stock

plural stocks · obsolete plural stocken

1. countableuncountableA store or supply.
   1. countableuncountableoperationsA store of goods ready for sale; inventory.

      We have a stock of televisions on hand.

      1 more example

      I checked in the back of the stockroom and found some more stock.

   2. countableuncountableA supply of anything, stored until used; especially, such a supply that is ready for use.

      Lay in a stock of wood for the winter season.

   3. countableuncountableRailroad rolling stock.

      The Grand Trunk Railway had just purchased a large order of stock from the American Car and Foundry Company.

      Synonyms: rolling stock

   4. countableuncountablecard gamesA stack of undealt cards made available to the players.
   5. countableuncountableFarm or ranch animals; livestock.

      Good ranchers must continually keep watch over the health of their stock.

      1 more example

      […] the open land is generally covered by a grass which grows in tussacs, and produces tufts of hard, crisp, pointed blades. Stock will never willingly eat this grass; […]

      1881, William Rowntrie Robertson, Reports on the Agricultural Conditions, Capabilities, and Prospects Of The Neilgherry And Coimbatore Districts, page 33

      Synonyms: livestock

   6. countableuncountableThe population of a given type of animal (especially fish) available to be captured from the wild for economic use.

      The stocks of this fishery are recovering from overfishing, but the gains can easily reverse if our husbandry efforts lapse.

2. countableuncountablebusinessThe capital raised by a company through the issue of shares; the total of shares held by an individual shareholder.

   His grandpa had bought some stock in General Electric in 1905, and he refused to sell it ever after.

   1. countableuncountablebusinessThe price or value of the stock of a company on the stock market.

      When the bad news came out, the company's stock dropped precipitously.

   2. UScountableespeciallyuncountablebusinessA share in a company.
   3. countablefigurativelyuncountablebusinessThe measure of how highly a person or institution is valued.

      After that last screw-up of mine, my stock is pretty low around here.

      1 more example

      With his stock rising fast in the party, the governor has conspicuously refrained from saying he would stand aside if Mr. Trump runs for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.

      2022 January 17, Jonathan Martin, Maggie Haberman, “Who Is King of Florida? Tensions Rise Between Trump and a Former Acolyte.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

      Synonyms: reputation

   4. countableuncountablebusinessAny of several types of security that are similar to a stock, or marketed like one.
3. The raw material from which things are made, such as feedstock.
   1. countableuncountablecookingBroth made from meat (originally bones) or vegetables, used as a basis for stew or soup.

      They make beef stock from the butchery scraps that they otherwise might not have used.

   2. countableuncountableThe type of paper used in printing.

      The books were printed on a heavier stock this year.

      Synonyms: card stock

   3. abbreviationcountableellipsisuncountableEllipsis of film stock.
   4. countableuncountablePlain soap before it is coloured and perfumed.
4. countableuncountableStock theater, summer stock theater.
5. countableuncountableThe trunk and woody main stems or limbs of a tree; the base from which something grows or branches.

   Though the roote thereof waxe old in the earth, and the stocke thereof die in the ground: Yet through the sent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughes like a plant.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 14:8–9

   1. countableuncountableagricultureThe plant upon which the scion is grafted.

      The cion overruleth the stock quite.

      1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC

   2. broadlycountableuncountableLineage; family; ancestry.

      UUhat, ſhall I call thee brother? No, a foe, Monſter of Nature, ſhame vnto thy ſtocke, That darſt preſume thy Soueraigne for to mocke.

      c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene i

      2 more examples

      His hatred is not based upon whom these people are (like many rightwing Republicans, Gallo comes from immigrant stock), but how easily these people have come by success in America.

      2003 November 14, Jacques Peretti, “You are a bad man trying to do bad things to Vincent”, in The Guardian

      We may also conclude that as it was the Ionic γένη of the Attic tetrapolis who in the main achieved the Ionization of Athens, so it was a branch of this same stock that settled at Delos […]

      2010, Lewis Richard Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, page 108

   3. broadlycountableuncountablehuman sciencesA larger grouping of language families: a superfamily or macrofamily.
6. countableuncountableAny of the several species of cruciferous flowers in the genus Matthiola.
7. A handle or stem to which the working part of an implement or weapon is attached.
   1. countableuncountableengineeringThe part of a rifle or shotgun that rests against the shooter's shoulder.

      The most underrated component in building a custom gun is the metalsmithing. Stock work immediately attracts attention. Fancy checkering patterns, meticulously executed, are sure to elicit oohs and ahhs.

      2013, Tom Turpin, Modern Custom Guns: Walnut, Steel, and Uncommon Artistry, 2nd edition, Iola, Wis.: Gun Digest Books, →ISBN, page 47

   2. countableuncountableThe handle of a whip, fishing rod, etc.
8. Part of a machine that supports items or holds them in place.
   1. countableuncountableThe headstock of a lathe, drill, etc.
   2. countableuncountableThe tailstock of a lathe.
9. A bar, stick, or rod.
   1. countableuncountableA ski pole.
   2. countableuncountablenauticalA bar going through an anchor, perpendicular to the flukes.

      The honest, rough piece of iron, so simple in appearance, has more parts than the human body has limbs: the ring, the stock, the crown, the flukes, the palms, the shank. All this, according to the journalist, is “cast” when a ship arriving at an anchorage is brought up.

