stalk Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun material consisting of seed coverings and small pieces of stem or leaves that have been separated from the seeds
stubble; chaff; straw; husk; shuck.
noun a slender or elongated structure that supports a plant or fungus or a plant part or plant organ
stem.
noun a hunt for game carried on by following it stealthily or waiting in ambush
still hunt; stalking.
noun the act of following prey stealthily
stalking.
noun a stiff or threatening gait
angry walk.
verb walk stiffly
verb follow stealthily or recur constantly and spontaneously to
haunt.
- her ex-boyfriend stalked her
- the ghost of her mother haunted her
verb go through (an area) in search of prey
- stalk the woods for deer

OE. stalke, fr. AS. stæl, stel, a stalk. See Stale a handle, Stall.

(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.
That which resembes the stalk of a plant, as the stem of a quill. Grew.
(Arch.) An ornament in the Corinthian capital resembling the stalk of a plant, from which the volutes and helices spring.
One of the two upright pieces of a ladder. Obs.
To climd by the rungs and the stalks. Chaucer.
(Zoöl.) (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.
(Founding) An iron bar with projections inserted in a core to strengthen it; a core arbor.

AS. stælcan, stealcian to go slowly; cf. stels high, elevated, Dan. stalke to stalk; probably akin to 1st stalk.

imperfect & past participle Stalked ; present participle & verbal noun Stalking

To walk slowly and cautiously; to walk in a stealthy, noiseless manner; -- sometimes used with a reflexive pronoun. Shak.
Into the chamber he stalked him full still. Chaucer.

[Bertran] stalks close behind her, like a witch's fiend, Pressing to be employed. Dryden.
To walk behind something as a screen, for the purpose of approaching game; to proceed under clover.
The king . . . crept under the shoulder of his led horse; . . . "I must stalk," said he. Bacon.

One underneath his horse, to get a shoot doth stalk. Drayton.
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.
With manly mien he stalked along the ground. Dryden.

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

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

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

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

The which with monstrous stalk behind him stepped. Spenser.