritie of Aaron which resteth in peace, who marrie not with any other but the men or women of their owne stocke.

140 1738.  Wesley, Psalms, LXXX. x. Thou didst the Heathen Stock expel.

141 1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist., III. 61. Were there but one of these wild animals, the enquiry would soon be ended; and we might readily allow it for the parent stock.

142 1813.  Prichard, Phys. Hist. Man, vii. § 6. 392. The interior of Malaya, where they have left remnants of their stock in the black savages of the mountains.

143 1815.  Elphinstone, Acc. Caubul (1842), I. 405. The languages of the inhabitants were probably all derived from the ancient Persian stock.

144 1822.  Malte-Brun’s Univ. Geog., I. 570–1. The stock or family of the languages of Eastern Asia, or of the Monosyllabic languages, differs entirely from that of the Indo-Germanic languages.

145 1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. ii. 272. A population, sprung from the English stock, and animated by English feelings.

146 1859.  Darwin, Orig. Spec., I. (1872), 13. In the case of strongly marked races of some other domesticated species, there is presumptive or even strong evidence, that all are descended from a single wild stock.

147 1862.  Huxley, Lect. Working Men, 140. We know that all varieties of pigeons of every kind have arisen by a process of selective breeding from a common stock, the Rock Pigeon.

148 1868.  Gladstone, Juv. Mundi, ii. (1870), 41. Even this is considerably older than the date of any family which we can connect with … the Hellenic stock.

149 1911.  W. W. Fowler, Relig. Exper. Roman People, iv. 69. When a stock or tribe (populus) after migration took possession of a district, it was beyond doubt divided into clans.

150   † e.  Pedigree, genealogy; a genealogical tree. Obs.

151 c. 1550.  Cheke, Matt. i. 1. (1843), 27. This is ye book of Jesu Christes stock.

152 1552.  Latimer, Serm., Christmas Day (1584), 273. Shee boasted not of her stocke to be of the linage of noble king Dauid.

153 1615.  Chapman, Odyss., XI. 294. When, seuerally All told their stockes [Gr. ἐκάστη ὅν γόνον ἐξαγόρευεν].

154 1657.  Wood, Life (O.H.S.), I. 225. In the north window opposit to the former is the stock of Jesse.

155   f.  Kind, sort. Now dial. (see quot. 1787).

156 c. 1450.  Lydg. & Burgh, Secrees, 2001. Good breed of whete, fflesh that wel savours, Of tarrage and stok, good and holsom wyne.

157 1614.  Jackson, Creed, III. 101. It would argue either Antichristian blindness not to see, or impudency of no meaner stocke, not to acknowledge that [etc.].

158 1787.  W. H. Marshall, E. Norfolk (1795), II. 389. Stock. Species of a crop.

159 Mod.  (Norfolk) Where did you get that stock o’ wheat from? Oh, I ha’ had that stock for years.

160   g.  Feudalism. Native (or villein) of stock, a mod. rendering of med.L. nativus de stipite, a serf by inheritance.

161 1828.  trans. Assession Roll (Duchy of Cornwall) 11 Edw. III., in Manning & Ryland, Rep. Cases K. B. (1830), III. 162. Robert Ceron, a villein of stock, holds the Lord Duke, in villenage, in Tyngaran, 1 messuage, 5 acres of land English. Ibid., 193. John, son of Ralph (Ranulf) of Tremaba, a villein of stock [foot-note Nativus de stipite], who at the last assession was admitted to one messuage … is now granted … To hold in form of stock [foot-note in formâ stipitis].

162   h.  Used for: Inherited constitution, ‘breed.’ rare.

163 1866.  Alger, Solit. Nat. & Man, IV. 243. His toughness of stock and copiousness of force enabled him to weather the storms of nearly a century.

164   4.  A stem in which a graft is inserted.

165 c. 1400.  Pylgr. Sowle, IV. ii. (Caxton, 1483), 58. When that this graffe had taken kynde and moysture of this stock on whiche hit was ymped.

166 a. 1500.  in Arnolde’s Chron. (1811), 164. Take a graf of an apyll tree and graf it in a stoke of elme or aller and it shal bere redde aplys.

167 1577.  Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., II. 73 b. When you haue thus set in your graffe in the stocke.

168 1664.  Evelyn, Kal. Hort., Jan. (1679), 8. Gather Cyons for Graffs before the buds sprout; and about the latter end, Graff them in the Stock, Pears, Cherries and Plums.

169 1725.  Bradley’s Family Dict., s.v. Grafting, The Stock for Slit-Grafting should be an Inch at least.

170 1858.  Carpenter, Veg. Phys., § 311. He chooses a stock, or stem deprived of its own buds, and cuts off its top in a sloping direction, so as expose a large surface of wood and bark.

171 1903.  W. H. Hutton, Infl. Christianity, v. 225. He [S. Godric] … grafted apples upon the wild stocks.

172   fig.  c. 1480.  Henryson, Poems (S.T.S.), III. 140. Fals titlaris now growis vp full rank, nocht ympit in the stok of cheretie.

173 1642.  Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., IV. iii. 250. He was contented to be the stock whereon Wolsey should be graffed.

174 1754.  Sherlock, Discourses, I. vi. 196–7. When once they had grafted the Slips of Superstition upon the Stock of Nature.

175 1796.  Burke, Regic. Peace, i. 101. The wise Legislators … who aimed at … grafting the virtues on the stock of the natural affections.

176   † 5.  The ‘trunk’ of a human body. Obs.

177   Quot. 1590 is prob. a conscious transferred use of sense 1.

178 1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), III. 233. Þe stok of a man [L. truncus homo] fouȝt wiþ his teeþ as it were a wood beest. Ibid. (1398), Barth. De P. R., V. l. (1495), 168. The stocke of the body begynnyth at the necke and stretchyth to the buttockes.

179 c. 1440.  Jacob’s Well, 32. Þanne he bad, þat þe stok of his [body] schulde be leyde in a carte.

180 c. 1550.  Raynalde, Byrth Mankynde, I. (1565), 43 b. In this first figure is set forth the tronke or stocke of a womans body.

181 1590.  Spenser, F. Q., I. viii. 10. He smote off his left arme…; Large streames of bloud out of the truncked stock Forth gushed.

182   † 6.  A post, stake. Obs.

183 c. 1000.  Ælfric, Saints’ Lives, xxvi. 26. Ða sæde se preost him Ic hæbbe of þam stocce þe his heafod on stod.

184 c. 1275.  Lay., 16706. Samuel nam Agag þare king … and lette hime faste to one stocke [c. 1205 stake] bynde.

185 1294.  Exch. Acc., 5/2. Pro wyndase et wyndase stockez xv s. vi d.

186 c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, xix. (Cristofore), 568. Þane þe fellone tyrand king … behynd his bak his handis bath til a gert stok gert bynd [hym] rath.

187 1382.  Wyclif, Josh. x. 26. And Josue smoot, and slewȝ hem, and hongide vpon fyue stokkis [Vulg. super quinque stipites].

188 1409–10.  in Hudson & Tingey, Rec. Norwich (1910), II. 56. [To William Morton, carpenter, for a] stok.

189 1548.  Latimer, Ploughers (Arb.), 23. He shall lye sycke at theyr doore betwene stocke and stocke.

190 1599.  Peele, Sir Clyomon, xvi. 54. I’ll beat thee like a stock.

191 1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. 311/2. Whipping Post (or Whipping Stock) … To this post is [sic] Offenders and Petty Rogues and Vagabonds made fast while they are Whipt.

192   7.  The main upright part of anything; the vertical beam, stem (of a cross).

193 1382.  Wyclif, Num. viii. 4. The myddil stok [of the candlestick: Vulg. medius stipes].

194 c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), ii. 5. Þe stock [of the Cross] þat stude in þe erthe … was of cedre.

195 1463.  in Fabric Rolls York Minster (Surtees), 134. Thomæ Spence de Pontesfracto pro j stoke pro le tryndiles, 20 d.

196 1859.  R. S. Hawker, in Baring-Gould, Vicar of Morwenstow, vii. (1876), 198. It was … a pentacle of stars, whereof two shone for the transome and three for the stock.

197   8.  pl. An obsolete instrument of punishment, consisting of two planks set edgewise one over the other (usually framed between posts), the upper plank being capable of sliding up and down. The person to be punished was placed in a sitting posture with his ankles confined between the two planks, the edges of which were furnished with holes to receive them. Sometimes there was added similar contrivances for securing the wrists.

198   The synonymous med.L. cippi, F. ceps, suggest that this use of stock is an application of sense 6, the reference being to the two side-posts of the apparatus.

199 c. 1325.  Gloss. W. de Bibbesw., in Wright, Voc., 163. E pur ço ke seygnur fet coingner Soun neif en ceps [glossed stockes] pur chastier.

200 13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., B. 46. On payne of enprysonment & puttyng in stokkez.

201 1362.  Langl., P. Pl., A. IV. 95. Bote Reson haue reuþe of him he resteþ in þe stokkes Also longe as I lyue.

202 c. 1380.  Sir Ferumb., 1186. Bynd hem herde wyþ yre & steel, & pote hem in stokkes of trow.

203 1503.  Act 19 Hen. VII., c. 6 § 4. It shalbe lawefull … to put theym into the Stokkis and theym so to kepe till the next Market day.

204 1533.  J. Heywood, Pard. & Frere, 602 (Pollard). Wherfore by saynt John, thou shalt not escape me, Tyll thou hast scouryd a pare of stokys.

205 1598.  Shaks., Merry W., IV. v. 123. But that my admirable dexteritie of wit,… deliuer’d me, the knaue Constable had set me ith’ Stocks, ith’ common Stocks, for a Witch.

206 1620.  Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 784/2. To hald and have stockis, joggis, prissounhousis, pit and gallous.

207 1620.  Rowlands, Nt.-Raven (1872), 3. Whores and Whoremongers trading for the Pox, And reeling Watch-men, carrying Rogues to Stox.

208 1632.  in E. B. Jupp, Carpenters’ Co. (1887), 301. Theis workes … belong vnto the … Carpenters … The makinge of … stocks cages and whipping postes.

209 1687.  Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, IV. i. 45. Constable, watch, stokes, stokes, stokes, murder—.

210 1769.  Blackstone, Comm., IV. xxix. 370. [Other punishments] Such as whipping, hard labour in the house of correction, the pillory, the stocks, and the ducking-stool.

211 1841.  Hood, Tale of Trumpet, 701. Over the Green, and along by The George, Past the Stocks, and the Church, and the Forge.

212 1901.  Westm. Gaz., 21 Dec., 10/1. Since my ordination (it was in 1870) I have seen a man in the stocks as a punishment for drunkenness.

213 1905.  Ld. Coleridge, Story Devonshire House, ii. (1906), 22. In the churchyard may be seen the time-worn stocks.

214   const. as sing.  1573.  New Custom, II. iii. C iij. Euery stockes should be full, euery prison, and iayle.

215 1613.  [see c].

216 1853.  Lytton, My Novel, III. ii. The stocks stood staring at him mournfully from its four great eyes. Ibid., III. xxiv. Now the stocks is rebuilt, the stocks must be supported.

217   † b.  sing. Obs. rare.

218 1382.  Wyclif, Job xiii. 27. Thou hast putte in the stoc [Vulg. in nervo] my foot.

219 c. 1460.  Oseney Reg., 86. Noþer to put þere men in preson or in-to bondys or in-to stocke for oony trespase or forfet.

220   c.  in figurative context.

221 1387–8.  T. Usk, Test. Love, I. iii. (Skeat), 144. Thus strayte, lady, hath sir Daunger laced me in stockes, I leve it be not your wil.

222 c. 1440.  Jacob’s Well, 186. Whanne god settyth þe in stockys of sykenes, or in prisoun of deth-euyll.

223 1612.  Beaum. & Fl., Coxcomb, II. i. Was ever man but I in such a stockes?

224 1805.  A. Knox, Rem. (1834), I. 27. Their feet are, as it were, made fast, in the stocks of appetite and passion.

225 1848.  L. Hunt, Jar of Honey, Pref. p. xxiii. Put thine own pride and cruelty in the stocks.

226 1878.  Masque of Poets, 153. The world would end, were Dulness not, to tame Wit’s feathered heels in the stern stocks of fact.

227   d.  loosely in pl. † (a) Fetters. Obs. (b) The pillory.

228 c. 1430.  Lydg., Bochas, VIII. vi. (1554), 180 b/1. This hardy princesse [Zenobia] … with stockes of gold [L. aureis compedibus] was brought to the cite.

229 c. 1825.  Choyce, Log of Jack Tar (1891), 26. They put his neck in the stocks and kept him there until he was sober.

230 1860.  Whittier, Quaker Alumni, 102. The priestcraft that glutted the shears, And festooned the stocks with our grandfathers’ ears.

231   e.  transf. (a) The shoemaker’s stocks (jocularly): Tight boots. (b) Applied to certain callisthenic contrivances formerly used in girls’ schools.

