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.)
Defn: 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)
Defn: An iron bar with projections inserted in a core to strengthen it; a core arbor. Stalk borer (Zoöl.), the larva of a noctuid moth (Gortyna nitela), 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.] Etym:
[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.