English

Noun

private stock ‎(usually uncountable, plural private stocks)

1. (set phrase) A supply of something, especially alcoholic beverages, belonging to a person or a commercial establishment and of such quality that it is usually reserved for the owner or for favoured friends or customers.
   • 1869, William Makepeace Thackeray, Burlesques, ch. 6:

     [T]o feed 126 souls, we had but . . .

     Three ham-sandwiches, and a pot of currant-jelly, and 197 bottles

     of brandy, rum, madeira, pale ale (my private stock) . . .

   • 1906, Andy Adams, "Seigerman's Per Cent" in Cattle Brands:

     The refreshment was brought in, and before the session adjourned, they had lowered the contents of a black bottle of private stock by several fingers.

   • 1912, P. G. Wodehouse, The Adventures of Sally, ch. 16:

     "And after all I've done for her," said Mr. Reginald Cracknell, his voice tremulous with self-pity and his eyes moist with the combined effects of anguish and over-indulgence in his celebrated private stock, "after all I've done for her she throws me down."

   • 1989 March 12, Christopher Idone, "Food: Club Comfort," New York Times (retrieved 21 Jan 2014):

     And it is heartening to be able to find a good and heady mutton chop to accompany a club member's claret from his private stock.

   • 2004, Robert Priest, How to Swallow a Pig, ISBN 9781554902545, (Google preivew)"

     Then he takes out a bottle of his own private stock, finds himself a flower or some butterflies, and proceeds to get very drunk.

   • 2011, F. Paul Pacult, American Still Life: The Jim Beam Story and the Making of the World's #1 Bourbon, ISBN 9781118045688, (Google preview):

     Booker employed his private stock as a late afternoon delight for visitors to the Boston distillery.