232 1666.  Pepys, Diary, 22 April. Being in the shoemaker’s stockes I was heartily weary.

233 a. 1700.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Shoe-makers-stocks, pincht with strait Shoes.

234 1831.  Mrs. J. Sandford, Woman, xii. (1833), 132–3. The modern school-room … might pass in succeeding centuries for a refined inquisition. There would be found stocks for the fingers, and pulleys for the neck, [etc.].

235 1823.  Grace Kennedy, Anna Ross (ed. 6), 46. Her poor little feet were placed in stocks, because her Mamma said she turned her toes in when she walked.

236 1850.  J. F. South, Househ. Surg., 259. I do not know whether that miserable invention, the stocks, is still in existence.

237   9.  [? transf. from 8.] A frame in which a horse is confined for shoeing.

238 1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., 2391.

239   II.  A supporting structure.

240   † 10.  The block or table on which a butcher or a fishmonger cuts his goods. Sc. Obs.

241 1488.  Extracts Burgh Rec. Edin. (1869), I. 56. Baith in slaing, and breking as a craftisman honestlie at his stok. Ibid. (1508), 114. It is ordanit that … the sellares and brekkaris of the greit fische haif thair stoks and grayth thairdone for that intent. Ibid. At [= that] all thair [sc. the fleshers] stokis be of ane lenth.

242 1577.  Extracts Burgh Rec. Glasgow (1876), I. 64. It sall nocht be lesum to na freman to hawe flesche stokis ma nor ane in the land marcat.

243   † b.  The Stocks, the Stocks Market: the name of a market for meat, fish, etc., in the City of London, on or near the site of the Mansion House.

244   Stow, Survey (1598), 178 alleges that the market was so called because it was built on the site where ‘had stoode a payre of stockes, for punishment of offendors’; but this is probably a mere guess.

245 a. 1350.  Chron. Edw. I. & Edw. II., Ann. Lond. (Rolls, 1882), I. 90. [In 1282 Henry le Waleis built] domos … apud Wolchirchehawe, quae vocantur Hales, Anglice Stockes.

246 c. 1483.  Chron. Lond. (1827), 137. This yere [1450] the stokkes was dividid bitwene fisshmongers and bochers.

247 1554.  Two London Chron. (1910), 38. And at ye Stokes was a great pagaunte made at ye cities cost.

248 1587.  Fleming, Holinshed’s Chron., III. 1348/2. West towards the Stocks market.

249 1721.  Amherst, Terræ Filius, No. 36. 192. A fruiterer’s apprentice at Stocks-market.

250 1769.  De Foe’s Tour Gt. Brit. (ed. 7), II. 110. The Mansion-house, built in the Place where Stocks-market used to be kept.

251   † c.  (See quot.) Obs.

252   Scott’s explanation is perh. erroneous; his source may have used black stock in sense 14.

253 1831.  Scott, Castle Dang., i. When was it that I hungered or thirsted, and the black stock of Berkley did not relieve my wants? [footnote, The table dormant, which stood in a baron’s hall, was often so designated.]

254   11.  A gun-carriage. Cf. GUN-STOCK.

255 1496.  Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 289. Giffin for bering of a ryvin gunstok fra the Kingis Werk to Johne Lammys smythy to bynd it, xiiij d.

256 1497.  Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 246. Elmyn tres … for … makyng or Gonne stokkes for Gonnes belongyng to the seid Ship.

257 1578.  Invent. R. Wardr. (1815), 248. Ane double cannon of fonte … montit upoun ane new stok.

258 1580.  Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Affuster, as Affuster l’artillerie, to sette the artillerie in the stocke or frame.

259 1748.  Anson’s Voy., II. vii. 213. The Carpenters were ordered to fix eight stocks in the main and fore-tops, which were properly fitted for the mounting of swivel guns.

260   12.  The outer rail of a bedstead; the side of a bed away from the wall; pl. a bedstead. Obs. exc. Sc. (local). Cf. BEDSTOCK. [So ON. stokkr.]

261 1525.  trans. Brunswyke’s Handywork Surg., lxxi. P ij b. And he must be bounde to .iii. or .iiii. places of ye bedstede and ye hole foote must be bounde to the stock that ye pacyent may not drawe it vp to hym.

262 1544.  Test. Ebor., VI. 213. The bede and the stokes that I lie in.

263 1562.  Richmond Wills (Surtees), 156. Stocks of a bedde and bleckfatts, iiij s.

264 1629.  Z. Boyd, Last Battell, 71 (Jam.). Hezekiah turned his backe to the stocke, and his face to the wall.

265 1775.  Goldsm., Scarron’s Com. Rom., I. 35. It will be proper to observe that the bed was so placed as to be close to the wall; Rancour went into it first, and the merchant going after him lay at the stock which was considered as the place of honour.

266 1796.  W. H. Marshall, Yorksh. (ed. 2), II. 347. Stock; the outer rail of a bedstead; or the front side of a bed, which is placed against a wall.

267   13.  pl. The framework on which a ship or boat is supported while in process of construction.

268 1422.  Foreign Acc. 61, m. 43 (Publ. Rec. Office). Ad extrahend’ et deducend’ dictam navem extra idem wose supra stokkes in quâdam fossurâ vocatâ le dook … apud Deptford’. Ibid. (1425), 59, m. 22 d. Propter debilitatem et confracciones ejusdem posita fuit in quodam dok supra stokes ibidem de novo construend’.

269 1615.  E. S., Britains Buss, in Arber, Eng. Garner, III. 624. At length, I was informed … that one Roger Godsdue, Esquire,… had on the stocks at Yarmouth, five Busses.

270 1627.  Capt. Smith, Sea Gram., i. 1. The stockes are certaine framed posts, much of the same nature upon the shore, to build a Pinnace, a Catch, a Frigot, or Boat, &c.

271 1638.  Heywood, Royal Ship, 13. Had not the famous Archimedes devised new Engines to rowle her [the vessel] out of the stocks into the water.

272 1670.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4039/4. There is now upon the stocks an extraordinary large ship of 2500 Tuns.

273 1704.  J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Stocks; so the Ship-Carpenters call a Frame of Timber, and great Posts made a-shore to build Pinnaces, Ketches, Boats, [etc.] … Hence we say, a Ship is on the Stocks, when she is a Building.

274 1755.  New-York Mercury, 14 July, 3/1. One of the Gallies [is] planked and compleatly rigged on the Stocks.

275 1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780).

276 1790.  Beatson, Nav. & Mil. Mem., II. 34. Having … set upon the stocks two ships.

277 1810.  Wellington, in Gurw., Disp. (1836), VI. 568. Having completed the boats which were on the stocks.

278 1875.  trans. Comte de Paris’ Civ. War Amer., I. 448. They … only succeeded in destroying one of the stocks for ship-building.

279   b.  fig., esp. in phrase on the stocks, said e.g. of a literary work planned and commenced.

280 1669.  C. F., Pluto Furens, Ep. Ded. Until my other Play be finished, which is now on the Stocks.

281 1693.  Dryden, Love Triumph., IV. i. Farewel; you know I have other business upon the Stocks.

282 1765.  Foote, Commissary, II. (1782), 45. I made these rhimes into a duet for a comic opera I have on the stocks.

283 1783.  in Virginia Mag. Hist. & Biog. (1898), V. 390. I’m desirous to provide in the best manner I possibly can for my wife, a son, two daughters, and a child which I expect is in the stocks.

284 1828.  P. Cunningham, N. S. Wales (ed. 3), II. 281. A worthy elder, shocked at the scandal of such a numerous illegal progeny being all ‘on the stocks’ at once, waited on his pastor to condole upon the subject.

285 1836.  J. H. Newman, Lett. (1891), II. 163. I have had a long letter on the stocks for you for the last fortnight.

286 1868.  E. FitzGerald, Lett., I. 315. We shouldn’t go off the stocks easy (pardon nautical metaphors).

287 1898.  Athenæum, 4 June, 724/1. The ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ the ninth edition of which was on the point of being put on the stocks.

288   14.  dial. A ledge at the back or the side of a fireplace, on which a kettle or pot can be placed when removed from the fire: = HOB sb.2 1.

289 1592.  Warner, Alb. Eng., IX. xlvii. (1612), 218. Cowring ore two sticks a crosse, burnt at a smoakie stocke.

290 a. 1613.  Overbury, Wife, News (1616), Q 6. That a Wise-rich-man is like the backe or stocke of the Chimney, and his wealth the fire, it receiues not for its owne need, but to reflect the heat to others good.

291 1823.  E. Moor, Suffolk Words, Stock, the plate, or place, at the back of the fire, or immediately above it.

292 1854.  Miss Baker, Northampt. Gloss., Stock, the horizontal space at the side of a grate.

293 Mod.  (Northants.) I put the tea-kettle on one of the stocks and the saucepan on the other.

294   15.  Brick-making. a. = stock-board (see 65).

295 1683.  J. Houghton, Collect. Lett. Improv. Husb., II. vi. 188. In the middle we fasten with Nails a piece of board, which we call a Stock; this Stock is about half an Inch thick, and just big enough for the Mould to slip down upon. Ibid. Then rubbing the Stock and inside of the Mould with Sand, with the Earth he forms a Brick.

296 1703.  [see stock-brick in 65].

297 1753.  Chambers, Cycl., Suppl., s.v. Brick, Stock-bricks … are made on a stock, that is, the mould is put on a stock, after the manner of moulding or striking of tiles.

298   b.  Short for stock-brick (see 65).

299 c. 1738.  in E. B. Jupp, Carpenters’ Co. (1887), 567. The Brickwork for £5. 10 per Rod and to do the same with Stocks.

300 1833.  Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 79. To pave the back kitchen … with common stocks, bedded in sand.

301 1837.  Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 34/1. Brickwork, consisting of sound, hard, and well-burned square stocks.

302 1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Stocks,… the red and grey bricks which are used for the exterior of walls and fronts of buildings.

303 1892.  Daily News, 16 Dec., 2/2. Decorated with red ‘Newbiggin’ stone and picked London stocks.

304 1905.  Pall Mall Gaz., 29 May, 8/2. Brick, of the kind known as dark purple stock.

305   16.  The support of the block in which the anvil is fixed, or of the anvil itself.

306 1295.  Stithistokke [see STITHY sb. 5].

307 1790.  Cowper, Odyss., VIII. 336. To the stock he heaved His anvil huge.

308 1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., 2389. That to which others are attached, or in which they are inserted, as,… The anvil to its stock or pillar.

309   17.  A stand or frame supporting a spinning-wheel or a churn.

310 1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. 286/2. The large Spinning Wheele … consists in these parts. The Stock standing on four Feet. The Standard [etc.].

311 1858.  W. Arnot, Laws fr. Heaven, Ser. II. xlix. 400. She kept a Bible lying open on the ‘stock’ of the wheel.

312   † 18.  A roller for a map. Obs.

313 1737.  in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 479. The Maps are very large, there was no possible way of sending them by Post … than by rolling them upon a Stock.

314   † 19.  A perch for a bird. Obs. [So Du. stok.]

315 1575.  Turberv., Bk. Falconrie, 79. When you haue showed hir the perche or stocke, and tyed hir vpon it, put with hir vpon the sayde pearche or stocke some Pullet.

316   III.  A box, hollow receptacle. Cf. TRUNK sb. 2.

317   † 20.  An alms-box. [So G. (almosen) stock, Du. (offer) stok. Cf. F. tronc.] Obs.

318 c. 1400.  Love, Bonavent. Mirr. (1907), 188. A coffre hauynge a hole abouen in manere of stokkes that ben now vsed in chirches.

319 1419.  Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 146. Et in sal. unius hominis facientis j stok propter oblac. in le Crudys, 3d. ex convencione.

320 1504.  Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., II. 266. Item, to the Kingis offerand in the stock at Sanct Duthois towm, xiiij s.

321 1527.  Churchw. Acc. St. Giles, Reading, 30. Of Willm A Dene for the stokk of the masse xls.

322   † 21.  A trough; a basin; a stoup, esp. one used for holy water. (See holy-water stock, HOLY WATER 2.) Obs.

323 c. 1450.  Maitl. Club Misc., III. 203. Ane crem stok of siluer with ane closour of siluer.

324 1486.  Bk. St. Albans, b viij b. It behouyth that yowre hawke haue a fedyng stokke in hir mewe.

325 1500.  Will of Odingsellis (Somerset Ho.). Holy Water stoke.

326 1554.  in Fuller, Hist. Waltham Abbey (1655), 17. A Stock of brass for the Holy-water.

327 1591.  G. Fletcher, Russe Commw. (Hakl. Soc.), 135. They doe not onely hallow their holie water stockes and tubbes ful of water, but all the rivers of the countrey once every yeere.

328   b.  (See quot. 1877.)

329 1872.  Shipley’s Gloss. Eccl. Terms, 334. Oil Box.… Also called Oil Stock.

330 1877.  F. G. Lee, Gloss. Liturg. & Eccl. Terms, 384. Stock.… A vessel containing oils blessed for use in the Christian sacraments is so called in ordinary parlance.

