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.