stock character
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of stock character
First recorded in 1860–65
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Iago, one of Shakespeare’s greatest villains, is an updated version of this stock character.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2026
Because Neeson is so adept at rendering this stock character, he doesn’t always work very hard at it.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 27, 2022
It’s a balance she strikes most astutely on “Good Wife,” on which she’s torn between thinking that title role is a worthy goal and seeing it as a tragic stock character.
From New York Times ● Sep. 14, 2021
When I was working, I wasn't happy because I was playing stock character parts.
From Salon ● Jan. 29, 2021
That Gracieuse et Percinet is of an essentially "stock" character is not in the least against it, for so it ought to be: and the "stock" company that plays its parts plays them well.
From A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 From the Beginning to 1800 by George Saintsbury
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
