Stalk (@sta̤k), 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 resemb@les 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.
To clim@b 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.