2. The stem or branch in which a graft is inserted. The scion overruleth the stock quite. Bacon.
3. A block of wood; something fixed and solid; a pillar; a firm support; a post. All our fathers worshiped stocks and stones. Milton. Item, for a stock of brass for the holy water, seven shillings; which, by the canon, must be of marble or metal, and in no case of brick. Fuller.
4. Hence, a person who is as dull and lifeless as a stock or post; one who has little sense. Let's be no stoics, nor no stocks. Shak.
5. The principal supporting part; the part in which others are inserted, or to which they are attached. Specifically: — (a) The wood to which the barrel, lock, etc., of a musket or like firearm are secured; also, a long, rectangular piece of wood, which is an important part of several forms of gun carriage. (b) The handle or contrivance by which bits are held in boring; a bitstock; a brace. (c) (Joinery) The block of wood or metal frame which constitutes the body of a plane, and in which the plane iron is fitted; a plane stock. (d) (Naut.) The wooden or iron crosspiece to which the shank of an anchor is attached. See Illust. of Anchor. (e) The support of the block in which an anvil is fixed, or of the anvil itself. (f) A handle or wrench forming a holder for the dies for cutting screws; a diestock. (g) The part of a tally formerly struck in the exchequer, which was delivered to the person who had lent the king money on account, as the evidence of indebtedness. See Counterfoil. [Eng.]
6. The original progenitor; also, the race or line of a family; the progenitor of a family and his direct descendants; lineage; family. And stand betwixt them made, when, severally, All told their stock. Chapman. Thy mother was no goddess, nor thy stock From Dardanus. Denham.
7. Money or capital which an individual or a firm employs in business; fund; in the United States, the capital of a bank or other company, in the form of transferable shares, each of a certain amount; money funded in government securities, called also the public funds; in the plural, property consisting of shares in joint-stock companies, or in the obligations of a government for its funded debt; — so in the United States, but in England the latter only are called stocks, and the former shares.
8. (Bookkeeping)
Defn: Same as Stock account, below.
9. Supply provided; store; accumulation; especially, a merchant's or manufacturer's store of goods; as, to lay in a stock of provisions. Add to that stock which justly we bestow. Dryden.
10. (Agric.)