GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

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Found 4 definitions 

  1.       

    Stalk , n. [OE. stalke, fr. AS. stael, stel, a stalk. See Stale a handle, Stall.]
    1.  (Bot.) (a) The stem or main axis of a plant; as, a stalk of wheat, rye, or oats; the stalks of maize or hemp. (b) The petiole, pedicel, or peduncle, of a plant.
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    2. That which resembles the stalk of a plant, as the stem of a quill.
      Grew.

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    3. (Arch.) An ornament in the Corinthian capital resembling the stalk of a plant, from which the volutes and helices spring.
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    4. One of the two upright pieces of a ladder. [Obs.]
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      To climb by the rungs and the stalks.
      Chaucer.

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    5. (Zool.) (a) A stem or peduncle, as of certain barnacles and crinoids. (b) The narrow basal portion of the abdomen of a hymenopterous insect. (c) The peduncle of the eyes of decapod crustaceans.
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    6. (Founding) An iron bar with projections inserted in a core to strengthen it; a core arbor.
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      Stalk borer (Zool.), the larva of a noctuid moth (Gortyna nitela), which bores in the stalks of the raspberry, strawberry, tomato, asters, and many other garden plants, often doing much injury.
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  2.       

    Stalk, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Stalked ; p. pr. & vb. n. Stalking.] [AS. staelcan, stealcian to go slowly; cf. stealc high, elevated, Dan. stalke to stalk; probably akin to 1st stalk.]
    1. To walk slowly and cautiously; to walk in a stealthy, noiseless manner; -- sometimes used with a reflexive pronoun.
      Shak.

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      Into the chamber he stalked him full still.
      Chaucer.

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      [Bertran] stalks close behind her, like a witch's fiend,
      Pressing to be employed.
      Dryden.

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    2. To walk behind something as a screen, for the purpose of approaching game; to proceed under cover.
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      The king . . . crept under the shoulder of his led horse; . . . “I must stalk,” said he.
      Bacon.

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      One underneath his horse, to get a shoot doth stalk.
      Drayton.

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    3. To walk with high and proud steps; -- usually implying the affectation of dignity, and indicating dislike. The word is used, however, especially by the poets, to express dignity of step.
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      With manly mien he stalked along the ground.
      Dryden.

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      Then stalking through the deep,
      He fords the ocean.
      Addison.

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      I forbear myself from entering the lists in which he has long stalked alone and unchallenged.
      Merivale.

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  3.       

    Stalk , v. t.
    1. To approach under cover of a screen, or by stealth, for the purpose of killing, as game.
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      As for shooting a man from behind a wall, it is cruelly like to stalking a deer.
      Sir W. Scott.

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    2. To follow (a person) persistently, with or without attempts to evade detection; as, the paparazzi stalk celebrities to get candid photographs; obsessed fans may stalk their favorite movie stars.
      PJC
    
      
    
  4.       

    Stalk, n.
    1. A high, proud, stately step or walk.
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      Thus twice before, . . . 
      With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.
      Shak.

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      The which with monstrous stalk behind him stepped.
      Spenser.

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    2. The act or process of stalking.
      When the stalk was over (the antelope took alarm and ran off before I was within rifle shot) I came back.
      T. Roosevelt.

      Webster 1913 Suppl.

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