From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthe stocksthe stocksa) SCPUNISHa wooden structure in a public place to which criminals were fastened by their feet or hands in the past b) TTWa wooden structure in which a ship is held while it is being built → stock
Examples from the Corpus
the stocks• Already the stocks look like being virtually wiped out.• In the village centre are the stocks.• Start by looking at the stocks carried by builders' merchants in your area.• If investors would put money in low-quality bonds, they might as well buy the stocks.• Worse yet, the prices for the stocks in the portfolio are, by some measures, extremely high.• Morton likes the stocks of Gannett and Knight Ridder mainly for this reason.• And their performance was so popular with the watching crowd that there were calls for the return of the stocks. 