stocks
stocks Lexical Profile
stocks Game Scores & Validity
• noun
Shares of ownership in one or more companies or corporations, traded on financial markets as investments.
"Many investors diversify their portfolios by holding a mix of stocks and government bonds."
Accumulated supplies of goods, merchandise, or raw materials kept on hand for sale or future use.
"The warehouse manager ordered additional shipments after noticing that stocks of winter clothing were running low."
A historical wooden frame with holes for securing the ankles and sometimes the wrists, formerly used to expose offenders to public punishment.
"In the colonial town square, replicas of the wooden stocks stand beside the old courthouse for tourists to examine."
The heavy timber or metal framework on which a ship or boat rests while being built or repaired in a shipyard.
"The new research vessel remained on the stocks for eighteen months before being launched into the harbor."
• verb
To keep a regular supply of a particular product or item available for sale (third-person singular present of stock).
"That neighborhood bookstore stocks a wide selection of foreign-language dictionaries and travel guides."
To fill or equip a place, such as a pantry, shelf, or body of water, with provisions or fish (third-person singular present of stock).
"Every spring, the state conservation department stocks the mountain lakes with rainbow trout."
Word Nuance & Usage
When referring to the historical wooden restraint or the framework supporting a ship during construction, 'stocks' is a plural-form noun (usually preceded by 'the') that can take a plural verb despite denoting a single structure.
• Rhymes for stocks
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
From Old English 'stocc', meaning a tree trunk, log, or wooden post, from Proto-Germanic '*stukkaz'. The sense of a wooden punitive frame developed in Middle English from the literal meaning of a timber block, while financial senses arose later from the notion of a fixed capital trunk or fund.