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| stocks [ stoks ] |
noun |
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| Definition: |
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1. punishment device: in former times, a wooden frame in which an offender was secured by the hands and feet or by the head and hands and left in public to be ridiculed or abused
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2. construction stand: a frame that supports a boat or ship while it is being built
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3. rudder shaft: the vertical shaft at the forward edge of a rudder, attached to the steering controls
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| [14th century. Plural of stock, in the sense "post, tree trunk"] |
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on the stocks U.K. in the process of being made, prepared, or arranged
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