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
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 hocked
Contemporary Examples
Schools closed, the deficit ballooned, highways crumbled, jobs disappeared—I imagine ruby slippers were hocked.
Tester uses the word "cool" as often as a tween, and I lost count of all the loogies he hocked in my presence.
The comedienne even finished it off with a hocked loogie and a groin grab.
Historical Examples
I took her to a boarding-house on Thirty-second Street where I used to live, and hocked her.
OptionsO. Henry
His young mistress heard em say he was going to be free and she walked up and hocked and spit in his face.
Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United StatesWork Projects Administration
I've hocked ev'ryt'ing dat would bring in a dollar, an' dis is de las' t'ing I've got.
Bowery LifeChuck Connors
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 hocked
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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hock
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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hock
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