331   22.  (More fully fulling-stock, FULLING vbl. sb.) In a fulling-mill: Originally, the wooden trough or box in which the cloth is placed to be beaten by the ‘faller’ or mallet; hence, this receptacle together with the ‘faller.’ In modern use, stock is often taken to denote the ‘faller’ or mallet itself.

332 1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XV. 445. Cloth … is nouȝt comly to were, Tyl it is fulled vnder fote or in fullyng stokkes.

333 1506–7.  Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 252. Pro factura de lez stoke 13s. 4d.

334 1674.  Petty, Discourse Roy. Soc., 64. The same is true of water gushing out upon the floats of under-shot Mills; as may be seen in the Stampers of Paper-Mills, the Stocks of Fulling-Mills [etc.].

335 1677.  Yarranton, Eng. Improv., 109. Our Fulling-Mills that we now have, our Fallers are taken up a great height, and so fall down into the Stock upon the Cloth. Ibid. The Mills that go by Wind, the Fallers, or Feet, fall down perpendicular into the Stock, through a square hole, where the Cloth is, and so attracts no Wind, nor can any Air get into the Stock or Chest where the Cloth is.

336 1844.  G. Dodd, Textile Manuf., iii. 103. The ‘fulling-stocks,’… are hollow receptacles in which an enormous oaken hammer or stock vibrates up and down, each stock being kept in motion by machinery connected with a steam-engine.

337 1879.  Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 342. By steeping the cloth in alkaline liquor, and beating it in the fulling stocks.

338   23.  Tanning. (See quot. 1885.)

339 1882.  Paton, in Encycl. Brit., XIV. 383/2. The softening of these materials is helped and rendered thorough by working them for some time in the stocks after they have been well soaked.

340 1885.  H. R. Procter, Tanning, 136. The ‘stocks,’… consist of a wooden or metallic box, of peculiar shape, wherein work 2 very heavy hammers, raised alternately by pins in a wheel, and let fall upon the hides, which they force up against the side of the box with a sort of kneading action.

341   IV.  The more massive portion of an instrument or weapon; usually, the body or handle, to which the working part is attached.

342   24.  The heavy cross-bar (originally wooden) of an anchor.

343 1346.  Exch. Acc., 25/7. Pro ij hankerstokkes duorum ancor’ ejusdem navis.

344 1407.  MS. Acc. Exch. K. R., 44/11 (1) m. 3. In duobus ancrestokes inde faciendis.

345 1485.  Cely Papers (Camden), 185. Item pd by me for iij hanker stolkes … xv d.

346 1497.  Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 379. Item, for thre geestis to be stokkis to ankyrris, and other grath to the schippis, —s.

347 1615.  E. S., Britain’s Buss, in Arber, Eng. Garner, III. 628. And so the four anchors, and their four stocks will come to £18 0 0.

348 1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. xv. (Roxb.), 29/1. The Anchor stock, is the peece of tymber fitly wrought and fastned at the nutts, below the eye, crossing the flookes.

349 1748.  Anson’s Voy., III. vi. 345. To fix two … anchors into one stock.

350 1825.  H. B. Gascoigne, Path Nav. Fame, 50. The circling Capstan merrily runs round, Until the Stock a proper height is found.

351 1839.  Ure, Dict. Arts, 45. The stock of the anchor is made of oak.

352 1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 657.

353   b.  Naut. phrase, stock and fluke.

354 1825.  Cobbett, Rur. Rides, 9 Nov. (1885), II. 5. The new owner of the estate … bought it ‘stock and fluke’ as the sailors call it; that is to say, that he bought movables and the whole.

355 1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Stock and Fluke, the whole of anything.

356   25.  The block of wood from which a bell is hung.

357 1474–5.  in Swayne, Churchw. Acc. Sarum (1896), 20. It’ in tymber for the stokke and uphongyng of the same [bell] xxij d.

358 1526–7.  Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905), 340. For mendyng of the Stokke of the Saunctus bell iiij d.

359 1706.  in J. Watson, Jedburgh Abbey (1894), 91. [To see if the bells] be sound in their hanging upon the stocks.

360 1871.  Wigram, Change Ringing Disentangled, 1. He will see that it [the bell] is fastened to the under-side of a block of wood, called the ‘stock.’

361 1906.  J. J. Raven, Bells, 291. The bells are rung from the stock, without wheel or rope.

362   26.  The ‘hub’ of a wheel.

363 1585.  Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 268/1. Modiolus rotæ,… the stocke or naue wherein the spokes be fastened.

364 1876.  Voyle & Stevenson, Milit. Dict., 409/2. Stock, the nave of a wooden wheel.

365 1879.  Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 206/1. The stock or hub … should be in growth as near as possible the size required.

366   † 27.  = SADDLE-TREE. Obs.

367 1497.  Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., I. 372. Item, agane Ȝule, to turs our the Month, for ane stok of ane sadil. Ibid. (1553), X. 175. Item,… for making of the stok and sadill heirto.

368   28.  The wooden portion of a musket or fowling-piece; the handle of a pistol.

369 1541.  Act 33 Hen. VIII., c. 6 § 2. Any handgune … shalbe in the stock and gonne of the lenghe of one hole Yarde.

370 1591.  Garrard, Art of Warre, 10. Raising up the crooked end of the stocke to his breast.

371 1641.  J. Langton, in Lismore Papers, Ser. II. (1888), V. 8. Our men … knocked some of them in the heade with the stocks of theire peeces.

372 1664.  Evelyn, Sylva, viii. § 4 (1679), 50. Walnut … is of singular account … with the Gunsmith for Stocks.

373 1719.  De Foe, Crusoe, I. (Globe), 261. The Captain … knock’d him down with the Stock of his Musket.

374 1741.  Compl. Family-Piece, II. i. 320. As for Stocks, Walnut-Tree or Ash are very good for Use.

375 1830.  Hobart Town Almanack, 115. My trusty Manton, which falling under his right side,… was broken in the handsome stock.

376 1860.  All Yr. Round, No. 71. 500. The stock is divided into the nose-cap, the upper, middle, and lower bands, the swell [etc.].

377 1879.  Martini-Henry Rifle Exerc., 42. Grasping the stock with the left hand.

378   b.  Phrase, stock, lock and barrel (also lock, stock and barrel: see LOCK sb.2 5): the whole of a thing; also advb., every whit, entirely.

379 1830.  Galt, Lawrie T., II. viii. (1849), 66. Even the capital likewise—stock, lock, and barrel, all went.

380 1868.  E. Yates, Rocks Ahead, III. iii. ‘Cut the whole concern, stock, lock and barrel,’ said his lordship.

381 1905.  Times, 7 July, 10/3. [Sir George White said:] He was not a Scotsman; he was … lock, stock, and barrel an Irishman.

382   29.  The handle (of a whip, fishing-rod, etc.).

383 1695.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3044/4. All sorts of Whips, the Stocks of the best Greenland Whalebone.

384 1787.  T. Best, Angling (ed. 2), 9. The best manner of making … Rods. The best time to provide stocks is in the winter solstice.

385 1882.  Stevenson, New Arab. Nts. (1912), 321. The stock of a lance even rattled along the outer surface of the door.

386   30.  The attachment of a seal.

387 1711.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4815/4. Two Seals with Gold Stocks.

388   31.  The part of a plow to which the share is attached.

389 1578.  Knaresb. Wills (Surtees), I. 133. One new stocke and two plow cloutes, [etc.].

390 1733.  W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 318. Three Holes in the upper part of the Stock.

391   32.  (More explicitly bit-stock.) A carpenter’s boring tool: = BRACE sb.2 6.

392 1794.  Rigging & Seamanship, I. 152. Stock. A wooden instrument to bore holes with, by fixing a bit in the lower end, and a pin with a round head in the other end.

393 1812.  P. Nicholson, Mech. Exerc., 126. Stock and Bits.

394 1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Stock and bit, an instrument for boring wood, used by carpenters; a centre-bit.

395   33.  An adjustable wrench for holding screw-cutting dies.

396 1862.  Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 6139. Wrought-iron welded tubes; stocks, taps, and dies.

397 1902.  P. Marshall, Metal Working Tools, 61. The die which cuts the thread is made in two halves, and is placed in a ‘stock,’ or holder, fitted with an adjusting screw…. A set of stocks and dies consists of one stock with a series of interchangeable dies to cut threads of different sizes.

398   34.  The shorter and thicker of the two pieces composing a Ｔ-square or an Ｌ-square.

399 1815.  J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 699. A thin flat ruler called the blade, let perpendicularly into the middle of another piece called the stock…. The blade being laid on the paper, and the stock brought up close to the edge of the board, it is very readily used in ruling.

400 1857.  W. Binns, Elem. Orthogr. Projection, i. (1862), 6. Place the stock of the Ｔ square against the left hand side of the drawing-board.

401 1902.  P. Marshall, Metal Working Tools, 15. This of course can only be the case when the blade and the stock have their respective inner and outer surfaces perfectly parallel.

402   35.  In a plane, the block in which the plane-iron is fitted. † Also, the block carrying the axe of a ‘maiden’ or beheading instrument.

403 1639.  in J. J. Cartwright, Chapters Hist. Yorks. (1872), 339. They let runne the stock wth ye hatchet in.

404 1815.  J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 107. The block of wood in which the blade or Chisel of a plane is fixed, is called the stock.

405   36.  The head of a brush (in which the bristles are inserted). Also, the wooden head of a wool-card.

406 1835.  Ure, Philos. Manuf., 145. [The two rows of teeth] are fixed into a wooden stock or head c, which … has a handle d fixed into it.

407 1837.  Whittock, Bk. Trades (1842), 84. (Brush-maker), The wood, or ‘stock,’ thus shaped has afterwards a number of small holes drilled through it at regular distances.

408   37.  The wooden case of a lock.

409 1833.  Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 84. And … eight-inch fine plate stock locks (locks with a wooden back, or stock).

410   38.  Flax-dressing. One of the beaters in a scutching-mill. (Cf. 22).

411 1776.  A. Young, Tour Irel. (1780), I. 313. Two beetling cylinders,… a pair of stocks, a washing wheel.

412 1860.  Ure’s Dict. Arts, II. 234. Short arms, to which are nailed the stocks, which are parallelogram shaped blades of hard wood, with the edges partially sharpened.

413   V.  Concrete senses of uncertain or mixed origin.

414   † 39.  A mouse-trap. [Cf. MOUSE-stock and Norw. stok trap (for birds).] Obs.

415 c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 53. Þurh þe sweote smel of þe chese, he bicherreð monie mus to þe stoke.

416   40.  A stocking. Now only dial. See NETHERSTOCK, UPPER STOCK.

417   The upper stock was the upper and wider part, and the nether stock the lower part of the hose. Without the defining word, stock denoted the NETHERSTOCK or stocking.

418 1456–7.  in Fabric Rolls York Minster (Surtees), 208. Meam subtuniculam de harden cloth, cum stokkes de correo.

419 1530.  Privy Purse Exp. Hen. VIII. (1827), 94. Euery one of them ij payer of hosen and ij payer of stockis.

420 1546.  Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., IX. 27. Tua elnis fyne purpure welwote to be ane pair of stokes of hois to the said James … viij li.

421 1564.  Reg. Privy Council Scot., I. 308. Ane pair of almany stokkis of blak sating, drawin out with taffeteis.

422 1577–87.  Hooker, Chron. Irel., 89/2, in Holinshed. He hit vpon the letter, bare it awaie in the heele of his stocke.

423 a. 1592.  Greene, Vision, Wks. (Grosart), XII. 209. His legs were small, Hosd within a stock of red.

424 1596.  Shaks., Tam. Shr., III. ii. 67. With a linnen stock on one leg, and a kersey boot-hose on the other.

425 1612.  Drayton, Poly-olb., XVI. 350. Before the costly Coach, and silken stock came in.

426 1876.  Mid-Yorksh. Gloss., 137. Now then, I am ready for going—stock, shoes, and gaiter.

427   41.  A swarm of bees.

428   [Cf. Du. stok, G. stock, a hive; but connection is doubtful on account of the difference in sense. Cf. however quot. 1675, where the word appears to have the Du. sense.]

429 1568.  MS. Acc. St. John’s Hosp., Canterb., There is a swarme found by Wylson and a seruante … seruaunt to haue the fyrste swarme and Wilson the next and so the stocke remayne to the house.

430 1577.  Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., IV. 177 b. You may soone learne where theyr [sc. bees’] stockes [L. examina] be.

431 1649.  Ogilby, Virg. Georg., II. (1684), 89. In rugged Bark the Bees conceal their Stocks [L. examina].

432 1675.  Gedde, New Discov. Bee-houses, 30. A stock full of Bees and Honey.

433 1679.  M. Rusden, Further Discov. Bees, 68. A swarm in May, or June, is called a Stock at Michaelmas.

434 1793.  Trans. Soc. Arts, V. 287. The greatest number of Stocks of Bees, not fewer than thirty.

435   42.  The portion of a tally that was given to the person making a payment to the Exchequer.

436   The counterpart kept in the Exchequer was called the foil or counterstock. In Anglo-L. the terms were stipes and folium. Cf. F. souche (lit. tree-trunk), the longer of the two portions of a tally, hence also the counterfoils in a register or cheque-book.

437 a. 1601.  Sir T. Fanshawe, Pract. Exch. (1658), 98. The joyners of the tallies … do see if the stock and the file do agree in hand, letter, and joyning.

438 1642.  C. Vernon, Consid. Exch., 44. The said stocke is delivered to the party that paid the money for his discharge, and the foile is cast into the Chamberlaines chest.

439 1671.  E. Chamberlayne, Pres. St. Eng., II. (ed. 5), 101. The Counterfoyles of the Talleys … so exactly ranged … that they may be found out, to be joyned with their respective Stock or Tally.

440 1714.  [Bp. Atterbury], Eng. Advice to Freeholders, 4. Boroughs are rated on the Royal Exchange, like Stocks and Tallies.

441   43.  [Short for STOCK-GILLIFLOWER.] a. Any plant of the cruciferous genus Matthiola. b. Virginian stock: the cruciferous plant Malcolmia maritima, having flowers somewhat resembling those of the stock-gilliflower.

442 1664.  in Verney Mem. (1907), II. 208. To smell the sucklins and the stocks and to see the new trees grow.

443 1728–46.  Thomson, Spring, 533. The … lavish stock that scents the garden round.

444 1760.  J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 328. Stock, Virginian, Hesperis.

445 1796.  C. Marshall, Gardening, xix. (1813), 347. The French stock is very floriferous, and most apt to come double.

446 1844.  Lady G. Fullerton, Ellen Middleton (1854), III. xx. 49. The delicate lilac flowers of the Virginian Stock.

447 1866.  M. Arnold, Thyrsis, vii. And stocks in fragrant blow.

448 1894.  Bridges, Garden Sept., Poems (1912), 305. Stocks Of courtly purple, and aromatic phlox.

449 1908.  R. Bagot, A. Cuthbert, xix. 237. The sweet night-flowering stock.

450   44.  A kind of stiff close-fitting neckcloth, formerly worn by men generally, now only in the army.

451   In the first quot. app. the collar-band of a shirt.

452 a. 1700.  Evelyn, Diary, June 1645. They [the Venetian nobility] also weare their collar open to shew the diamond button of the stock of their shirt.

453 1731.  Gentl. Mag., I. 454. He lay in his Stock, which was so tight about his Neck, that it near strangled him.

454 1742.  Whyte’s Poems, in Fairholt, Costume (1860), 596. The stock with buckle made of plate Has put the cravat out of date.

455 1753.  Lond. Mag., Oct., 480/2. Let the stock be well plaited, in fanciful forms.

456 1755.  Johnson, Stock, something made of linen; a cravat; a close neckcloth.

457 1764.  Boston Evening Post, in Alice M. Earle, Costume Colonial Times (1894), 169. Newest fashion’d plaited Stocks.

458 1781.  Cowper, Lett. to Unwin, 23 May. My neckcloths being all worn out, I intend to wear stocks. In that case, I shall be obliged to you if you will buy me a handsome stock-buckle.

459 1802.  C. James, Milit. Dict., Stock, a part of an officer’s dress which consists generally of black silk or velvet, and is worn round the neck…. The soldier’s stock is of black ribbed leather…. Red stocks were formerly worn in the guards.

460 1806.  Sir R. Wilson, Jrnl., Feb. Life (1862), I. 307. The issue of an order this morning for every officer in the garrison [of Cape Town] to wear black leather stocks!

461 1818.  Scott, Rob Roy, i. He had the same … suit of light brown clothes,… the same stock, with its silver buckle.

462 1825.  Sir H. Cockburn, Memor., ii. 131. The disclosure of the long neck by the narrow bit of muslin stock.

463 1837.  Dickens, Pickw., ii. An old stock, without a vestige of shirt collar, ornamented his neck.

464 1840.  J. P. Kennedy, Quodlibet, x. (1860), 137. His shirt collar was turned down over a narrow horse-hair stock.

465 1868.  Queen’s Regul. Army, § 604 g. The wearing of Stocks may be dispensed with on the line of March.

466 1892.  Kipling, Barrack-room Ballads, Cells, 16. But I fell away with the Corp’ral’s stock, and the best of the Corp’ral’s shirt.

467   b.  An article of clerical attire, consisting of a piece of black silk or stuff (worn on the chest and secured by a band round the neck) over which the linen collar is fastened.

468 1883.  Offic. Yearbk. Ch. Eng., p. iv. (Advt.), Clerical Collars and Stocks…. Stuff Stocks 3/6; Silk do., 5/-; Stock Bands 5/6 per dozen.

469   45.  The udder of a cow. Now dial.

470 1608.  Topsell, Serpents, 218. Afterward that Cowes vdder or stocke dryeth vppe, and neuer more yeeldeth any milke.

471 Mod.  (Kent), This cow has a very large stock but I don’t know that she’ll give over-much milk.

472   46.  A rabbit-burrow. Now dial. Cf. STOP sb.

473 1741.  Compl. Fam. Piece, II. i. 303. The Bucks will kill their young ones, if they can come at them; and therefore Nature hath so decreed it, that the Does prevent them by stopping or covering their Stocks or Nests with Earth or Gravel.

474 1876.  Surrey Gloss.

475 1883.  Hampsh. Gloss.

476   VI.  A fund, store.

477   The senses grouped under this head are not found in the other Teut. languages except hy adoption from English. Their origin is obscure, and possibly several different lines of development may have blended. Thus the application of the word to a trader’s capital may partly involve the notion of a trunk or stem (branch I) from which the gains are an outgrowth, and partly that of ‘fixed basis’ or ‘foundation’ (branch II): cf. FUND. Sense 47 may be derived immediately from that of ‘money-box,’ and have given rise to uses coincident with senses of different origin. The application to cattle is primarily a specific use of the sense ‘store,’ but the notion of ‘race’ or ‘breed’ (sense 3) has had some share in its development.

478   † 47.  A sum of money set apart to provide for certain expenses; a fund. Obs.

479 1463.  Bury Wills (Camden), 17. A stoke to fynde yerly ij taperis lyght.

480 1547–8.  in E. Green, Somerset Chantries (1888), 10. Redy money gyven by Robte Holcombe to remayne in stocke to the saide use [sc. lights].

481 1548.  in Hudson & Tingey, Rec. Norwich (1910), II. 120. All guylde stockis whatsoeuer their be withyn this citie shalbe employde towardes the fyndyng feyeng of the rever of the same citie.

482 c. 1550.  Yorksh. Chantry Surv. (Surtees), II. 478. There is a stoke of xxij s. yeven to the finding of a light in the said chapell.

483 1553.  Inv., in Ann. Dioc. Lichf. (1863), 7. xxj s. which remayned as a stoke to finde tapers in the churche.

484 1589.  Nashe, Martin Marprelate, Wks. (Grosart), I. 80. That reuerend Elder of your Church, who being credited with the stocke of the poore,… was compelled to keepe it to himselfe, because [etc.].

485 1638.  R. Baker, trans. Balzac’s Lett. (vol. III.), 156. I feare mee, the Stocke that was appoynted for paying of me, will goe some other way.

486 1645.  in Arber, Transcr. Stationers’ Reg. (1875), I. 590. The Committee … resolved upon the Companies sudden setting upon the printing the Bible by a new Stock.

487 1663.  Gerbier, Counsel, b 3. Venturing a stock to fetch Aurum Horizontale from the East Indies.

488 1676.  Earl Essex, in Essex Papers (Camden), 55. There will be a surplus of near 3000 l, [MS. 3000d] which may be kept in stock for any contingency.

489 1690.  Andros Tracts, II. 42. To make a Voluntary Subscription for a stock to bear the Charges of a Triall at Law.

490 1718.  Hickes & Nelson, J. Kettlewell, II. xxv. 127. He set aside for a standing Stock … One Hundred Pound.

491 [1881.  C. R. Rivington, Rec. Stationers’ Co., 18. There were originally five different trading stocks, called respectively the Ballad Stock, the Bible Stock, the Irish Stock, the Latin Stock, and the English Stock.]

492   † 48.  A capital sum to trade with or to invest; capital as distinguished from revenue, or principal as distinguished from interest. Obs.

493 1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 28 b. This rychesse he hath gyuen to vs as a stocke to occupy in our dayly exercyse, for the profyte of our owne soules.

494 1546.  J. Heywood, Prov., II. ix. (1867), 77. How can ye now get thrift, the stocke beyng gone? Which is thonely thing to reise thrift vpon.

495 1561.  Awdelay, Frat. Vacab., 8. Some yong Marchant man or other kynde of Occupier, whose friendes hath geuen them a stock of mony to occupy withall.

496 1573.  New Custom, II. iii. C iij b. The heyre Had substanciall reuenewes, his stocke also was faire.

497 1581.  Reg. Privy Council Scot., III. 435. To … redeliver the same [sc. gold and silver] cunyeit to the said maister Thomas in prentit money, stok and proffite.

498 1613.  J. White, Two Serm. (1615), 69. Prisoners, and distressed housholders, yong tradesmen that want stocks: must be thought on.

499 1614.  Raleigh, Hist. World, V. ii. § 2. 377. He thinkes that all this is too little for a stock, though it were indeede a good yearlie Income.

500 1677.  Yarranton, Eng. Improv., 47. Let each County begin with two thousand Pounds Stock apiece. Ibid., 98. The Factors would joyn stock together, and set up our Trade in some other place.

501 1681–6.  J. Scott, Chr. Life (1747), III. 454. A Master coming to take account of his Servants, among whom he had entrusted a Stock of Ten Pounds.

502 1694.  E. Phillips, trans. Milton’s Lett. State, 287. Lest he should lose his Ship and Lading, together with his whole principal Stock.

503 a. 1700.  Evelyn, Diary, 13 Aug. 1641. The reson of this store of pictures and their cheapness proceedes from their want of land to employ their stock.

504 1760.  Cautions & Adv. Officers of Army, 8. I hope you will thoroughly weigh with yourself whether you are possessed of a sufficient Stock to enable you to discharge your Duty without repining.

505   fig.  1595.  Daniel, Civ. Wars, II. iv. And on the Hazard of a bad Exchange Have ventur’d all the Stock of Life beside.

506 a. 1652.  J. Smith, Sel. Disc., V. iv. (1821), 155. To prepare our own souls more and more to receive of his liberality,… that the stock which he is pleased to impart to us may not lie dead within us.

507 1665.  Howard, Ind. Queen, II. i. Why shou’d you waste the Stock of those fair Eyes That from Mankind can take their Liberties?

508   † b.  To spend upon the stock: to trench on one’s capital. Obs.

509 1617.  Moryson, Itin., I. 199. And lest by spending upon the stocke, my patrimony should be wasted I [etc.].

510 1662.  Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., III. 253. That Minister must needs spend upon the stock, that hath no comings in from a constant Trade in his Study.

511   † c.  An endowment for a son; a dowry for a daughter. Also fig. Obs.

512 1527.  Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc.), I. 17. Item to hyr son Justinean xxll to make hym a stokke wt.

513 1581.  Mulcaster, Positions, v. (1837), 34. To write and read wel which may be iointly gotten is a prety stocke for a poore boye.

514 1605.  Lond. Prodigal, V. i. 400. Why this is well, and toward faire Luce’s stocke, heres fortie shillings.

515 c. 1639.  Cowley, Misc., To Ld. Falkland, 32. Whilst we like younger Brothers, get at best But a small stock, and must work out the rest.

516 1685–6.  Stillingfl., Serm. (1698), III. i. 3. Therefore nothing would satisfie him [the young prodigal] unless he were intrusted with the Stock which was intended for him.

517   † d.  In stock: possessed of capital. Out of stock: without means. (Cf. in, out of funds.)

518 1648.  in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 256. In regard yt ye Colledge is wholey out of stocke,… ye chest-keepers wer requested to [etc.].

519 1671.  [S. Collins], Pres. St. Russia, xii. 51. This put the man in stock, whereby he began to drive a Trade.

520   † e.  fig. phrase. Upon the stock of: on the ground or basis of. Obs. Very frequent in Jer. Taylor.

521 1647.  Clarendon, Hist. Reb., VI. § 229. Which [help] they had no hope to procure but upon the stock of alteration of the government of the Church.

522 1649.  Jer. Taylor, Great Exemp., II. vi. 11. He who beleeves upon the onely stock of education, made no election of his faith. Ibid., II. vii. 33. Upon the same stocke S. Chrysostome chides the people of his Diocese for walking, and laughing and prating in Churches.

523 1692.  South, 12 Serm. (1697), I. 275. Few practical Errors in the world are embraced upon the Stock of Conviction, but Inclination.

524 1821.  Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. My First Play. The theatre became to me, upon a new stock, the most delightful of recreations.

525   † 49.  An estate or property that produces income; a person’s total property. Obs.

