Stalk n.
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 resembles the stalk of a plant, as the stem of a quill.
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 climb by the rungs and the stalks. --Chaucer.
5. Zool. (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 Zool., 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.