Stocks
[stɔks]
Definition
(noun.) a former instrument of punishment consisting of a heavy timber frame with holes in which the feet (and sometimes the hands) of an offender could be locked.
(noun.) a frame for constraining an animal while it is receiving veterinary attention or while being shod.
(noun.) a frame that supports a boat while it is under construction.
Inputed by Josiah--From WordNet
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. pl. [1]. Funds (invested in joint-stock enterprises or in the obligations of a Government), public funds, public securities.[2]. Shares (in joint-stock companies, or in the obligations of a Government).
Typist: Rowland
Unserious Contents or Definition
An unreliable commodity bought and sold by gamblers. If you win, it's an investment; if you lose, a speculation.
Typist: Marvin
Examples
- Such companies, therefore, commonly draw to themselves much greater stocks, than any private copartnery can boast of. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- The doctrine of the origin of our several domestic races from several aboriginal stocks, has been carried to an absurd extreme by some authors. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- Tell her she shall be put in the stocks if she does not take herself off, replied the magistrate. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- So, there was a double palpitation among the double stocks and double wall-flowers, when the master and the boy looked over the little gate. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Finally the English government ordered eight or ten of such machines for the making of gun-stocks for its army, and paid Blanchard about $40,000 for them. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- The supposed aboriginal stocks must all have been rock-pigeons, that is, they did not breed or willingly perch on trees. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- In the dry-salt curing cellars are kept enormous stocks of the cheaper kinds of meat. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- My whim is gratified; and now I think Mr. Eshton will do well to put the hag in the stocks to-morrow morning, as he threatened. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- Stocks which had been accumulating for years now went off in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Some of the Arabs use them to this day in the form of strange-looking guns with long, slender muzzles and very light, curved stocks. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- Some of them withdraw a part of their stocks from the trade, and the market is more sparingly supplied than before. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- These were sold On Change, much as stocks are now sold on Wall Street. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- All people of small or middling fortunes would be obliged to superintend themselves the employment of their own stocks. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- But I manage pretty well, getting in great stocks from Liverpool, and being served in butcher's meat by our own family butcher. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- Under an altar by the door was a pair of stone stocks for human legs. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
Typist: Mabel