n.
- a supply of goods or materials available for sale or use.
- farm animals bred and kept for their meat or milk; livestock.
- 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.
- water in which bones, meat, fish, or vegetables have been slowly simmered.
▸the raw material from which a specified commodity can be manufactured.
- a person's ancestry or line of descent.
▸a breed, variety, or population of an animal or plant.
- 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.
- a plant cultivated for its fragrant flowers, typically lilac, pink, or white.
[Genus Matthiola: several species.]
-
(the stocks)
[treated as sing. or pl.]
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.
- 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.
- 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.
-
(stocks)
a frame used to support a ship or boat when out of water.
adj.
- usually kept in stock and thus regularly available for sale.
- constantly recurring; conventional or stereotyped:
the stock characters in every cowboy film.
v.
- have or keep a stock of.
▸provide or fill with a stock of something.
▸
(stock up)
amass stocks of something.
- fit (a rifle or other firearm) with a stock.
Phrase
Derivative
Etymology
OE stoc(c) ‘trunk, block of wood, post’, of Gmc origin.