ˈwalking-stick
[walking vbl. n.1]
1. A stick or short staff carried in the hand when walking.
| 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Baguette, a white rodde, a walking sticke. 1622 Fletcher Beggar's Bush v. i, You may take me in with a walking sticke, Even when you please, and hold me with a pack-threed. 1788 Barker Growth of Trees in Phil. Trans. LXXVIII. 413 No. 21. was about as thick as a walking-stick in 1730. 1836 Dickens Sk. Boz, Shops & Tenants, A tobacconist, who also dealt in walking-sticks and Sunday newspapers. 1915 W. P. Livingstone Mary Slessor iv. vi. 216 One man..was dressed in a hat, a loin-cloth, and a walking-stick. |
b. The name of a plant (see quot.).
| 1910 Friar Park, Henley, Guide (ed. 3) 184 Walking-stick or Elk-horn (Opuntia arborescens), the woody stems are made into walking-sticks. |
2. Any insect of the family Phasmidæ (see quots.). Also walking-stick insect.
| 1760 G. Edwards Glean. Nat. Hist. ii. 168 Fig. 4..represents..the Walking-stick. It is so much like a dry stick, that it is supposed to deceive birds and other animals, that prey upon insects. 1872 Darwin Orig. Species (ed. 6) vii. 182 As in the case..of a walking-stick insect (Ceroxylus laceratus). 1885 C. F. Holder Marvels Anim. Life 146 The walking-sticks..resembling the twig upon which they rest. |
3. attrib. and Comb., chiefly with the sense ‘made to resemble a walking-stick’, as walking-stick gun, walking-stick stand, walking-stick stool. Also walking-stick palm, an Australian palm, Bacularia monostachya, the stem of which is used for making walking-sticks.
| 1884 Miller Plant-n., Kentia (Areca) monostachya, Whip⁓stick, or Walking-stick, Palm. 1892 Greener Breech-Loader 45 Such weapons as walking-stick guns. 1892 Photogr. Ann. II. 387 Walking Stick Stand. 1907 Gentl. Mag. July 38 Young gentlemen seated at their ease on patent collapsible walking-stick stools. |