▪ I. stork, n.
(stɔːk)
Forms: 1 storc, (3 steorc), 3–7 storke, 4– stork.
[OE. storc masc. = OS., (M)LG., (M)Du. stork, NFris. stork, stourk, störk, OHG. storah, stork (MHG. storch, storc, mod.G. storch, dial. stork), ON. stork-r (Sw., Da. stork):—OTeut. *sturko-z.
Usually referred to the Teut. root *sterk- (see stark a.), the name being supposed to refer to the apparent stiffness or rigidity in the bird's manner of standing. Some regard the word as cogn. w. Gr. τόργος vulture. The names of the stork in various eastern European langs. are commonly believed to be from Teut.: OSl. strŭkŭ, Russ. sterkh, Lith. starkus, Lett. starks, Magyar eszterag, Albanian sterkjok.]
1. A large wading bird of the genus Ciconia, allied to the ibis and heron; characterized by having long legs and a long stout bill.
Usually, the name denotes the White Stork (Ciconia alba), which stands over three feet high, and has brilliant white plumage with black wing-coverts and quills, and red legs. In summer it is an inhabitant of most parts of the Continent of Europe. A less common European species is the Black Stork (C. nigra). The American Stork (C. maguari) belongs to South America.
| a 800 Erfurt Gloss. 259 in O.E. Texts 52 Ciconia: storc. c 1000 ælfric Hom. I. 404 Storc and swalewe heoldon ðone timan heora to-cymes. a 1225 Ancr. R. 132 Þe steorc [v.rr. strucion, ostrice] uor his muchele flesche makeð a semblaunt uorte vleon,..auh þet fette drauhð euer to þer eorðe. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (Rolls) 14574 He liuede in kerres, as doþ þe stork. c 1381 Chaucer Parl. Foules 361 The stork the wrekere of a-vouterye. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xii. ix. (1495) 419 A storke is messager of spryngynge tyme. c 1425 Eng. Conq. Irel. 28 Storkes & swalewes & oþer somer foules we haue aftyre I-loked. a 1529 Skelton P. Sparowe 469 The storke also, That maketh his nest In chymneyes to rest. 1584 Greene Mirr. Modesty Wks. (Grosart) III. 39 The Storke neuer medleth but with his mate. 1648 Bp. Hall Sel. Th. li. 149 The Stork is said to have taught man the use of the glyster. 1667 Milton P.L. vii. 423 There the Eagle and the Stork On Cliffs and Cedar tops their Eyries build. 1678 Ray Willughby's Ornith. iii. ii. 287 The American Stork, called by the Brasilians Maguari of Marggrave. 1738 E. Albin Nat. Hist. Birds III. 77 The Black Stork. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1824) II. v. iii. 350 The Dutch are very solicitous for the preservation of the stork in every part of the republic. 1838 Murray's Handbk. N. Germ. 30 A number of tame storks may be seen stalking about in the fish-market of the Hague. |
b. Applied to birds of allied genera: (see
quots.).
| 1869–73 T. R. Jones Cassell's Bk. Birds IV. 59 The Whale-headed Stork, or Shoe-beak (Balæniceps rex)..is extremely numerous on the marshy grounds and rain-beds near the White Nile. Ibid. 71 The Giant Storks (Mycteria). Ibid. 75 The Clapper-billed Storks, or Shell-eaters (Anastomas), inhabit Africa and Southern Asia. Ibid. 91 The Field Storks (Arvicolæ)..are natives of South America. 1872 J. H. Gurney Andersson's Birds Damara Land 281 Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis, Bon. Saddle-billed Stork. Ibid. 282 Leptoptilus crumeniferus, Cuv. African Marabou Stork. |
c. fig. and
allusive.
