Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A close-fitting, usually knitted covering for the foot and leg made from nylon, silk, cotton, wool, and similar yarns.
  • noun An item resembling this covering.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A close-fitting covering for the foot and lower leg.
  • noun Something like or suggesting such a covering.
  • To dress in stockings; cover as with stockings.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To dress in GBs.
  • noun A close-fitting covering for the foot and leg, usually knit or woven.
  • noun Any of various things resembling, or likened to, a stocking{1}
  • noun A broad ring of color, differing from the general color, on the lower part of the leg of a quadruped; esp., a white ring between the coronet and the hock or knee of a dark-colored horse.
  • noun A knitted hood of cotton thread which is eventually converted by a special process into an incandescent mantle for gas lighting.
  • noun See Bluestocking.
  • noun a machine for knitting stockings or other hosiery goods.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A soft garment worn on the foot and lower leg, usually knit or woven, worn under shoes or other footwear.
  • verb Present participle of stock.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the activity of supplying a stock of something
  • noun close-fitting hosiery to cover the foot and leg; come in matched pairs (usually used in the plural)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From dialectal stock, from Middle English stokke, leg covering, probably from stok, stock; see stock.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From stock (“cover with material”) +‎ -ing. Corruption of old plural -en, i.e. stocken, now singular.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From stock +‎ -ing.

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Examples

  • _To Run a stocking_: To pass a thread of yarn, with a needle, straight along each row of the stocking, as far as is desired, taking up one loop and missing two or three, until tie row is completed, so as to double the thickness at the part which is run.

    American Woman's Home Harriet Beecher Stowe 1853

  • While JB persists in stocking tentacle pr0n, we are NEVER going to get the boys out of Chez Birmo.

    Cheeseburger Gothic » The Ladies Blue Room. Or something. 2010

  • Around here, we don't have any natural trout reproduction, so stocking is what we get.

    Hatchery Fish: The Weakest Link 2009

  • But he kicked them off and danced all night in stocking-feet.

    The Gold Hunters of the North 2010

  • So, I am happy if CNN wants to report something positive about the President, BUT I do have to find myself asking why the dog's stocking is newsworthy.

    At the White House, even Bo gets a stocking 2009

  • Around here, we don't have any natural trout reproduction, so stocking is what we get.

    Hatchery Fish: The Weakest Link 2009

  • He added that House of Fraser had been approached by a US department store interested in stocking Biba but had not decided whether to pursue wholesale distribution.

    House of Fraser ponders Biba stores Zoe Wood 2010

  • It's going to be as long as I am tall, and I'm 5 foot 10 inches in stocking feet.

    All Virtues Are Tough, Old Chum 2008

  • It's going to be as long as I am tall, and I'm 5 foot 10 inches in stocking feet.

    Archive 2008-09-01 2008

  • I think this was merely a case of an extreme mistake in stocking, which the press turned into a sensationalized "Society is sexualizing our youngsters!" story.

    Boing Boing 2006

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