/mhw>, n. [ Pref. anti- + alkali. ] Anything that neutralizes, or that counteracts an alkaline tendency in the system. Hooper. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of power to counteract alkalies. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. stem of a bean plant. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A stalk of Indian corn. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who practices deerstalking. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A close-fitting cap, usually woolen, such as is worn in deerstalking, having a low crown and visors both in front and back, and having earflaps which are usually worn tied together over the top; also called fore-and-after, deerstalker hat and deerstalker cap; a hunter's cap; formerly also used for any stiff, round hat. [ Eng. ] [ Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC ]

n. The hunting of deer on foot, by stealing upon them unawares. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zoöl.) One of the movable peduncles which, in the decapod Crustacea, bear the eyes at the tip. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. (Bot.) The stalk of a leaf or of flower; a petiole, pedicel, or reduncle. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) (a) The peduncle or stem by which various marine animals are attached, as certain brachiopods and goose barnacles. (b) The stem which supports which supports the eye in decapod Crustacea; eyestalk. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Mach.) The lower part of a millstone spindle. It rests in a step. Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A stalk of hay. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To converse. [ Obs. ] Carew. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) The stalk or petiole which supports a leaf. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To overpower by talking; to exceed in talking; to talk down. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To talk to excess. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

conversation about a matters pertaining to person's occupation; -- often used of such discussions when conducted outside of working hours, as in social gatherings. [ PJC ]

n. [ OE. stalke, fr. AS. stael, stel, a stalk. See Stale a handle, Stall. ] 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That which resembles the stalk of a plant, as the stem of a quill. Grew. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Arch.) An ornament in the Corinthian capital resembling the stalk of a plant, from which the volutes and helices spring. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. One of the two upright pieces of a ladder. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

To climb by the rungs and the stalks. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Founding) An iron bar with projections inserted in a core to strengthen it; a core arbor. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Stalked p. pr. & vb. n. Stalking. ] [ AS. staelcan, stealcian to go slowly; cf. stealc high, elevated, Dan. stalke to stalk; probably akin to 1st stalk. ] 1. To walk slowly and cautiously; to walk in a stealthy, noiseless manner; -- sometimes used with a reflexive pronoun. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Into the chamber he stalked him full still. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Bertran ] stalks close behind her, like a witch's fiend,
Pressing to be employed. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To walk behind something as a screen, for the purpose of approaching game; to proceed under cover. [ 1913 Webster ]

The king . . . crept under the shoulder of his led horse; . . . “I must stalk, ” said he. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

One underneath his horse, to get a shoot doth stalk. Drayton. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To walk with high and proud steps; -- usually implying the affectation of dignity, and indicating dislike. The word is used, however, especially by the poets, to express dignity of step. [ 1913 Webster ]

With manly mien he stalked along the ground. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

Then stalking through the deep,
He fords the ocean. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

I forbear myself from entering the lists in which he has long stalked alone and unchallenged. Merivale. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To approach under cover of a screen, or by stealth, for the purpose of killing, as game. [ 1913 Webster ]

As for shooting a man from behind a wall, it is cruelly like to stalking a deer. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To follow (a person) persistently, with or without attempts to evade detection; as, the paparazzi stalk celebrities to get candid photographs; obsessed fans may stalk their favorite movie stars. [ PJC ]

n. 1. A high, proud, stately step or walk. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thus twice before, . . .
With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

The which with monstrous stalk behind him stepped. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The act or process of stalking.

When the stalk was over (the antelope took alarm and ran off before I was within rifle shot) I came back. T. Roosevelt. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. Having a stalk or stem; borne upon a stem. [ 1913 Webster ]

Stalked barnacle (Zool.), a goose barnacle, or anatifer; -- called also stalk barnacle. --
Stalked crinoid (Zool.), any crinoid having a jointed stem. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who stalks. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A kind of fishing net. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Zool.) Having the eyes raised on a stalk, or peduncle; -- opposed to sessile-eyed. Said especially of podophthalmous crustaceans. [ 1913 Webster ]

Stalk-eyed crustaceans. (Zool.) See Podophthalmia. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A horse, or a figure resembling a horse, behind which a hunter conceals himself from the game he is aiming to kill. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Fig.: Something used to cover up a secret project; a mask; a pretense. [ 1913 Webster ]

Hypocrisy is the devil's stalking-horse under an affectation of simplicity and religion. L'Estrange. [ 1913 Webster ]

How much more abominable is it to make of him [ Christ ] and religion a stalking-horse, to get and enjoy the world! Bunyan. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having no stalk. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Hard as a stalk; resembling a stalk. [ 1913 Webster ]

At the top [ it ] bears a great stalky head. Mortimer. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To speak freely; to use for conversing or communicating; as, to talk French. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To deliver in talking; to speak; to utter; to make a subject of conversation; as, to talk nonsense; to talk politics. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To consume or spend in talking; -- often followed by away; as, to talk away an evening. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To cause to be or become by talking. “They would talk themselves mad.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

To talk over. (a) To talk about; to have conference respecting; to deliberate upon; to discuss; as, to talk over a matter or plan. (b) To change the mind or opinion of by talking; to convince; as, to talk over an opponent. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act of talking; especially, familiar converse; mutual discourse; that which is uttered, especially in familiar conversation, or the mutual converse of two or more. [ 1913 Webster ]

In various talk the instructive hours they passed. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

Their talk, when it was not made up of nautical phrases, was too commonly made up of oaths and curses. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Report; rumor; as, to hear talk of war. [ 1913 Webster ]

I hear a talk up and down of raising our money. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Subject of discourse; as, his achievment is the talk of the town. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Conversation; colloquy; discourse; chat; dialogue; conference; communication. See Conversation. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. talked p. pr. & vb. n. talking. ] [ Cf. LG. talk talk, gabble, Prov. G. talken to speak indistinctly; or OD. tolken to interpret, MHG. tolkan to interpret, to tell, to speak indistinctly, Dan. tolke to interpret, Sw. tolka, Icel. tūlka to interpret, tūlkr an interpreter, Lith. tulkas an interpreter, tulkanti, tulkōti, to interpret, Russ. tolkovate to interpret, to talk about; or perhaps fr. OE. talien to speak (see tale, v. i. & n.). ] 1. To utter words; esp., to converse familiarly; to speak, as in familiar discourse, when two or more persons interchange thoughts. [ 1913 Webster ]

I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following, but I will not eat with you. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To confer; to reason; to consult. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let me talk with thee of thy judgments. Jer. xii. 1. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To prate; to speak impertinently. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

To talk of, to relate; to tell; to give an account of; as, authors talk of the wonderful remains of Palmyra. “The natural histories of Switzerland talk much of the fall of these rocks, and the great damage done.” Addison. --
To talk to, to advise or exhort, or to reprove gently; as, I will talk to my son respecting his conduct. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Given to much talking. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Garrulous; loquacious. See Garrulous. [ 1913 Webster ]

-- Talk"a*tive*ly, adv. -- Talk"a*tive*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who talks; especially, one who is noted for his power of conversing readily or agreeably; a conversationist. [ 1913 Webster ]

There probably were never four talkers more admirable in four different ways than Johnson, Burke, Beauclerk, and Garrick. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A loquacious person, male or female; a prattler; a babbler; also, a boaster; a braggart; -- used in contempt or reproach. Jer. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. That talks; able to utter words; as, a talking parrot. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Given to talk; loquacious. [ 1913 Webster ]

The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade,
For talking age and whispering lovers made. Goldsmith. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Not talked; not mentioned; -- often with of. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A whipstock. [ 1913 Webster ]