stock in trade

Or stock-in-trade

noun

1. the requisites for carrying on a business, especially goods kept on hand for sale in a store.

2. resources or abilities peculiar to an individual or group or employed for a specific purpose.

   A feeling for language should be part of the stock in trade of any writer.

stock in trade

noun

1. goods in stock necessary for carrying on a business

2. anything constantly used by someone as a part of his profession, occupation, or trade

   friendliness is the salesman's stock in trade

Word History and Origins

Origin of stock in trade¹

First recorded in 1660–70

Example Sentences

A paper in Nature traces how dinosaurs became the dominant animals on the planet in the late Triassic and early Jurassic periods by using fossilized dung and vomit, rather than paleontologists’ usual stock in trade, bones, and teeth.

Read more on Science Magazine

Promises on immigration have been the stock in trade for the last 15 years of UK politics.

Read more on BBC

Lawyerly justifications of Trump’s bogus claims are Vance’s stock in trade, but he doesn’t appear to have used the phrase directionally correct himself.

Read more on Slate

Anslinger was one of the greatest con men of that century, and racist canards were his stock in trade.

Read more on Salon

As a fighter whose stock in trade is the knockout, British and Commonwealth heavyweight champion Fabio Wardley feels he can't criticise people for craving a spectacle he very much wants to supply.

Read more on BBC