With reference to supposed habits of the stork (see
quots. 1580, 1642;
cf. quots. c 1381 and 1584 in 1); to the fable of the frogs who chose a stork for their king; to the German and Dutch nursery fiction that babies are brought by the stork; etc.
| 1555 Instit. Gentl. G iiij b, And well worthye are all such to loose y⊇ name of gentry, because like Storcks deuourers of their owne kinde, in running out of their profession, they distroy themselues. 1580 Lyly Euphues & his England (Arb.) 363 Ladyes vse their Louers as the Storke doth hir young ones, who pecketh them till they bleed with hir bill, and then healeth them with hir tongue. Ibid. 416 Constancy is like vnto the Storke, who wheresoeuer she flye commeth into no neast but hir owne. 1597 J. Payne Royal Exch. 48 You..maliciousely accuse vs.., reiectinge you and your vilde opinions sythens the fyrst hatchinge therof by your grandsire Storck. 1597 Donne Poems, Calm 4 The fable is inverted, and farre more A blocke afflicts, now, then a storke before. 1631 Massinger Emperor East ii. i, Like æsops folish Frogges..if hee proue a Storke, they croke and rayle Against him as a tyranne. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. i. vi. 15 He is a stork to his parent, and feeds him in his old age. 1784 Cowper Task v. 282 Thus kings..became..Storks among frogs, that have but croak'd and died. 1823 Scott Quentin D. xxi, I wish we have not got King Stork, instead of King Log. |
2. The bird or its flesh an an article of food.
| c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture 433 in Babees Bk. (1868) 144 Pecok, Stork, Bustarde & Shovellewre, ye must vnlace þem in þe plite of þe crane. ? c 1475 Sqr. lowe Degre 323 Both storkes and snytes ther were also, And venyson freshe. 1513 Bk. Keruynge in Babees Bk. (1868) 271 For standarde, venyson roste,..bustarde, storke, crane. 1620 Venner Via Recta iii. 64 The Storke is of hard substance, of a wilde sauour, and of very naughty iuyce. |
† 3. Some kind of fish. ? A shark.
Obs. rare—1.
| 1600 Dallam in Early Voy. Levant (Hakl. Soc.) 95 A great fishe called a storke, of a marvalus length, did follow our ship,..waytinge for a praye. |
4. A variety of the domestic pigeon. More fully
stork pigeon.
| 1855 Poultry Chron. III. 140/1 Storks. Ibid. 320 The Stork Pigeon. The Stork... They derive their name from their plumage bearing considerable resemblance to that of a stork. 1881 Lyell Pigeons 88 When well marked, the stork is considered one of the finest feather varieties in Germany. Ibid., The..stork or wing pigeon of Germany. |
5. (See
quot.)
| 1750 T. Wright Orig. Theory Universe 25 Her [sc. the moon's] whole Globe appeared to us very conspicuously within a manifest circle. You..told me that that kind of phænomenon the country people called a Stork, or the old moon in the new one's arms. |
6. attrib., as
stork-assembly,
stork-flight,
stork-kind,
stork-migration,
stork-tribe; parasynthetic and similative, as
stork-billed adj.,
stork-fashion adv.,
stork-like adj. and
adv.| 1730–46 Thomson Autumn 853 The *stork-assembly meets,..Consulting..ere they take Their arduous voyage through the liquid sky. |
| c 1875 Cassell's Nat. Hist. III. 349 The *Stork-billed Kingfishers (Pelargopsis). |
| 1888 Myra's Jrnl. 1 Apr. 210/2 The skater must poise on one leg only, *stork-fashion. |
| 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. vii. v, In this manner..they, a wild unwinged *stork-flight,..wend their way. |
| 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1824) II. v. iii. 360 A bird of the *stork kind. |
| 1652 Bp. Hall Balm of Gilead 213 Sometimes indeed..some *Storke-like disposition repaies the loving offices done by the Parents. 1872 Coues N. Amer. Birds 262 The pterylosis is more or less completely stork-like. |
| 1913 J. R. Harris Boanerges xxxii. 312 It seems to be more likely that the swan migration is independent of the *stork migration. |
| 1895 Lydekker Roy. Nat. Hist. IV. 306 The *Stork tribe. |
▪ II. stork, v. U.S. slang. (
stɔːk)
[f. the n., with reference to the nursery fiction that babies are brought by the stork: see sense 1 c.] trans. To make pregnant.
| 1936 A. Huxley Eyeless in Gaza xxv. 353 What would you do if the fever frau had the misfortune to be storked? 1968 R. Stout Father Hunt (1969) xiii. 157 ‘Didn't she stop because she was pregnant?’.. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘She was storked.’ 1977 Amer. Speech 1975 L. 67 Stork vt, make pregnant. ‘Jim storked her; that's why she's not back up here this year.’ |