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2. Of old; long since. [Obs.] B. Jonson.

Stale"mate` (?), n. (Chess) The position of the king when he can not move without being placed on check and there is no other piece which can be moved.

Stale"mate`, v. t. (Chess) To subject to a stalemate; hence, to bring to a stand.

Stale"ness, n. The quality or state of being stale.

Stalk (?), n. [OE. stalke, fr. AS. stæl, 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.

2. That which resembes the stalk of a plant, as the stem of a quill. Grew.

3. (Arch.) An ornament in the Corinthian capital resembling the stalk of a plant, from which the volutes and helices spring.

4. One of the two upright pieces of a ladder. [Obs.]

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.

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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.

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.