hock1
[hok]
- the joint in the hind leg of a horse, cow, etc., above the fetlock joint, corresponding anatomically to the ankle in humans.
- a corresponding joint in a fowl.
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- to hamstring.
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Origin of hock1
1375–1425; variant of dial. hough, Middle English ho(u)gh, apparently back formation from late Middle English hokschyn, etc., Old English hōhsinu hock (literally, heel) sinew; see heel1
hock2
[hok]
- any white Rhine wine.
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Origin of hock2
hock3
[hok]
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- the state of being deposited or held as security; pawn: She was forced to put her good jewelry in hock.
- the condition of owing; debt: After the loan was paid, he was finally out of hock.
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Origin of hock3
1855–60, Americanism; < Dutch hok kennel, sty, pen, (informal) miserable place to live, prison
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for hock
Contemporary Examples
A man like Ti, my informant explains, buys jewels whenever he is in the money, to sell or hock when times are hard.
Attorneys for Hock and Jah could not be reached for comment.
According to court documents, Hock flatly denies the allegations.
When Hock emerged from jail uninjured, both he and Strazzullo poured forth to the press.
“The court speaks for itself,” Hock told me after his brief court appearance.
Historical Examples
He was indeed wearied, and agreed to take a glass of hock and seltzer.
Vivian GreyEarl of Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disraeli
His daughter-in-law, but onbeknownsts to him as sech, nurses him from soda to hock.
Faro Nell and Her FriendsAlfred Henry Lewis
The heel of the horse is the part commonly known as the hock.
They'd just got to hock Rajah to put the Imperial Consolidated in commission again.
Shorty McCabeSewell Ford
I fear I indulged in the hock yesterday, for I feel a twinge.
TancredBenjamin Disraeli
hock1
- the joint at the tarsus of a horse or similar animal, pointing backwards and corresponding to the human ankle
- the corresponding joint in domestic fowl
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- another word for hamstring
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Word Origin
C16: short for hockshin, from Old English hōhsinu heel sinew
hock2
- any of several white wines from the German Rhine
- (not in technical usage) any dry white wine
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Word Origin
C17: short for obsolete hockamore Hochheimer
hock3
- (tr) to pawn or pledge
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- the state of being in pawn (esp in the phrase in hock)
- in hock
- in prison
- in debt
- in pawn
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Word Origin
C19: from Dutch hok prison, debt
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for hock
n.1
"joint in the hind leg of a horse," mid-15c., earlier hockshin (late 14c.), from Old English hohsinu "sinew of the heel, Achilles' tendon," literally "heel sinew," from hoh "heel," from Proto-Germanic *hanhaz (cf. German Hachse "hock," Old English hæla "heel"), from PIE *kenk- (3) "heel, bend of the knee."
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n.2
"Rhenish wine," 1620s, shortening of Hockamore, from German Hochheimer, "(wine) of Hochheim," town on the Main where wine was made; sense extended to German white wines in general.
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n.3
"pawn, debt," 1859, American English, in hock, which meant both "in debt" and "in prison," from Dutch hok "jail, pen, doghouse, hutch, hovel." The verb is 1878, from the noun.
When one gambler is caught by another, smarter than himself, and is beat, then he is in hock. Men are only caught, or put in hock, on the race-tracks, or on the steamboats down South. ... Among thieves a man is in hock when he is in prison. [G.W. Matsell, "Vocabulum," 1859]
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper