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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 (gcide)

Stalk \Stalk\ (st[add]k), v. t.
1. To approach under cover of a screen, or by stealth, for
the purpose of killing, as game.
[1913 Webster]

As for shooting a man from behind a wall, it is
cruelly like to stalking a deer. --Sir W.
Scott.
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2. To follow (a person) persistently, with or without
attempts to evade detection; as, the paparazzi stalk
celebrities to get candid photographs; obsessed fans may
stalk their favorite movie stars.
[PJC]


Stalk \Stalk\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Stalked} (st[add]kt); p. pr.
& vb. n. {Stalking}.] [AS. staelcan, stealcian to go slowly;
cf. stealc 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.
[1913 Webster]

Into the chamber he stalked him full still.
--Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]

[Bertran] stalks close behind her, like a witch's
fiend,
Pressing to be employed. --Dryden.
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2. To walk behind something as a screen, for the purpose of
approaching game; to proceed under cover.
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The king . . . crept under the shoulder of his led
horse; . . . "I must stalk," said he. --Bacon.
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One underneath his horse, to get a shoot doth stalk.
--Drayton.
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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.
[1913 Webster]

With manly mien he stalked along the ground.
--Dryden.
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Then stalking through the deep,
He fords the ocean. --Addison.
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I forbear myself from entering the lists in which he
has long stalked alone and unchallenged. --Merivale.
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Stalk \Stalk\ (st[add]k), n. [OE. stalke, fr. AS. stael, 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.
[1913 Webster]

2. That which resembles the stalk of a plant, as the stem of
a quill. --Grew.
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3. (Arch.) An ornament in the Corinthian capital resembling
the stalk of a plant, from which the volutes and helices
spring.
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4. One of the two upright pieces of a ladder. [Obs.]
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To climb by the rungs and the stalks. --Chaucer.
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5. (Zool.)
(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.
[1913 Webster]

6. (Founding) An iron bar with projections inserted in a core
to strengthen it; a core arbor.
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{Stalk borer} (Zool.), 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.
[1913 Webster]


Stalk \Stalk\, n.
1. A high, proud, stately step or walk.
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Thus twice before, . . .
With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.
--Shak.
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The which with monstrous stalk behind him stepped.
--Spenser.
[1913 Webster]

2. The act or process of stalking.

When the stalk was over (the antelope took alarm and
ran off before I was within rifle shot) I came back.
--T.
Roosevelt.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]