stalk

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A stalk is a long stem that plants use to grow towards sunlight.

When we talk about a stalk, most people think of it as something related to plants. We often see stalks on celery or asparagus in the supermarket. But a stalk can also be used for other things. For example, if you're watching a movie and someone is sneaking up behind another character, they might be described as being on their stalk - creeping quietly and stealthily, like a plant growing towards light. In this sense, the word "stalk" has a more metaphorical meaning.

How common is "stalk"?

Word stalk is considered uncommon in modern English.
It has a balanced usage among all categories: speech, fiction, newspapers and academic texts.

Definitions

noun

The stem or main axis of a plant.
Example: a stalk of wheat, rye, or oats; the stalks of maize or hemp
The petiole, pedicel, or peduncle of a plant.
Example: grape stalks
Something resembling the stalk of a plant, such as the stem of a quill.
(architecture) An ornament in the Corinthian capital resembling the stalk of a plant, from which the volutes and helices spring.
One of the two upright pieces of a ladder.
A stem or peduncle, as in certain barnacles and crinoids.
The narrow basal portion of the abdomen of a hymenopterous insect.
The peduncle of the eyes of decapod crustaceans.
(metalworking) An iron bar with projections inserted in a core to strengthen it; a core arbor.
(mathematics, sheaf theory) 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
(slang) The penis.