Stocks
an apparatus formerly used for the punishment of petty offenders, such as vagrants, trespassers, and the like. It consisted of a frame of timber, with holes, in which the ankles, and some times the ankles and wrists, sts, of the of fenders were confined. In farriery, etc., a frame in which refractory animals are held for shoeing or veterinary purposes.
In shipbuilding, a frame of blocks and In shores on which a vessel is built. finance, a stock is a fund employed in the carrying on of some business or enterprise, and divided into shares held by individuals who collectively form a corporation. Also a fund in England consisting of a capital debt due by the government to individual holders, who receive a fixed rate of interest on their shares; money funded in government securities; as, the 3 per cent. stocks.