stocker
(ˈstɒkə(r))
[f. stock v.1 and n.1 + -er1.]
1. A workman who makes or fits stocks, esp. gun-stocks.
| 1641 Sc. Acts Chas. I (1870) V. 562/2 Stockeres of Gunes. 1881 Greener Gun 249 The stocker upon receiving the stock first roughs it into shape. 1886 Daily Tel. 9 Feb. 7/5 Gun Maker. Wanted a stocker and screwer. 1892 Simmonds Dict. Trade Suppl., Stocker, a man engaged in making stock-locks. |
2. A workman employed in felling or grubbing up trees. local.
| 1686 Plot Staffordsh. 211 Under the hands of Francis Marshall, Thomas March, Stockers. 1890 Gloucester Gloss., Stockers, men employed to clear out the butt of a tree ready for felling. |
3. local. (See quot.)
| 1879 G. F. Jackson Shropsh. Word-bk., Stocker, an implement used for ‘stocking’ up turnips; it has two prongs and a handle four feet long. |
4. U.S. and Canada. An animal, esp. a young steer or heifer, sold to be finally butchered, but kept as stock until matured or fattened; distinguished from killer. (W. 1911.)
| 1881 Chicago Times 1 June, Stockers and feeders were dull and weaker. 1891 Daily News 2 July 6/4 Animals for fattening known as stockers. 1891 Times 1 Oct. 9/4 The bulk of the Canadians were only stockers. |
5. dial. Fish of other kinds taken when fishing for herring or pilchards (E.D.D.); a sum of money accruing to a member of the crew as his share in this. Also attrib. as stocker-bait.
| 1883 Clark Russell Sailors' Lang., Stocker-bait, small fish given by smack-owners to their apprentices to sell for their own profit. 1904 in Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v., (Cornwall.) We get some mackerel and pollock in the pilchard nets or the herring nets. That goes for what we call ‘stocker’. The crew divides that. 1914 Times 14 July, Stocker is explained as being money received from the sale of tails of a fish called the monk, roes, shell-fish, &c. Ibid., They took the stocker, they sold it, and they handed the proceeds to some member of the crew for division between himself and the other members entitled to it. |
6. A warehouseman or stock-keeper; also (U.S.), an assistant engaged to look after stock held for sale by a business firm.
| 1921 Dict. Occup. Terms (1927) §940 Stock keeper, stocker, a warehouseman..who keeps stock book showing amount of stock (as distinguished from stores). 1976 Billings (Montana) Gaz. 27 June 5-e/4 At age 14 or 15, cashiers, salesmen, stockers, baggers, gas pumpers, car washers,..can work. 1979 Arizona Daily Star 5 Aug. (Advt. Section) 5/10 Full time person to work in our yard as salesperson and stocker. |
7. U.S. colloq. A stock-car; a stock-car racer.
| 1976 Harper's Mag. Jan. 20 You simply can't believe the noise of these engines. Stockers, motorcycles, needlenosed dragsters,..tear the night apart for hours. 1976 Time 27 Sept. 82/3 Stock cars... Richard Petty, king of the stockers, won $378,865 last year. 1978 Time 25 Sept. 88 Members of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing..rolled up to the ‘diplomatic entrance’ in their Day-Glo colored ‘stockers’. |
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Add: 8. U.S. colloq. A ‘stock’ component or vehicle (i.e. as regularly manufactured and held in stock, not customized).
| 1971 Choppers Mag. Nov. 27 (heading) Chops are safer than stockers. 1974 Motorcross Action Mag. June 40/3 That solution doesn't do the owner of a stocker any good, since adding gears is not exactly known as privateer technology. 1980 Dirt Bike Oct. 36/3 Rex Staten put the gearbox failures in the proper light when he told us that he raced his practice stocker for most of the year without problems. 1988 Super MotoCross Sept./Oct. 53/1 The carburetor is a stocker modified to incorporate a true choke circuit. |