stalk

noun

1. The stem or main axis of a plant.

   “a stalk of wheat, rye, or oats;  the stalks of maize or hemp”

   “Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with […] on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust from which gnarled and rusty stalks thrust themselves up like withered elfin limbs.”

2. The petiole, pedicel, or peduncle of a plant.

   “grape stalks”

3. Something resembling the stalk of a plant, such as the stem of a quill.

   “they appear to be made up of little Bladders , like those in the Plume or Stalk of a Quill”

4. An ornament in the Corinthian capital resembling the stalk of a plant, from which the volutes and helices spring.
5. One of the two upright pieces of a ladder.
6. A stem or peduncle, as in certain barnacles and crinoids.
7. The narrow basal portion of the abdomen of a hymenopterous insect.
8. The peduncle of the eyes of decapod crustaceans.
9. An iron bar with projections inserted in a core to strengthen it; a core arbor.
10. Informally, a construction which generalizes that of the notion of the ring of germs of functions near a point to the context of arbitrary sheaves. Formally, given a sheaf ℱ on a space X, and a point x in X, the direct limit of the sections of F on the open neighborhoods of x ordered by reverse inclusion. See Stalk (sheaf) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
11. (slang)The penis.
12. A particular episode of trying to follow or contact someone.
13. The hunting of a wild animal by stealthy approach.

    “When the stalk was over (the antelope took alarm and ran off before I was within rifle shot) I came back.”

14. A haughty style of walking.

verb

1. (transitive)To approach slowly and quietly in order not to be discovered when getting closer.

   “As for shooting a man from behind a wall, it is cruelly like to stalking a deer.”

   “But they had already discovered that he could be bullied, and they had it their own way; and presently Selwyn lay prone upon the nursery floor, impersonating a ladrone while pleasant shivers chased themselves over Drina, whom he was stalking.”

2. (transitive)To (try to) follow or contact someone constantly, often resulting in harassment.ᵂᵖ

   “My ex-girlfriend is stalking me.”

   “villages stalked by the threat of famine”

3. (intransitive)To walk slowly and cautiously; to walk in a stealthy, noiseless manner.

   “[Bertran] stalks close behind her, like a witch's fiend, / Pressing to be employed.”

   “O ay, stalk on, stalk on, the fowl sits”

4. (intransitive)To walk behind something, such as a screen, for the purpose of approaching game; to proceed under cover.

   “The king[…]crept under the shoulder of his led horse;[…]"I must stalk," said he.”

   “One underneath his horse, to get a shoot doth stalk.”

5. (Internet, transitive)Of a person's social media activity: to look through thoroughly or obsessively; to keep tabs on, generally avoiding contact.

   “Coordinate term: lurk”

   “Hate when I'm stalking someone's Insta and I like one of their old pics. Makes me wanna burrow underground n' hibernate for a season or two.”

6. (intransitive)To walk haughtily.

   “With manly mien he stalked along the ground.”

   “Then stalking through the deep, / He fords the ocean.”

   “I forbear myself from entering the lists in which he has long stalked alone and unchallenged.”