stock

Everyday

1. A supply of goods kept in a shop or store to sell. tree →
2. (verb) To keep goods for sale, or fill a place with supplies. tree →
3. A liquid made by boiling meat, bones or vegetables, used for soups. tree →
4. Farm animals (livestock). tree →
5. stocks: shares in a company that people buy. tree →
6. (history) stocks: a wooden frame that held a person's feet as punishment. tree →
7. (adjective) Usual or often used: a stock answer. tree →
8. A laughing-stock is someone everyone laughs at and makes fun of. tree →

In the lessons

In maths problems about shops: "a shop has 50 tins in stock and sells 18". In cooking: chicken stock. In business: stocks and shares. Phrases: in stock, out of stock, stock up, take stock, stock market.

Examples

• The shop has 50 tins in stock. tree →
• Sorry, that game is out of stock. tree →
• We stocked up on food before the storm. tree →
• Mum made soup with chicken stock. tree →
• The farmer keeps his stock in the barn. tree →
• Let's take stock and see what we have left. tree →
• In old times, people were put in the stocks. tree →
• For a half-day he lay there, the laughing-stock of the people. tree →

Note

Uncountable for goods ("some stock"); "stocks" for shares. In maths, "in stock" is the starting amount: subtract sales, add deliveries. "Out of stock" means zero left.

In Jewish tradition

"Stock" means family line or descendants, here the whole people of Israel. In the Prophets and Writings it also means the trunk or stump of a tree, and a wooden idol is mocked as a mere "stock."

Interpretation. In Balaam's blessing Israel is as countless as the dust, which tradition links to God's promise to Abraham of many descendants. Isaiah and Jeremiah's use of "stock" is read as mocking idols as lifeless wood, while Job's tree stump is a picture of hope that life can sprout again.

Examples

• Who hath counted the dust of Jacob, or numbered the stock of Israel? (Torah NUM.23.10, JPS 1917) tree →
• Shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?' (Prophets ISA.44.19, JPS 1917) tree →
• Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; (Writings JOB.14.8, JPS 1917) tree →
• But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the vanities by which they are instructed are but a stock; (Prophets JER.10.8, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

Uncountable for goods ("some stock"); "stocks" for shares. In maths, "in stock" is the starting amount: subtract sales, add deliveries. "Out of stock" means zero left.