stalk

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A stem or main axis of a herbaceous plant.
2. n. A stem or similar structure that supports a plant part such as a flower, flower cluster, or leaf.
3. n. A slender or elongated support or structure, as one that holds up an organ or another body part.
4. v. To walk with a stiff, haughty, or angry gait: stalked off in a huff.
5. v. To move threateningly or menacingly.
6. v. To track prey or quarry.
7. v. To pursue by tracking stealthily.
8. v. To follow or observe (a person) persistently, especially out of obsession or derangement.
9. v. To go through (an area) in pursuit of prey or quarry.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To walk cautiously or stealthily; steal along; creep.
2. To steal up to game under cover of something else; hunt game by approaching stealthily and warily behind a cover.
3. To walk with slow, dignified strides; pace in a lofty, imposing manner.
4. In sporting, to pursue stealthily, or behind a cover; follow warily for the purpose of killing, as game.
5. n. The pursuit of game by stealthy approach or under cover.
6. n. A high, proud, stately step or walk.
7. n. The stem or main axis of a plant; that part of a plant which rises directly from the root, and which usually supports the leaves, flowers, and fruit: as, a stalk of wheat or hemp.
8. n. The pedicel of a flower or the peduncle of a flower-cluster (flower-stalk), the petiole of a leaf (leafstalk), the stipe of an ovary, etc., or any similar supporting organ; in mosses, a seta.
9. n. A straw.
10. n. In architecture, an ornament in the Corinthian capital which resembles the stalk of a plant, and is sometimes fluted. From it the volutes or helices spring. Compare caulis and cauliculus.
11. n. One of the upright side-pieces of a ladder, in which the rounds or steps are placed.
12. n. The shaft or handle of anything, especially when slender, likened to the stalk of a plant; the stem: as, the stalk of a wine-glass; the stalk of a tobacco-pipe.
13. n. In zoology, some part or organ like a stalk; a stem; a stipe. A pedicel or peduncle; a footstalk; a supporting part: as, the stalk of some barnacles.
14. n. A tall chimney, as of a furnace, factory, or laboratory.
15. n. In founding, an iron rod armed with spikes, used to form the nucleus of a core.

Wiktionary

1. n. The longish piece that supports the seed-carrying parts of a plant.
2. n. A particular episode of trying to follow or contact someone.
3. n. A hunt.
4. v. To approach slowly and quietly in order not to be discovered when getting closer.
5. v. To (try to) follow or contact someone constantly, often resulting in harassment.
6. v. To walk haughtily.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The stem or main axis of a plant
2. n. The petiole, pedicel, or peduncle, of a plant.
3. n. That which resembles the stalk of a plant, as the stem of a quill.
4. n. An ornament in the Corinthian capital resembling the stalk of a plant, from which the volutes and helices spring.
5. n. One of the two upright pieces of a ladder.
6. n. A stem or peduncle, as of certain barnacles and crinoids.
7. n. The narrow basal portion of the abdomen of a hymenopterous insect.
8. n. The peduncle of the eyes of decapod crustaceans.
9. n. An iron bar with projections inserted in a core to strengthen it; a core arbor.
10. v. To walk slowly and cautiously; to walk in a stealthy, noiseless manner; -- sometimes used with a reflexive pronoun.
11. v. To walk behind something as a screen, for the purpose of approaching game; to proceed under cover.
12. v. 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.
13. v. To approach under cover of a screen, or by stealth, for the purpose of killing, as game.
14. v. To follow (a person) persistently, with or without attempts to evade detection.
15. n. A high, proud, stately step or walk.
16. n. The act or process of stalking.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. material consisting of seed coverings and small pieces of stem or leaves that have been separated from the seeds
2. v. follow stealthily or recur constantly and spontaneously to
3. v. walk stiffly
4. n. a hunt for game carried on by following it stealthily or waiting in ambush
5. n. a stiff or threatening gait
6. n. a slender or elongated structure that supports a plant or fungus or a plant part or plant organ
7. v. go through (an area) in search of prey
8. n. the act of following prey stealthily