      1904–1906, Joseph Conrad, chapter IV, in The Mirror of the Sea, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, published October 1906, →OCLC

   3. countableuncountablenauticalThe axle attached to the rudder, which transfers the movement of the helm to the rudder.

      Synonyms: rudder stock, rudderstock

   4. countableuncountablegeographyA pipe (vertical cylinder of ore)
10. A type of (now formal or official) neckwear.
    1. countableuncountableA necktie or cravat, particularly a wide necktie popular in the eighteenth century, often seen today as a part of formal wear for horse riding competitions.

       His grey waistcoat sported pearl buttons, and he wore a stock which set off to admiration a lean and aquiline face which was almost as grey as the rest of him.

       1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), page 417

       1 more example

       He wore a brown tweed suit and a white stock. His clothes hung loosely about him as though they had been made for a much larger man. He looked like a respectable farmer of the middle of the nineteenth century.

       1915, W. Somerset Maugham, “chapter 116”, in Of Human Bondage

       Synonyms: stock-tie

    2. countableuncountableA piece of black cloth worn under a clerical collar.
11. countableuncountableA bed for infants; a crib, cot, or cradle
12. countableuncountableartsA piece of wood magically made to be just like a real baby and substituted for it by magical beings.
13. countableobsoleteuncountableA cover for the legs; a stocking.
14. countableuncountableA block of wood; something fixed and solid; a pillar; a firm support; a post.

    When all our Fathers worſhip't Stocks and Stones,

    1673, John Milton, “[Sonnet] XV. On the late Massacher in Piemont.”, in Poems, &c. upon Several Occasions, London: […] Tho[mas] Dring […], →OCLC, page 58

    1 more example

    Item, for a stock of brass for the holy water, seven shillings; which, by the canon, must be of marble or metal, and in no case of brick.

    1655, Thomas Fuller, The History of Waltham Abbey

15. broadlycountableobsoleteuncountableA person who is as dull and lifeless as a stock or post; one who has little sense.

    Let's be no stoics, nor no stocks.

    c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

16. UKcountablehistoricaluncountableThe longest part of a split tally stick formerly struck in the exchequer, which was delivered to the person who had lent the king money on account, as the evidence of indebtedness.
17. countablein pluraluncountablebusinessThe frame or timbers on which a ship rests during construction.
18. UKcountablein pluraluncountableRed and grey bricks, used for the exterior of walls and the front of buildings.
19. countableuncountablebiologyIn tectology, an aggregate or colony of individuals, such as trees, chains of salpae, etc.
20. countableuncountableThe beater of a fulling mill.

    […]a somewhat rude machine called the stocks, and consisting of a pair of wooden mallets, worked alternately by a cog wheel.

    1842, Jam Bischoff, A Comprehensive History of the Woollen and Worsted Manufactures

present singular third person stocks · participle present stocking · participle past stocked · past stocked

1. To have on hand for sale.

   The store stocks all kinds of dried vegetables.

   1 more example

   ...he would not stock any product on his shelves from any company that hired a communist or, as it was called at the time, a comsymp.

   2005, William Froug, How I Escaped from Gilligan's Island

2. To provide with material requisites; to store; to fill; to supply.

   to stock a warehouse with goods

   3 more examples

   to stock a farm, i.e. to supply it with cattle and tools

   to stock land, i.e. to occupy it with a permanent growth, especially of grass

   A rather interesting and notable convenience, however, is that of ice water bags, which are hung on to the outside of the coaches at certain stops. These can be reached by leaning out of the window rather perilously, to unhook them, and paper cups are stocked in the compartments.

   1951 February, K. Westcott Jones, “Some Australian Railway Byways”, in Railway Magazine, page 118

3. To allow (cows) to retain milk for twenty-four hours or more prior to sale.
4. To put in the stocks as punishment.

   Poor Tom, that[…]eats cow-dung for sallets; swallows the old rat, and the ditch-dog; drinks the green mantle of the standing pool; who is whipp'd from tything to tything, and stock'd, punish'd, and imprison'd

   c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

5. nauticalTo fit (an anchor) with a stock, or to fasten the stock firmly in place.
6. datedcard gamesTo arrange cards in a certain manner for cheating purposes; to stack the deck.

1. not comparableOf a type normally available for purchase/in stock.

   stock items

   1 more example

   stock sizes

2. not comparablehobbiesHaving the same configuration as cars sold to the non-racing public, or having been modified from such a car.
3. not comparableStraightforward, ordinary, just another, very basic.

   He gave me a stock answer.

plural stocks

1. A thrust with a rapier; a stoccado.

plural Stocks

1. countableuncountableA village and civil parish in Chelmsford district, Essex, England, United Kingdom (OS grid ref TQ6998).
2. countableuncountableA surname.

   Speaking on the John Solomon Reports podcast this week, conservative activist and RiftTV contributor Sarah Stock attributed some of the divide to a generational split in how conservatives consume information.

   2025 July 3, Ben Whedon, “Reshaping the right: A generational divide heralds a transformation of the GOP”, in Just the News, archived from the original on 20 Jul 2025

3. countablediminutiveuncountableDiminutive of Stockton (“personal name”).