'Blue stocking' definitions:
Definition of 'Blue stocking'
From: GCIDE
- Stocking \Stock"ing\, n. [From Stock, which was formerly used of a covering for the legs and feet, combining breeches, or upper stocks, and stockings, or nether stocks.]
- 1. A close-fitting covering for the foot and leg, usually knit or woven. [1913 Webster]
- 2. Any of various things resembling, or likened to, a stocking[1]; as: (a) A broad ring of color, differing from the general color, on the lower part of the leg of a quadruped; esp., a white ring between the coronet and the hock or knee of a dark-colored horse. (b) A knitted hood of cotton thread which is eventually converted by a special process into an incandescent mantle for gas lighting. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
- Blue stocking. See Bluestocking.
- Stocking frame, a machine for knitting stockings or other hosiery goods. [1913 Webster]