526 1552.  Latimer, Serm. St. John Evang. (1584), 282. It shall not be a diminishing of theyr stockes, but it shall be rather an increase then a diminishing.

527 1579.  Spenser, Sheph. Cal., July, 192. They han great store and thriftye stockes.

528 1587.  Turberv., Trag. Tales (1837), 22. Whose land and fee descended orderly Unto the Sonne, with store of other stocks.

529 1646.  Crashaw, Steps, 97. The steward of our growing stocke.

530 c. 1665.  Mrs. Hutchinson, Mem. Col. Hutchinson (1885), I. 185. But they, having stocks and families, were not willing to march as far as the army.

531 a. 1687.  Petty, Pol. Arith., ii. (1691), 38. If the Stocks of laborious and ingenious Men … should be diminished by a Tax, and transferred to such as do nothing at all, [etc.].

532 1771.  Beattie, Minstrel, I. xiv. An honest heart was almost all his stock.

533   † b.  Public stock: the property held for public purposes by a nation, municipality or community.

534 1663.  Patrick, Parab. Pilgrim (1687), 115. A poor Widow, who had cast all her living into the publick stock.

535 1701.  W. Wotton, Hist. Rome (Marcus), iv. 60. The Public Stock was well near exhausted by Verus’s Prodigality.

536 c. 1710.  Celia Fiennes, Diary (1888), 92. They have a great publick stock belonging to ye Corporation.

537 1770.  Langhorne, Plutarch (1879), I. 184/2. It appears … that the public stock of the Athenians amounted to 9700 talents.

538   c.  Movable property.

539 1776.  Adam Smith, W. N., V. ii. II. 412. The funds or sources, of revenue which may peculiarly belong to the sovereign or commonwealth must consist either in stock or in land.

540   † d.  The aggregate wealth of a nation. Obs.

541 1640.  Pym, in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 22. By which means the Stock of the Kingdom is diminished.

542 1719.  W. Wood, Surv. Trade, 154. There is not any thing more certain, than that our West-India Trade has greatly enlarged our Stock.

543 1729.  Swift, Modest Proposal, 12. The Nation’s stock will be thereby encreased fifty thousand pounds per Annum.

544 1796.  Burke, Regic. Peace, ii. (1892), 110. If we look to our stock in the Eastern world, our most valuable and systematick acquisitions are made in that quarter.

545 1825.  McCulloch, Pol. Econ., II. ii. 92. The whole produce of industry belonging to a country is said to form its stock.

546   †  50.  The business capital of a trading firm or company. In stock (said of a person): in the position of a partner. Obs.

547 c. 1600.  Henslowe, Diary (1845), 276. A Note of all suche bookes as belong to the Stocke.

548 1613.  Tapp, Pathw. Knowledge, 233. Two Marchants are in Company, B putteth in 200 li more then A, B continueth in stocke 5 moneths, and A 7 moneths 1/2, they gaine one as much as the other; the question is [etc.].

549 1669.  W. A[glionby], Pres. St. United Provinces, 159. Many … put in different summes, which all together made up six hundred thousand pound, the first stock upon which this [Dutch East India] Company has built its prodigious Encrease.

550 1694.  J. Houghton, Collect. Improv. Husb., No. 122, ¶ 4. Lately a Company of Gentlemen have made a Stock for Improvement of Tanning with Birch-Bark…. Their Tannery is at Holloway.

551 1697.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3303/3. Each Member having Five hundred Pounds in the Stock of the Bank.

552 1798.  Hutton, Course Math. (1806), I. 124. They admit K as a third partner, who brought into stock 2800l.

553 1844.  H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, I. 494. As the state of the money market rendered it unadvisable to increase the Company’s capital stock,… the Court applied to the House for such aid as [etc.].

554   b.  In Bookkeeping by Double Entry, the heading (more fully stock account: see 65) of the ledger account which summarizes the assets and liabilities of the trader, firm or company to whom the books belong.

555 1588.  Mellis, Briefe Instr., D vij. Then for your Creditor goe to the letter S. and there enter stocke as followeth: Stocke is in folio 2.

556 1674.  J. Collins, Introd. Merchants-Acc., B 3 b. John Speed Debitor. January 2 To Stock owing by him … 100 l. 00 s. 00 d. Ibid., B 4. Per contra John Speed Creditor. January 7 By Stock for Three Months rebate [etc.].

557 1732.  J. Clark, in B. F. Foster’s Double Entry eluc. (1852), PreF. p. iii. Let it be supposed that the account of Stock is a real person employed to take care of my estate, and to render an account of the improvement he has made of it.

558 1771.  Encycl. Brit., I. 589/2. Therefore this accompt is closed, by being debited or credited to or by Stock, for the difference of its sides. Ibid., 593/2. Accordingly in your new Journal, the several particulars on the Dr side must all of them be made Drs to Stock. Ibid. (c. 1789), (ed. 3), III. 368/2. Thirdly, Accounts of Stock, Profit, and Loss.

559 1828–32.  Webster, Stock, in book-keeping, the owner or owners of the books.

560 1852.  B. F. Foster, Double Entry eluc. (ed. 5), 4. When the assets exceed the debts, Stock or the proprietor is a creditor for the surplus, or, in the event of insolvency debtor for the deficiency.

561   †  51.  Money, or a sum of money, invested by a person in a partnership or commercial company. Obs.

562 c. 1645.  Howell, Lett. (1650), II. 12. By reason of the generality of commerce,—the banks, adventures, the common shares and stocks which most have in the Indian and other companies,—the wealth doth diffuse it self here in a strange kind of equality.

563 1647.  Clarendon, Hist. Reb., IV. § 248. They [the Commons] were no way guilty of the troubles, the fears, and public dangers, which made men withdraw their stocks, and keep their money by them.

564 1685.  Caldwell Papers (Maitl. Club), I. 146. The East India Companie … had very little advantage … which he had reason to know, because he himselfe had a stock in it.

565   fig.  1686.  Goad, Celest. Bodies, III. ii. 434. When I consider that I do hereby advance a Stock towards the Discovery of the Cause, whether Celestial or no, I shall find some Mitigation of Censure.

566 1710.  Steele, Tatler, No. 225, ¶ 2. All … Deviations from the Design of pleasing each other when we meet, are derived from Interlopers in Society, who want Capacity to put in a Stock among regular Companions.

567   52.  The subscribed capital of a trading company, or the public debt of a nation, municipal corporation, or the like, regarded as transferable property held by the subscribers or creditors, and subject to fluctuations in market value. Also, in particularized sense, a kind of stock, a particular fund in which money may be invested.

568   In expressions like to buy or sell stocks, the word may be partly an application of sense 42, ‘tally.’ Cf. quot. 1714 under that sense.

569   In modern British use the application of the word is narrowed; the subscribed capital of a public company is called shares when it is divided into portions of uniform amount, and stock when any desired amount may be bought or sold. In British use, also, when there is no specific indication, stock is usually taken to refer to those portions of the National Debt, the principal of which is not repayable, the government being pledged only to the payment of interest in perpetuity.

570 a. 1692.  Pollexfen, Disc. Trade (1697), A 4 b. Whether any profit can arise to the Nation by the advance of Stocks.

571 1708.  Swift, Abol. Chr. Misc. (1711), 181. The Bank, and East-India Stock, may fall at least One per Cent.

572 1714.  J. Macky, Journ. Eng., I. ix. 113. You will see Fellows, in shabby Cloaths, Selling Ten or Twelve Thousand Pounds in Stock, though perhaps he mayn’t be worth at the same time Ten Shillings.

573 a. 1763.  W. King, Pol. & Lit. Anecd. (1819), 105. Sir William. had a fair estate in land, a large sum of money in the stocks, and [etc.].

574 1777.  Sheridan, Sch. Scand., III. i. He is forced to sell stock at a great loss.

575 1781.  D. Hartley, Consid. Renewal Bank Charter, 18. One hundred pounds of Bank stock is now worth about 110l.

576 1784.  Cowper, Task, IV. 16. The fall of stocks.

577 1842.  Penny Cycl., XXIII. 71/2. Stocks, a term applied to the various ‘Funds’ which constitute the national debt.

578 1845.  McCulloch, Taxation, III. ii. (1852), 450. Though it be true … that four and five per cent. stocks have always borne a lower relative value in the market than three per cent. stock, it is not true that [etc.].

579 1889.  Act 52 & 53 Vict., c. 32 § 9. The expression ‘stock’ shall include fully paid-up shares.

580 1898.  W. J. Greenwood, Business Pract., 42. Stock, Capital in a lump sum divisible into unequal amounts, large or small, to suit investors, instead of in shares of fixed or equal instalments. English Government Consols are of this kind; also the stocks of some railway companies.

581 1913.  Times, 9 Aug., 17/6. Furness stock did not move on the announcement of an interim dividend at the rate of 2 per cent.

582   b.  fig. phrase (colloq. or slang). To take (large, etc.) stock in (rarely of): to be interested in, attach importance to give credence to.

583 1878.  Masque of Poets, 216. All which I do most potently believe, Taking large stock in Natural Selection.

584 1883.  Homiletic Rev., Aug., 134. Educated, and I believe scientific men, took stock in it [Blue Glass theory of cure].

585 1891.  Bret Harte, First Family Tasajara, v. I never took stock of that story.

586 1902.  Daily Chron., 1 April, 6/3. There are many tales of the manifestation of natural gas in Sussex, which I do not take much stock in.

587   53.  A collective term for the implements (dead stock) and the animals (live stock) employed in the working of a farm, an industrial establishment, etc. See also ROLLING STOCK.

588 1519.  N. C. Wills (Surtees, 1908), I. 106. That my sonne … have my ferme of Lenwyke … with the stocke theruppon.

589 a. 1676.  Hale, Prim. Orig. Man. (1677), 214. The Stock being exhausted one Year, left little for the supply of Tillage, Husbandry, or Increase for the next.

590 1788.  Priestley, Lect. Hist., V. xliv. 324. Cattle … bear a much lower price than corn, which requires more art, labour, and stock to raise it.

591 1826.  Art of Brewing (ed. 2), 140. The costs of rents, of taxes, of agricultural stock, and of labourers’ wages, are much less now than heretofore in our memory they have been.

592 1836.  [Mrs. Traill], Backwoods of Canada, 26. Live and dead stock that go or are taken on board.

593 1841.  W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., III. 246. The tenant was to find his own stock and tools.

594 1851.  Greenwell, Coal-Trade Terms Northumb. & Durh., 52. Colliery stock comprises the establishment of engines, waggons, horses, and materials of every description requisite to carry on a colliery.

595 1863.  H. Cox, Instit., III. v. 658. Inspectors, who report on the sufficiency of the works and stocks of railways.

596   † b.  Scots Law. Stock and teind: the gross produce of a farm, fishery, etc., without deduction of the tithe. Obs.

597 1574.  in Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1586, 367/2. Que salina esset libera a decimis, eo quod decime nunquam solite sunt separari, sed una lie stok et teind intromissa sunt.

598 1588.  Reg. Privy Council Scot., IV. 280. Baith stok and teind thairof.

599 [1651.  in Agnew, Hered. Sheriffs Galloway (1893), II. 73. Salcharie pays in stock and teind thretty bolls victual, 300 marks money.]

600   54.  spec. = LIVE STOCK; the animals on a farm; also, a collective term for horses, cattle and sheep bred for use or profit.

601 1523–34.  Fitzherb., Husb., 39. It is conuenient, that he rere two oxe calues, and two cowe calues at the least, to vpholde his stocke.

602 1608.  Rowlands, Humors Looking Glasse (1872), 15. This poore man had a Cow twas all his stocke.

603 1649.  Milton, Eikon., 220. The people he accounts his Heard, his Cattell, the Stock upon his ground.

604 1660.  F. Brooke, trans. Le Blanc’s Trav., 348. They keep stocks of tame Deer.

605 1744.  M. Bishop, Life & Adv., 4. I frequently rode out with him in a Morning to look at his Stock.

606 1796.  W. H. Marshall, Yorksh. (ed. 2), II. 347. Stock; livestock.

607 1801.  Farmer’s Mag., April, 228. Drovers are now buying lean stock briskly at good prices.

608 1818.  Scott, Hrt. Midl., xliv. The proofs he had given of his skill in managing stock.

609 1851.  H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, § 4065 (1855), II. 240/1. Salted hay is much relished by all kinds of stock.

610 1890.  ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer, ix. But few stock were visible on the plain.

611   b.  Applied to slaves.

612 1828–32.  Webster, Stock, in the West Indies, the slaves of a plantation.

613 1837.  Ht. Martineau, Soc. Amer., II. 41. Her [Virginia’s] revenue is chiefly derived from the rearing of slaves as stock for the southern market.

614   55.  A quantity (of something specified, whether material or immaterial) accumulated for future use; a store or provision to be drawn upon as occasion requires. Phrase, to lay in a stock.

615 1638.  Rous, Heav. Acad., i. 4. Let him gather a stock of them, and lay them up for his use.

616 1639.  Fuller, Holy War, III. xi. (1640), 126. A Prince (as writers report) having a sufficient stock of valour in himself, but little happy in expressing it.

