[f. STOCK v.1 (occas. STOCK sb.1) + -ING1.]
1. The action or process of fixing (a bell) to its stock, or furnishing (a gun) with a stock.
1450. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 240. Et Joh’i Cales pro le stokkynge unius campane ad eccl. predictam, 4d.
1546. Acts Privy Counc., 23 May (1890), 423. Item; a warraunte … for xx markes in preste to the saide Mr. Darcy for the stocking of gonnes and other thinges there.
1588–9. in Garry, Churchw. Acc. St. Mary’s, Reading (1893), 68. Item for the newe stokinge of the Bels, ij s. vj d.
1703. in J. Watson’s Jedburgh Abbey (1894), 91. A collection at the kirk door for payment of the little bell’s casting, stocking, and other expenses.
1844. Queen’s Regul. Army, 99. For the Stock and new stocking Muskets and Carbines … 10s. 6d.
b. The parts forming the stock of a gun.
1532. Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot., VI. 156. To tua pynouris that tursit the gunnis to the stokkin in the castell.
1858. Greener, Gunnery, 395. From imperfections in the stocking of the gun.
1870. Athenæum, 8 Oct., 471/1. Faults … in … the lever, the stocking, and the ammunition [of the Martini-Henry rifle].
2. a. The uprooting of trees or plants. Also with up. Also pl. (see quot. 1851). b. (See quot. 1611.)
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., xiii. (1885), 141. As it now well apperith be the new husbondry þat is done þer … in grobbyng and stokkyng off treis [etc.].
1534. [see sense 8, stocking-iron]
1611. Cotgr., Tronquement, a trunking, stocking, or cutting off.
1613. [Standish] New Direct. Planting, 3. It were very conuenient, that the stocking vp of Woods were preuented,… for … within a very few years there wil be little or no wood left for any vse, the stocking & stubbing is so great.
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 363. The Felling and Stocking up of Trees.
1851. Sternberg, Northampt. Dial., Stockins, land reclaimed from the woods.
3. The action of supplying with a stock or store; the furnishing (a farm) with cattle and implements or (a garden) with plants; also, keeping in stock.
1663. Act 15 Chas. II., c. 1 § 15. All … Implements of Husbandry, and all other things whatsoever, imployed in the Husbanding Stocking and Manureing of their … Lands.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. 7. So long as it [migration] was confined to the stocking and cultivation of desart uninhabited countries, it kept strictly within the limits of the law of nature.
1813. Scott, Fam. Let., 23 March (1894), I. ix. 277. I have been here for some days directing … the stocking of a garden.
1858. National Rev., Oct., 344. The natural pursuits of men make … a complete stocking of the mind more … necessarily a duty with them than with women.
1886. C. Scott, Sheep-Farming, 89. The only chance of rearing good lambs in such cases, lies in thin stocking, and giving a liberal supply of dry nourishing food.
1892. Daily News, 5 Sept., 7/1. So far as the house coal trade is concerned,… there is no reason for taking a despondent view…. Winter stocking will soon set in in earnest.
b. concr. The cattle, farm implements, etc., as distinguished from the crops of a farm.
1730. T. Boston, View this & other World, 251. Abraham was rich in silver and gold, and Job in stocking.
1765. Pet., in Walker v. Spence, 5. He had neither servants nor stocking proper for his farm.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xii. And the furniture and stocking is to be roupit at the same time on the ground.
1818. Miss Ferrier, Marriage, xi. I shall advance you stocking and stedding.
1856. Morton, Cycl. Agric., II. 726/1. The stocking of a farm is the crop, cattle, and implements.
4. (See quot. and cf. STOCK v.1 18.)
1847. Evanson & Maunsell, Managem. Childr. (ed. 5), 50, note. Nurses who have not a good supply of milk will, occasionally, be found to adopt a practice commonly employed with milch cows when brought to market, and called by the cattle dealers, stocking; that is, they allow the milk to accumulate in their breasts.
5. Detention in the stocks.
1534. More, Comf. agst. Trib., III. xx. (1553), S ij. That strayte kepynge, collerynge, boltynge, and stockynge,… which … is vsed in these speciall priesonmentes.
1563–83. Foxe, A. & M., 1917/2. Then began they to threaten him with whippyng, stockyng, burnyng, and such like.
1679. Penn, Addr. Prot., II. 220. Whence comes … Beatings, Bruisings, Stockings, Whippings, and Spilling of Blood for Religion?
1822. Scott, Nigel, iii. Such idle suitors are to be … punished for their audacity with stripes, stocking, or incarceration.
6. Treatment in the stocks of a fulling mill or tannery.
1883. R. Haldane, Workshop Rec., Ser. II. 367/1. After … the drench, the skins are … removed … to the stocks, where they are beaten … with heavy tilt-hammers. When soft, oil … is sprinkled on them, and the ‘stocking’ is continued.
7. slang. (See STOCK v.1 23.)
1887. F. Francis, Jr. Saddle & Mocassin, 228. A tenderfoot got in amongst the gamblers on board … and what with ‘strippers,’ and ‘stocking,’ and ‘cold decks,’… he hadn’t the ghost of a chance.
8. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 1) stocking-room, (sense 2) stocking-hoe, † -iron, (sense 3) stocking plant, -pot.
1863. Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc., XXXIV. 281. Some used *stocking-hoes and grubbed the ground 5 inches deep.
1534. More, Comf. agst. Trib., III. xv. (1553), Q iiij b. He causeth like a good husband man his folke to come afield,… and with their hookes & their *stocking yrons, grubbe vp these wicked wedes & busshes of our earthly substance.
1849. Florist, 199. Those who are desirous of having *stocking plants [of pelargoniums] must cut their specimens down boldly.
1840. Florist’s Jrnl. (1846), I. 153. The plants … were raised from cuttings put into *stocking-pots.
1833. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. v. 106. The *stocking-room [for guns] is fitted with … the tools usually found in a cabinet maker’s shop.
