stock-still
adjective, adverb
Forms stock still
- adjective Very still; motionless. “The team was stock-still in front of the stable.”
- adverb (idiomatic) Without motion. “He lay stock-still among the bodies and blasted equipment.”
Synonyms
at rest unmoving dull impassive inanimate lifeless motionless sedent sedentary stationary still torpid unmoved frozen rooted
Etymology
Inversion of earlier still as a stock, from stock (“tree-trunk”).
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [CF. G. stock-still.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “stock-still”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details