Stalely to Stammering
Stalely
(Stale"ly), adv.
1. In a state stale manner.
2. Of old; long since. [Obs.] B. Jonson.
Stalemate
(Stale"mate`) n. (Chess) The position of the king when he can not move without being placed
on check and there is no other piece which can be moved.
Stalemate
(Stale"mate`), v. t. (Chess) To subject to a stalemate; hence, to bring to a stand.
Staleness
(Stale"ness), n. The quality or state of being stale.
Stalk
(Stalk) n. [OE. stalke, fr. AS. stæl, stel, a stalk. See Stale a handle, Stall.]
1. (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.
2. That which resembes the stalk of a plant, as the stem of a quill. Grew.
3. (Arch.) An ornament in the Corinthian capital resembling the stalk of a plant, from which the volutes
and helices spring.
4. One of the two upright pieces of a ladder. [Obs.]
To climd by the rungs and the stalks.
Chaucer. 5. (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.
6. (Founding) An iron bar with projections inserted in a core to strengthen it; a core arbor.
Stalk borer (Zoöl.), the larva of a noctuid moth which bores in the stalks of the raspberry, strawberry,
tomato, asters, and many other garden plants, often doing much injury.
Stalk
(Stalk), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Stalked ; p. pr. & vb. n. Stalking.] [AS. stælcan, stealcian to go
slowly; cf. stels high, elevated, Dan. stalke to stalk; probably akin to 1st stalk.]
1. 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. 2. 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.
