stalk

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“
Then the corn grew from the bottom to the very top o f the stalk, and according to the length of the stalk was the length of the ear.

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Definitions (38)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (9)

  1. noun A stem or main axis of a herbaceous plant.
  2. noun A stem or similar structure that supports a plant part such as a flower, flower cluster, or leaf.
  3. noun A slender or elongated support or structure, as one that holds up an organ or another body part.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (17)

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Examples (50)

  • And unless he was wrong, the stalk was also a C.W. transmitter-receiver. He shot the light on around. —  Thrilling Wonder Stories April, 1953
  • He tried to climb the flower-stalk, in order to fetch the disk for her, but the stalk was too narrow for him to get a proper grip, and too tough for him to pull down. —  Dragon on a Pedestal
  • And in truth this immense ear was perched on a small thin stalk -- and the stalk was a man! —  Nietzsche
  • Showing an absence of the usual dilatation of the flower-stalk, and other changes This condition accords precisely with the account of the development of the flowers in Pomaceć as given by Payer, Caspary, and others, so that the flowers above described would owe their deficiency of the swollen receptacle to an arrest of development. —  Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants
  • It has their coats of arms and their ciphers intertwined elegantly round the stalk--a J and a Z; her name is Zuleika; before she was married she was Zuleika Trotter. —  The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 2, January, 1851
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

stem ·  twig ·  frond ·  clump ·  husk ·  tuft ·  fern ·  reed ·  foliage ·  leaf ·  petal ·  root

Used in the same contextWord Family

stalk:   stalks ·  stalked ·  stalking
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English, probably diminutive of stale, upright of a ladder, post, handle, from Old English stalu; see stel- in Indo-European roots.
  2. Middle English stalken, from Old English -stealcian, to move stealthily (in bestealcian).

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English stalken, from Anglo-Saxon stælcan, stealcian, walk warily, = Danish stalke, stalk: (a) literally walk stealthily, steal along; with formative -k, from the root of stelan (preterit stæl), steal: see steal, and cf. stale, n. (b) In another view the Anglo-Saxon stælcan, stealcian, is connected with stealc, high, and means ‘walk high,’ i. e. on tiptoe, being referred ult. to the same source as stalk, and perhaps stilt. For the form stalk as related to stale (and steal), cf. talk as related to tale (and tell).
  2. from stalk, v.
  3. from Middle English stalke; prob. a variant (due to association with the related stale?) of *stelk, from Icelandic stilkr = Swedish stjelk = Danish stilk, a stalk (cf. Greek στέλεχος, the stem of a tree); with formative -k, from the simple form appearing in Anglo-Saxon stæl, stel, a handle, stale: see stale.
 

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/stɔk/
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Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich