stook
/stʊk
/ /stuːk /British
noun
A group of sheaves of grain stood on end in a field.I'd rather believe my whisky came from barley sheaves standing in stooks in glens of tranquillity than admit the importance of the giant combine harvesters rolling across the Ukrainian plains....
- Workers would then have to ‘set up’ the sheaves in stooks, or as we would call them, ‘attocks’, usually leaned together, butts on the ground, in two rows of four with occasionally two placed on top as a hood.
- When we were lads it meant that, weather permitting, we would almost certainly have started harvest and would be cutting oats with the self-binder and setting up the sheaves in stooks or, as we would call them, ‘attocks’.
verb [with object]
Arrange (sheaves) in stooks: the sheaves were stooked by hand...
- The wheat sheaves are being stooked to keep them dry until they are stacked.
- Labourers employed by the farmer stooked the wheat.
- The recent improvement in the weather has helped those who still cut turf in bogs and much of the crop is now stooked.
Origin
Middle English (as a noun): from or related to Middle Low German stūke.