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 (Gortyna nitela),
which bores in the stalks of the raspberry, strawberry, tomato, asters,
and many other garden plants, often doing much injury.
<! p. 1401 !>
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.
3. To walk with high and proud steps; usually implying the affectation
of dignity, and indicating dislike. The word is used, however,
especially by the poets, to express dignity of step.
With manly mien he stalked along the ground.
Dryden.
Then stalking through the deep, He fords the ocean.
Addison.
I forbear myself from entering the lists in which he has long
stalked alone and unchallenged.
Mericale.
Stalk (?), v. t. To approach under cover of a screen, or by stealth,
for the purpose of killing, as game.
As for shooting a man from behind a wall, it is cruelly like to
stalking a deer.
Sir W. Scott.
Stalk, n. A high, proud, stately step or walk.
Thus twice before, . . . With martial stalk hath he gone by our
watch.
Shak.
The which with monstrous stalk behind him stepped.
Spenser.
Stalked (?), a. Having a stalk or stem; borne upon a stem.
Stalked barnacle (Zoöl.), a goose barnacle, or anatifer; -- called also
stalk barnacle. -- Stalked crinoid (Zoöl.), any crinoid having a
jointed stem.
Stalk"er (?), n. 1. One who stalks.