¦ noun
1. a supply of goods or materials available for sale or use.
2. farm animals bred and kept for their meat or milk; livestock.
3. the capital raised by a company through the issue and subscription of shares.
(usu. stocks) a portion of this as held by an individual or group as an investment.
securities issued by the government in fixed units with a fixed rate of interest.
4. water in which bones, meat, fish, or vegetables have been slowly simmered.
the raw material from which a specified commodity can be manufactured.
5. a person's ancestry or line of descent.
a breed, variety, or population of an animal or plant.
6. the trunk or woody stem of a tree or shrub, especially one into which a graft (scion) is inserted.
the perennial part of a herbaceous plant, especially a rhizome.
7. a plant cultivated for its fragrant flowers, typically lilac, pink, or white. [Genus Matthiola: several species.]
8. (the stocks) [treated as sing. or plural] historical an instrument of punishment consisting of a wooden structure with holes for securing a person's feet and hands, in which criminals were locked and exposed to public ridicule or assault.
9. the part of a rifle or other firearm to which the barrel and firing mechanism are attached.
the crossbar of an anchor.
the handle of a whip, fishing rod, etc.
10. a band of white material tied like a cravat and worn as a part of formal horse-riding dress.
a piece of black material worn under a clerical collar.
11. (stocks) a frame used to support a ship or boat when out of water.
¦ adjective
1. usually kept in stock and thus regularly available for sale.
2. constantly recurring; conventional or stereotyped: the stock characters in every cowboy film.
¦ verb
1. have or keep a stock of.
provide or fill with a stock of something.
(stock up) amass stocks of something.
2. fit (a rifle or other firearm) with a stock.
Phrases
in (or out of) stock available (or unavailable) for immediate sale or use.
on the stocks in construction or preparation.
put stock in have a specified amount of belief or faith in: I don't put much stock in modern medicine.
take stock make an overall assessment of a particular situation.
Derivatives
stockless adjective
Origin
OE stoc(c) 'trunk, block of wood, post', of Gmc origin.