617 a. 1662.  Heylin, Laud (1668), 391. By making this agreement with them he put them into such a stock of Reputation, that [etc.].

618 1693.  C. Dryden, Juvenal’s Sat., VII. 200. But oh, what stock of Patience wants the Fool, Who wastes his Time and Breath in teaching School!

619 1711.  in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 142. When he has acquir’d to himself a good stock of reputation perhaps he will not envy ours.

620 1728.  Gay, Lett. to Swift, 16 May. I … am in hopes to lay in a stock of health.

621 1738.  Common Sense (1739), II. 112. She dyes, alters, and turns her little Stock of Finery into all the Changes which Fancy and Affectation produce in every Brain of Quality.

622 1750.  Johnson, Rambler, No. 109, ¶ 1. You have not yet exhausted the whole stock of human infelicity.

623 1771.  Franklin, Autobiog., Wks. 1840, I. 18. I wanted a stock of words.

624 1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist., II. 133. When … a stock of provisions sufficient to support them the whole way, would be more than they could carry,… they [etc.].

625 1790.  Burke, Fr. Rev., Wks. 1808, V. 273. That stock of general truth, for the branches of which they contended with their blood.

626 1804.  Med. Jrnl., XII. 305. It is frequently observed in the inoculated cow-pox. I have seen it … after I had been using matter from the same stock for upwards of three years.

627 1812.  Shelley, Devil’s Walk, xvi. For he is fat,… How vast his stock of calf!

628 1843.  [Pycroft], Hints to Freshmen, 16. Lay in a stock of Bryant’s Regalias and Castle’s Sylvas, to acquire condition in your absence.

629 1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xii. III. 228. The stock of cannon balls was almost exhausted.

630 1907.  J. A. Hodges, Elem. Photogr. (ed. 6), 81. An ever-increasing stock of glass negatives.

631   † b.  Complement of population; also, a large number (of persons). Obs.

632 1674.  T. Lower, in Jrnl. Friends Hist. Soc. (1913), July, 144. Seeinge such stockes of Quakers did resort to him.

633 1690.  Child, Disc. Trade (1698), 246. With us, after that with long civil wars the land was half unpeopled, so as till of late years, it came not to its full stock of people again.

634   c.  Mining. (See quot.)

635 1709.  T. Robinson, Nat. Hist. Westm. & Cumb., xv. 85. To see that rich Vein, and the Stock of Ore upon the Bank, which was like a little Mountain.

636 1886.  G. P. Merrill, in Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst., II. (1889), 525. Stock, the useful rock taken from a quarry.

637 1909.  Century Dict., Suppl., Stock, the material removed from a quarry which is of suitable size to be worked into marketable articles.

638   56.  The aggregate of goods, or of some specified kind of goods, which a trader has on hand as a provision for the possible future requirements of customers.

639 1696–7.  Act 8 & 9 Will. III., c. 7 § 10. The several Stockes of Paper Parchment Pastboard or Vellum.

640 1736.  Gentl. Mag., VI. 591/2. They all brew great Quantities, which they keep by them as a Stock in Hand.

641 1814.  Scott, Lett., in Lockhart (1837), III. x. 322. That having resolved, as they are aware, to relinquish publishing, you only wish to avail yourselves of this offer to the extent of helping off some of your stock.

642 1833.  Ht. Martineau, Loom & Lugger, II. ii. 21. She might look through her father’s stock many times.

643 1833.  J. Holland, Manuf. Metals, II. 112. A large depôt of arms had been established in the Tower; and it was known to some in the trade, that of this warlike stock the government were desirous to dispose.

644 1848.  Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxxv. The sculptors of those days had stocks of such funereal emblems in hand.

645 1851.  Hawthorne, Ho. Sev. Gables, v. (1852), 59. ‘We must renew our stock, Cousin Hepzibah!’ cried the little saleswoman.

646 1868.  M. Pattison, Academ. Org., v. 167. We have not cared to keep on hand a larger stock than we could dispose of in the season.

647 1881.  W. S. Gilbert, Foggerty’s Fairy, I. (1895), 35. You are in trade?… So am I. Wholesale. What’s your stock? Tal. Mine’s cheese.

648 1885.  Manch. Exam., 3 June, 5/3. The market is reported to be glutted, and the production has of late been largely going into stock.

649 1899.  Daily News, 1 Nov., 3/1. The authorities at Enfield say that they are well supplied with these guns out at the Cape, and that they are working for stock.

650   b.  Take stock. In commercial use, to make an inventory of the merchandise, furniture, etc., in one’s own (rarely in another’s) possession, recording its quantity and present value. Hence fig., to make a careful estimate of one’s position with regard to resources, prospects, or the like. To take stock of: to reckon up, evaluate; also colloq. to scrutinize (a person) with suspicion or interest.

651 1736.  Country Jrnl. or Craftsman, 14 Aug., 1/1. [Innkeeper to Exciseman] Goodmorrow … Mr. Gage … I hope you have no Information against Me … Did you not take Stock but last Night?

652 1825.  Coleridge, Aids Refl. (1831), 184. How vague and general these [thoughts] are even on objects of Sense, the few who at a mature age have seriously set about the discipline of their faculties, and have honestly taken stock, best know by recollection of their own state.

653 1826.  New Monthly Mag., XVI. 19. It may therefore be worth while at this commencement of a new year for us to balance accounts with our readers, and, in the trader’s phrase, to ‘take stock.’

654 1840.  Macaulay, Ess., Clive, ¶ 7. The business of the servant of the Company was not, as now, to conduct the judicial, financial, and diplomatic business of a great country, but to take stock [etc.].

655 1857.  Borrow, Romany Rye, xlvi. One day, being at a place called the Escurial, I took stock, as the tradesmen say, and found I possessed the sum of eighty dollars won by playing at cards.

656 1865.  Slang Dict., 247. To take stock of one, to scrutinize narrowly one whom you have reason to suspect.

657 1867.  W. Johnson, in Farrar, Ess. Lib. Educ. (1867), 333. You will find the historian taking stock of human knowledge for the end of the Middle Ages.

658 1877–81.  Voyle & Stevenson, Milit. Dict., Suppl. 36/2. A combatant officer appointed to ‘take stock,’ either at home or abroad, is entitled to receive extra pay of 5s. a day.

659 1883.  Froude, Short Stud., IV. II. i. 166. It is, perhaps,… occasionally well to take stock of our mental experience.

660 1885.  Miss Braddon, Wyllard’s Weird, ii. How is it that you who are so sharp could not contrive to spot him when you took stock of the passengers?

661 1893.  Times, 30 May, 9/3. It is always the custom with practical politicians to take stock of what has been done … and what can be done.

662 1896.  N. & Q., Ser. VIII. IX. 158/2. A narrow squint window at the back of one of them enabled its occupant to take stock of any one who might knock at the door of his neighbour.

663   c.  In stock: in the possession of the trader.

664 1618.  in J. Charnock, Hist. Mar. Archit. (1801), II. 237. There will remaine in stock at Deptford 738 t. 14 c. 0 q. 9 lb.

665 1891.  Law Rep., Weekly Notes, 44/1. The defendant had about forty copies of the impression in stock which he desired to sell.

666 1898.  W. J. Greenwood, Commerc. Corresp. (ed. 2), 3. I intend to dispose of the whole of the goods in stock.

667   57.  The liquor made by boiling meat (with or without vegetables, etc.) and used as a foundation for soup.

668 1764.  Eliz. Moxon, Eng. Housew. (ed. 2), 119. You must make your stock the day before you use it.

669 1844.  Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 169. Its decoction forms an excellent stock for various dishes.

670 1870.  Dickens, E. Drood, vi. Stock for soup became fragrant in the air of Minor Canon Corner.

671 1886.  Sat. Rev., 6 March, 328/2. Vatel himself … would not have hesitated to make a stock for his master Condé, or his king Louis the Magnificent, out of cod’s-heads.

672   b.  gen. The raw material from which anything is made; material. Chiefly with prefixed word as in PAPER-stock, soap-stock.

673 1873.  E. Spon, Workshop Rec., Ser. I. 350. In its natural state, fat … is always associated with … foreign matters, which must be separated before it can be used as candle stock.

674 1875.  Paper-stock [see PAPER sb. 12].

675 1882.  Encycl. Brit., XIV. 384/2. In these the stock is exposed to the strongest tanning liquors.

676   58.  Card-playing. a. In certain games, the portion of the pack of cards that is not dealt out, but left on the table to be drawn from according to the rules of the game.

677   [Cf. Du. stok, Norw. stokk, in the same sense.]

678 1584.  R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., XIII. xxvii. (1886), 273. Throw upon the Stocke the nether card.

679 1607.  Heywood, Wom. Killed w. Kindn. (1617), E 2 b. This Queene I haue more then mine owne, you see. Giue me the stocke.

680 1674.  Cotton, Compl. Gamester, vi. (1680), 65. [Gleek] The Dealer delivers the Cards by four till every one hath twelve, and the rest are laid on the Table, for the Stock, being in number eight. Ibid., vii. 69. [L’Ombre] There will remain thirteen Cards in the Stock.

681 1732.  Swift, Poems, Beasts’ Confess., 193. He heard there was a club of cheats, Who … Could change the stock, or cog a dye.

682 1830.  Hardie, Hoyle, 44. (Piquet) Talon, or stock, is the eight remaining cards, after twelve are dealt to each person.

683 1878.  H. Gibbs, Ombre, 19. After dealing he places the remaining thirteen cards before him, and they are called the Stock.

684   b.  The set of cards used in a particular game (whether a pack, or one or more incomplete packs).

685 1584.  R. W., Three Ladies Lond., II. A iiij. Nowe all the Cardes in the stock are delte about.

686 1895.  G. J. Manson, Sporting Dict., [In Bezique.] Stock, the number of packs of cards corresponding with the number of players, shuffled together and ready to be dealt.

687   † c.  = HAND sb. 23. Obs.

688 1637.  Rutherford, Lett. (1836), I. 357. That Kirk and Commonwealth are in his hand, like a stock of cards, and that he dealeth the play to the mourners of Zion [etc.].

689 c. 1641.  Cleveland, Smectymnuus, Poems (1677), 39. So many Cards ith’ Stock, and yet be bilk’d?

690 1659.  Shuffling, Cutting & Dealing, 6. Shall I not play? My Lord Protector hath given me a Stock, and I’le pack the Cards with all the Cavalier-Gamesters in the Town.

691   VII.  59. In imitation of compounds like LEANING-stock, WHIPPING-stock, where the sb. has the sense 1 b or 5, there have been formed many combinations of stock with a preceding vbl. sb., which designate a person as the habitual object of some kind of contemptuous or unpleasant treatment. (There is probably in these formations some notion of sense 1 c, the implication being that the person is treated as if incapable of feeling.) Examples, which appear in this Dictionary as main words or under their first element, are floating-, gauring, gazing-, jesting-, laughing-, mocking-, pointing-, sporting-, talking-, torturing-stock; the following quots. contain one or two nonce-words that have not been registered in their alphabetical place.

692 1545.  Hen. VIII., Sp. Parlt. (1642), A 4. Not to dispute, and make Scripture a railing and taunting-stocke against Priests and Preachers.

693 1580.  Lyly, Euphues & his England (Arb.), 444. Then shall you be like stars to the wise, who are now but staring stockes to the foolish.

694 1630.  B. Jonson, New Inn, I. vi. (1631), C 2. Therefore [she] might indifferently be made The courting-stock, for all to practise on.

695   VIII.  Combinations.

696   60.  Similatively (with ref. to sense 1 c), as † stock-log; stock-headed, -like adjs. Also stock-blind, -dead, -deaf adjs., as blind (etc.) as a stock. Hence perh. stock-full a. rare–1, chock-full, cram-full. Also STOCK STILL.

697   [Cf. Du. stokblind, G. stockblind; G. stocktaub stock-deaf; Du. stokstijf, G. stocksteif stiff as a poker; Du. stokoud very old; G. stockdunkel, -finster pitch-dark.]

698 1675.  Wycherley, Country Wife, II. i. 21. True Lovers are blind, *stockblind.

699 1802.  Beddoes, Hygëia, I. 32. He was stock-blind; so could not judge of me by my exterior.

700 1662.  J. Davies, trans. Olearius’ Voy. Ambass., 136. A corpulent, fat Man … fell down *stock-dead, as soon as he came to the shrine.

701 1865.  Tylor, Early Hist. Man., iv. 71. Though he is *‘stock-deaf,’ he has a bodily feeling of music, and different instruments have different effects upon him.

702 1782.  Miss Burney, Cecilia, V. xii. I’m sure the garden is so *stock full, that if there was to come many more, I don’t know where they could cram ’em.

703 1904.  M. Hewlett, Queen’s Quair, II. vii. 279. That *stock-headed starer out of painted eyes.

704 1878.  Browning, Poets Croisic, lxi. Does he stand *stock-like henceforth?

705 1689.  Hickeringill, Ceremony-Monger, iii. Wks. 1709, II. 408. [My Ceremony-Monger] is the great *Stock-Logg of the Church, that has neither Fire nor heat within.

706   61.  In sense 4, as stock-grower, † -head; † stock-grafted a., grafted by means of a slit or cleft in the stock; † stock-grafting, cleft-grafting.

707 1523–34.  Fitzherb., Husb., § 138. Take toughe cleye … and ley it vppon the stocke-heed.

708 1707.  Mortimer, Husb. (1721), II. 265. Medlars may be cleft, or Stock-grafted, on the White Thorn.

709 1731.  Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Grafting, Cleft Grafting, which is also call’d Stock or Slit-grafting.

710 1842.  Loudon, Suburban Hort., 562. As practised by the stock-growers in propagating plum and Paradise stocks.

711   62.  In sense 52, as stock †-bill, -board, -dealer, -list, † -office, -watering; stock certificate, a document issued by the Treasury, entitling the holder to a certain amount of a particular government stock; stock-indicator, -ticker, a telegraphic instrument for recording variations in the price of stock; stock receipt (see quot.). Also STOCKBROKER, etc.

712 1760–72.  H. Brooke, Fool of Quality (1809), IV. 80. [He] produced bank and *stock bills to the amount of … five thousand pounds.

713 1872.  T. L. Cuyler, Heart-Life, 123. The reckless gambling operations of *stock-boards or ‘the street.’

714 1863.  Act 26 & 27 Vict., c. 28 § 6. A *Stock Certificate … shall entitle the Bearer to the Stock therein described.

715 1902.  Westm. Gaz., 30 Sept., 10/1. A firm of *stock-dealers.

716 1891.  Century Dict., *Stock-indicator.

717 1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Stock-list, a list published daily or periodically, enumerating the leading stocks dealt in; the prices current; the actual transactions, etc.

718 1737.  J. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., II. (ed. 33), 171. (South Sea office) Chief Clerk of the *Stock-office.

719 1901.  Cordingley, Dict. Stock Exch. Terms, 86. *Stock Receipt. This is a Receipt, in printed form, filled in by the seller of Consols and other Registered Stocks and given by him to the buyer at the time the transfer is made.

720 1886.  Boston (Mass.) Jrnl., 17 July, 2/3. The *Stock Ticker.

721 1899.  Westm. Gaz., 20 April, 10/2. A narrow strip of paper resembling a stock-ticker tape.

722 1883.  Nation (N. Y.), 11 Oct., 307/2. *‘Stock-watering’ means simply an increase in the number of shares into which the property of a corporation is divided.

723   63.  In sense 54, as stock-breeder, -car, -dealer, -farm, -farmer, -farming, -feed, -feeding, -food, -grower, -house, † -husbandry, -master, -minder, -owner, -raiser, -raising, -ranch, -range, -run, -station, -train, yard; stock-horse Austral., a horse trained to carry a stock-rider; stock-hut Austral., the hut of a stockman; stock-rider Austral., a man employed to ride after cattle on an unfenced station; stock-riding, the occupation of a stock-rider; stock-route Austral., a right of way for travelling cattle through occupied land; stock-whip Austral., a whip for driving cattle. Also STOCKHOLDER, -KEEPER (etc.), STOCKMAN.

724 1815.  Sporting Mag., XLV. 194. Mr. George Flower … Merino *stock-breeder.

725 1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., 2390. *Stock-car, a railway-car for carrying cattle, horses, sheep, hogs, etc.

726 1898.  Kipling, Day’s Work, 222. There were oil-cars, and hay-cars, and stock-cars full of lowing beasts.

727 1885.  Manch. Exam., 17 March, 5/2. Duties on live meat in Germany fail in protecting *stockdealers.

728 1806.  Sydney Gaz., in O’Hara, Hist. N. S. Wales (1817), 289. Well adapted either to an arable or *stock farm.

729 1768.  Ann. Reg., 149. The *stock farmers have greatly suffered, as the lambs were much hurt.

730 1865.  Trollope, Belton Est., xvi. 183. In *stock-farming the chief thing is not to have too many beasts.

731 1915.  Edin. Rev., Jan., 83. The Ana (or Aana) tree … is said to give the best *stock-feed in the whole world.

732 1879.  Cassell’s Techn. Educ., III. 37. Crops used for *stock-feeding.

733 1894.  Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., Dec., 646. A proportion of the produce grown is retained on the farm, as *stock-food or litter.

734 1876.  Chamb. Jrnl., 30 Dec., 845/1. The experience of *stock-growers from all sections for the last few years has proved [etc.].

735 1865.  H. Kingsley, Hillyars & Burtons, l. An aged *stockhorse, which I had bought very cheap.

736 1808.  Sydney Gaz., in O’Hara, Hist. N.S. Wales (1817), 317. To be sold … with a good dwelling-house, barn, stable, *stock-houses, and a capital stock-yard.

737 1801.  Farmer’s Mag., Aug., 285. The general run of the soil of this tract … renders it very eligible for what is called the *stock-husbandry.

738 1828.  P. Cunningham, N. S. Wales (ed. 3), II. 30. They … paid a visit to a *stock hut inhabited by three freemen, at Putty.

739 1864.  Intell. Observer, IV. Jan., 390–1. Veterinarians, sheep-breeders, *stock-masters, and others practically acquainted with the diseases of our domesticated animals.

740 1859.  Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), 451. *Stock-minder, one who takes care of cattle on the great prairies.

741 1865.  Daily Tel., 18 Oct., 6/4. Thus, by promptitude, the Belgian Government has conferred a great boon on its people, and especially on its *stock-owners [by checking a cattle plague].

742 1874.  Raymond, 6th Rep. Mines, 314. A part … of the large grant … on which numerous ranch-men and *stock-raisers are said to have settled.

743 1868.  Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 148. Study of plants, meadows, and *stock-raising.

744 1876.  Chamb. Jrnl., 30 Dec., 845/1. Eventually the stock-raising interests will be driven to the northern buffalo grass region.

745 1871.  in S. De Vere, Americanisms (1872), 129. An estancia or *stock-ranch.

746 1859.  Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), 451. *Stock-range, the prairie or plain where cattle range or graze.

747 1882.  E. V. Smalley, in Century Mag., Aug., 511/1. The hill country is all open as a stock-range.

748 1862.  Cornhill Mag., Jan., 31. Broke in by one of my *stock-riders up to fifteen stone.

749 1872.  Routledge’s Ev. Boy’s Ann., 108/1. The Grant brothers had been doing some very tidy bits of *stock-riding too.

750 1890.  ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer, xviii. The stock-riding contingent.

751 1886.  P. Clarke, ‘New Chum’ in Austral., 197. I saw it [a colt] on the *stock-route to Bathurst.

752 1828.  P. Cunningham, N. S. Wales (ed. 3), II. 147. You oblige the settler to improve the grant, instead of keeping it as a mere *stock-run.

753 1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Stock-station, a district for rearing and herding cattle.

754 1859.  Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), 451. *Stock-train, a train of railroad cars loaded with cattle.

755 1857.  W. Howitt, Tallangetta, I. 100. The *stock-whip, with a handle about half a yard long and a thong of three yards long, of plaited bullock-hide, is a terrible instrument in the hands of a practised stockman.

756 1802.  Barrington’s Hist. N. S. Wales, x. 373. A young ox was missed from the *stock-yard at Toongabbe.

757 1858.  R. S. Surtees, Ask Mamma, lxvi. 300. The first result we see of a gentleman farming being the increase of the size of his stock-yard.

758   b.  Indicating an animal that is chosen or kept for breeding purposes, as stock dog, mare, etc. Also stock-getter.

759 1801.  Farmer’s Mag., April, 222. The season throughout has been remarkably favourable to stock sheep.

760 1851–61.  Mayhew, Lond. Labour, III. 15/2. A black tan terrier … which was the greatest stock dog in London of that day.

761 1854.  Poultry Chron., II. 404. The purchase of fowls intended for stock-birds should not now be delayed.

762 1862.  Cornhill Mag., Jan., 31. A handsome little stock-mare.

763 1862.  H. H. Dixon, Scott & Sebright, iii. 165. Till within the last three years, he [a stallion] was a very sure stock-getter.

764 1886.  C. Scott, Sheep-Farming, 74. It is only advisable with some very special stock-ram, whose progeny are valuable.

765 1891.  Century Dict., Stock-fish,… fish adapted or used for stocking rivers, ponds, lakes, etc.

766 1909.  Westm. Gaz., 13 Feb., 16/2. Another hundred good stock trout have been placed in the Henley waters.

767 1909.  H. W. C. Newte, in Chamb. Jrnl., April, 219/1. It is very difficult to get good stock-ducks of the pure Aylesbury strain.

768   64.  In names of birds: stock annet, the common sheldrake, Tadorna cornuta; stock drake (cf. Da. stok-, Norw. stokk-, Sw. stock-and), duck, the mallard or wild duck, Anas boscas; stock eagle, -eekle, etc. [HICKWALL] dial., the green woodpecker; stock owl, the eagle owl, Bubo ignavus; stock pigeon = STOCK-DOVE; stock whaup, the curlew, Numenius arquata.

769 1852.  Macgillivray, Brit. Birds, V. 22. Tadorna Vulpanser.… *Stockannet.

770 1772.  Forster, in Phil. Trans., LXII. 419. Mallard Drake…. It is called *Stock Drake at Hudson’s Bay.

771 1805.  G. Barry, Hist. Orkney Isl., 301. The Mallard,… our *stockduck.

772 1884.  Upton-on-Severn Gloss., *Stock-eekle, n. A woodpecker.

773 1899.  A. H. Evans, Birds (Camb. Nat. Hist.), 463. With which name [sc. ‘Log-cocks’] may be compared that of ‘Stock-eagle,’ i.e. ‘Stump-eagle,’ given in the West of England to the Greater Spotted Woodpecker.

774 a. 1688.  J. Wallace, Descr. Isl. Orkney (1693), ii. 16. Sometime the *Stock-oul and Bittern have been seen in this country.

775 1805.  G. Barry, Hist. Orkney Isl., 312. The Eagle Owl…, our katogle or stock-owl.

776 1783.  Latham, Gen. Synopsis Birds, II. II. 604. *Stock Pigeon, Columba ænas.

777 1813.  G. Low, Fauna Orcad., 80. The larger curlew, called here *Stock-Whap.

778   65.  Miscellaneous special comb.: stock account Book-keeping (see 50 b); stock beer, beer that is stored for ripening before being drunk; stock-board, (a) the wooden board that forms the bottom of a brick-mold; (b) in an organ, the upper board of a soundboard, above the sliders, on which the pipes immediately rest; (c) see 62; stock-book, a book in which an account is kept of goods in stock; † stock-bow, a crossbow; stock-brick [cf. sense 15], a hard solid brick, pressed in the mold; stock-brush, a brush with the bristles set in a flat stock or head; † stock-buckle, a buckle used to secure the stock or cravat; stock-company, (a) ? a joint-stock company; (b) a company the capital of which is represented by stock; † stockis-dynt Sc. = stingis-dint (see STING sb.1 3); † stock-drawers, stockings; stock-father, the progenitor of a stock or race; † stock-fowler, a kind of cannon or mortar (cf. stock-gun and FOWLER 3); stock-frost local, ground-ice; stock-gang, a ‘gang’ or set of mill-saws arranged to cut a log into boards at one passage through the machine; † stock-gold Theatr., ‘property’ gold; † stock-gun (cf. stock-fowler); † stock-honey (see quot.); † stock-hose, hose of stout material worn over thinner hose; † stock-house, a prison where offenders were set in the stocks; stock-ice local = stock-frost; stock-knife, † (a) ? a knife for cutting wood; (b) a cutting instrument pivoted on a block (cf. stock-shave); stock-maker, a maker † (a) of gun-carriages; (b) of musket-stocks; (c) see quot. 1858; † stock-nail [cf. MDu. stoknagel], a thick nail; stock-nut, the hazel-nut; stock-pot, a pot in which stock for soups is boiled and kept; also fig.; † stock-punished pa. pple., punished by being set in the stocks; stock-purse, a fund kept for the common purposes of a group of persons; stock-room, (a) a room in which reserve stock is stored; (b) a room in a hotel in which commercial travellers display their samples; stock-saddle, † (a) Sc. ? a saddle with a wooden tree; (b) in the Western U.S., a saddle with a heavy tree and steel horn to give resistance in using a lariat; stock-saw, a saw used in a stock-gang; stock-shave (see quot.); stock-shears (see quot.); † stock-sleeve (see quot.); † stock-starve v. trans., to keep (a tradesman) short of stock; stock-stone, a flat stone fixed in a handle, used for scouring and stretching leather; stock-tackle Naut., a tackle used for raising the stock of an anchor perpendicular; stock-trail, used attrib. to designate a gun-carriage in which the trail at the end of the stock rests upon the ground when the gun is unlimbered for firing; † stock-tree Sc., ? a wooden saddle-tree; † stock-wheel Sc., ? a wheel for a gun-carriage.

779 1771.  Encycl. Brit., I. 589/2. *Stock-accompt … contains, upon the Dr side, the debts due by the merchant when the books were begun. The Cr side contains his ready money, effects, and debts due to him at the same time.

780 1826.  Art of Brewing (ed. 2), 64. Keep some *stock beer for flavouring your best ale.

781 1836.  Penny Cycl., V. 404/2. The beer is by this means also rendered flat, which is necessary for stock or store beer that is to be kept some time before coming into use.

782 1850.  E. Dobson, Bricks & Tiles, I. 33. The brick mould is placed on a *stock board, which is made to fit the bottom of the mould.

783 1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., Stock-board [in an organ].

784 1901.  Westm. Gaz., 27 Aug., 2/1. The President … seats himself, pen in hand, at the [canteen] *stock-book, while the subalterns run over the different articles.

785 1598.  Florio, Balista,… a crosse-bow, a *stock-bow or tillar.

786 [1887.  Kent. Gloss., Stock-bow, a cross-bow.]

787 1683.  J. Houghton, Collect. Lett. Improv. Husb., II. VI. 186. We make two sorts of Bricks, Viz. *Stock-Bricks and Place-Bricks; the Stock-Bricks are made solid, strong, and … hard.

788 1703.  R. Neve, City & C. Purchaser, 42. Stock-bricks … are made upon a Stock, viz. The Mold is put on a Stock, after the manner of Molding, or Striking of Tiles.

789 1883.  Specif. Alnwick & Cornhill Rlwy., 3. The whole of the bricks for the face of any work … of the arches are to be stock bricks.

790 1693.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 249. Brishes, of three sorts, viz. A *Stock Brish, a Round Brish, and a Pencil. With these Brishes, they wet old Walls before they mend them.

791 1876.  Encycl. Brit., IV. 403/2. Brushes with the tufts placed side by side on flat boards, as plasterers’ brushes, are called stock-brushes.

792 1748.  Smollett, Rod. Rand., xliv. A diamond *stock-buckle.

793 1815.  Scott, Guy M., xxxvii. A well-brushed black suit, with very clean shoes and gold buckles and stock-buckle. Ibid. (1827), Surg. Dau., Pref. Half-ashamed,… yet half-proud of the literary *stock-company, in which he has got a share.

794 1905.  Outlook, 7 Oct., 471/1. Within the last two years there have been three exposures of gigantic stock-company frauds [in America].

795 14[?].  Burgh Lawis, xvii. in Anc. Laws Scot. (Burgh Rec. Soc.), 10. It is to wyt at in burgh sall nocht be herde bludewyt na yit *stockisdynt na merchet [etc.].

796 1676.  Coles, Dict., *Stock-drawers, stockings.

797 1600.  Holland, Livy, V. xxiv. 196. Romulus … the first *Stocke-father and beginner of the cittie of Rome.

798 c. 1640.  J. Smyth, Lives Berkeleys (1883), I. 207. Hee is the stock-father of that honored family of the Berkeleys of Wymondham.

799 1895.  W. P. W. Phillimore, in New Eng. Gen. Hist. Register, Oct., 450. Edward Garfield, of Watertown, Mass., the stock-father of the American family.

800 1669.  Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., I. ii. 19. See that our Murtherers and *Stockfowlers have their Chambers fill’d with good Powder.

801 1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. xviii. (Roxb.), 138/1. They are of some called Murthers and slings, or sling peeces, because they are slung in their holds to turne any way. Some call them Stockfowlers; and Fowlers or Foulers.

802 1856.  N. & Q., Ser. II. I. 151/2. *Stock-frost…. The watermen of Norfolk unanimously believe in the possibility of the water freezing at the bottom of a river.

803 1908.  Nature, 30 Jan., 295/2. What is locally called ‘stock frost’ … is known to the scientific world … as ‘ground ice.’

804 1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., *Stock-gang.

805 1880.  Lumberman’s Gaz., Jan., 28. They [i.e., the rafts] are then cut into boards by ‘stock gang’ saws.

806 1713.  Guardian, No. 95, ¶ 1. Fourscore Pieces of *Stock-Gold, and thirty Pieces of Tin-Silver.

807 1465.  Paston Lett., III. 436. Item, a *stokke gonne with iij. chambers.

808 1750.  W. Ellis, Mod. Husb., V. i. 106 (E. D. S.). Those bees that swarmed the year before, we take up now, and then it is called *stock-honey.

809 1638.  Junius, Paint. Ancients, 155. They afterwards begun to use hose, drawing over them some thicker kind of *stock-hose.

810 1553.  in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford (1880), 215. They … had him … to Bocardo, and did sette him in the *stocke howse.

811 1725.  Lond. Gaz., No. 6403/4. Prisoner in the Stockhouse or Goal of Kingstone.

812 1879.  Hardwicke’s Sci.-Gossip, XV. 142/2. What are the phenomena which go, in the Norfolk district at least, by the name … of ‘stock-frost,’ *‘stock-ice?’

813 1583.  Rates Custom Ho., C viij. Kniues called *stock kniues course vngilt the dosen, xvi.s. viii. d.

814 1799.  J. Wood, Princ. Mechanics, iv. (ed. 2), 93. Those [levers] in which the forces act on contrary sides of the center of motion,… and those in which they act on the same side, as the stock knife.

815 1579.  Reg. Privy Council Scot., III. 205. Wrichtis, *Stokmakaris and Quheill makaris.

816 1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. V. vi. Deft Stock-makers do gouge and rasp.

817 1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Stock-maker, a manufacturer of stiff neck-bands worn by men.

818 1596.  Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 107. Stone nales, *stocke nailes, clagge nales.

819 1833.  R. Walker, Flora Oxfordsh., 284. Corylus Avellana. Common Hazel-nut or *Stock-nut.

820 1853.  Soyer, Pantroph., 260. The Chief of the cooks, the Archimagirus,… embraces at a single glance the series of *stock-pots and brick stoves.

821 1891.  Ainger, in Edith Sichel, Life & Lett. (1906), 253. They [the schoolboy verses of Lamb] will at once go into the Lamb ‘Stock-pot’—my Commonplace Book.

822 1605.  Shaks., Lear, III. iv. 140 (Qos.). Who is whipt from tithing to tithing, and *stock-punisht and imprisoned.

823 a. 1665.  W. Guthrie, Serm., in Tweedie, Sel. Biog. (Wodrow Soc.), II. 75. We have all one common profession, interest, *stockpurse.

824 1802.  C. James, Milit. Dict., Stock Purse, a certain saving which is made in a corps, and which is applied to regimental purposes.

825 1832.  G. Downes, Lett. Cont. Countries, I. 67. A small stockpurse is maintained, for the support of the enfeebled and superannuated.

826 1825.  Hansard, Typographia, 243. Another large and convenient room, denominated the *Stock-room, in which the trading business of the [Stationers’] Company is transacted.

827 1877.  ‘The Road’: Leaves Sk.-bk. Commerc. Trav., 53. The Commercial-Room is ample; there are dining, coffee, bath and stock rooms.

828 1888.  Jacobi, Printers’ Vocab., 133. Stock room, the department allotted to the storing of paper or printed stock.

829 1537–8.  Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., VI. 380. For thre quarteris of fyne gray clath to cover ane *stok sadill to the Kingis grace.

830 1888.  T. Roosevelt, in Century Mag., April, 863/2. For a long spell of such work a stock-saddle is far less tiring than the ordinary Eastern or English one.

831 1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., *Stock-saw.

832 1794.  Rigging & Seamanship, I. 152. *Stock-shave, a large sharp-edged cutting knife, with a handle at one end and a hook at the other, by which it hooks in a … staple … driven in an elm block; it is used to pare off the rough wood from the shells of blocks, &c.

833 1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. 386/2. Two other working Tools of the Needle-makers. The first is their *Stock-Shears, with these they cut the Wyer to that length as the Needle is to bear.

834 1611.  Cotgr., s.v. Lombard, Manche Lombarde, a *stocke-sleeue; or fashion of halfe-sleeue, whose vpper part is raised, and full of plaits, or gathers.

835 1727.  De Foe, Eng. Tradesm. (1732), I. vi. 67. Those adventures … *stock-starve the Tradesman, and impoverish him in his ordinary business.

836 1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., *Stock-stone.

837 1815.  Falconer’s Dict. Marine (ed. Burney), *Stock-Tackle.

838 1860.  A. Mordecai, Rep. Mil. Comm. Europe, 62 (Funk). These were no doubt designed for firing with larger charges, and at higher elevations than the *stocktrail carriage admits of.

839 1470.  York Memo. Bk. (Surtees), I. 92. That … no saddiller … make any sadelles of trees that er calde *stokke trees or Scottes trees.

840 1547.  Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., IX. 103. For tua botis … hir *stoke quhelis and necessaris.

841   B.  adj. (in attributive use only). That is kept in stock (see A. 56 c).

842   1.  Kept regularly in stock for sale, as stock book, lot; stock size, a size (of ready-made garments) regularly kept in stock; used attrib. or predicatively to designate a person whom such a size fits.

843 a. 1625.  Fletcher, Nice Valour, V. iii. For they begin already to engross it, And make it a *Stock-book.

844 1858.  Cooper, Ath. Cantabr., I. 249/2. The Sick Man’s Salve was long a stockbook with the Stationers’ company.

845 1898.  W. J. Greenwood, Commerc. Corresp. (ed. 2), 31. We particularly wish to call your attention to the *stock lots as per particulars noted at foot.

846 1897.  Daily News, 9 Jan., 6/3. The happy woman who possesses what we may call a *stock-size figure. Ibid. (1900), 28 July, 6/7. Those who are fortunate enough to be a ‘stock’ size can save many shillings by buying these ready-made articles.

847   b.  Designating a medicinal or chemical preparation that is kept ready for use, or the vessel in which such a preparation is stored.

848 1863.  J. Hughes, Pract. Photogr. (1866), 11. When you have done for the day, return what [collodion] remains back into the stock-bottle.

849 1882.  Encycl. Brit., XIV. 390/1. These [chemicals] are mixed together in one large stock tank.

850 1898.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 424. If the specific gravity is to be lowered, this stock solution is diluted with water.

851 1907.  J. A. Hodges, Elem. Photogr. (ed. 6), 49. It is better to keep at both the stock gold and the stock platinum solutions in the dark.

852   2.  Theatr. stock piece, play, etc., one which forms part of a répertoire; stock company, a company who regularly act together at a particular theater; stock actor, etc., a member of a stock company, or one who acts in stock pieces.

853 1865.  W. Donaldson, Recoll. Actor, 95. A large proportion of the *stock actors were … without talent or experience.

854 1830.  G. Colman, Random Rec., II. 6. Miss Lee’s ‘Chapter of Accidents,’ long and justly rated as a *stock Comedy.

855 1864.  P. Paterson, Glimpses Real Life, 37. I … being at the time one of the *stock company of the Beverley Theatre, New York.

856 1782.  D. E. Baker, Biogr. Dramatica, II. 84/2. The Way to keep him … still stands on the *stock-list of the theatre.

857 1887.  T. A. Trollope, What I remember, II. xii. 209. I subsequently took Sir Anthony [in ‘The Rivals’] which remained my *stock part for years.

858 1805.  Southey, in Ann. Rev., III. 76. Their classical *stock pieces.

859 1761.  B. Victor, Theatres Lond. & Dublin, I. 65. If Time was to be wasted in rehearsing old *Stock Plays, for the Sake of the new Performers to be introduced in them.

860 1807.  Director, I. 260. The Beggars Opera is what is termed a stock play with us.

861 1847.  Theatr. Times, 11 Sept., 283/2. Mr. Gustavus V. Brooke is perhaps the greatest favourite in the provinces, as a *stock tragedian.

862   3.  fig. in reference to intellectual or literary topics: Kept in stock for use; commonly used or brought forward, constantly appearing or recurring, in conversation, discussion or composition; belonging to a staple or stock-in-trade of subjects, arguments, phrases, quotations, etc.; hence, commonplace, trite, conventional.

863 1738.  Swift, Pol. Conversat., Introd. 40. The old Stock-Oaths.

864 1803.  Mar. Edgeworth, Pop. Tales, To-morrow, i. A line which has become a stock line among writing-masters’ copies.

865 1835.  Dickens, Sk. Boz, Mr. Watkins Tottle, ii. The master of the house, who was burning to tell one of his seven stock stories.

866 1853.  Kingsley, Hypatia, ix. 109. The humble stock-phrases in which they talked of their labours of love.

867 1861.  Mill, Utilit., ii. 36. The stock arguments against utilitarianism.

868 1865.  M. Arnold, Ess. Crit., v. 172. Heine’s … utter rejection of stock classicism and stock romanticism.

869 1871.  Morley, Crit. Misc., Vauvenargues, 14. The stock moralist, like the commonplace orator of the pulpit, fails to touch the hearts of men.

870 1895.  Bookman, Oct., 26/2. The history has been sadly confused and distorted by stock quotations from the fathers.

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