hock

[hok]

noun

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.

verb (used with object)

to hamstring.

RELATED WORDS

pledge, borrow

Origin of hock

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

hock

[hok]

verb (used with object)

pawn¹.

noun

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.

Origin of hock

1855–60, Americanism; < Dutch hok kennel, sty, pen, (informal) miserable place to live, prison

Related formshock·er, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for hocked

Contemporary Examples of hocked

Schools closed, the deficit ballooned, highways crumbled, jobs disappeared—I imagine ruby slippers were hocked.
Will the GOP Get the Message in Kansas?
Ana Marie Cox
October 24, 2014
Tester uses the word "cool" as often as a tween, and I lost count of all the loogies he hocked in my presence.
Senator Jon Tester: The Democrats' Last Best Hope
Andrew Romano
May 8, 2011
The comedienne even finished it off with a hocked loogie and a groin grab.
15 Best and Worst Celebrity National Anthem Performances
The Daily Beast Video
July 1, 2009

Historical Examples of hocked

I took her to a boarding-house on Thirty-second Street where I used to live, and hocked her.
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O. 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 States
Work 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 Life
Chuck Connors

British Dictionary definitions for hocked

hock

noun

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

verb

another word for hamstring

Word Origin for hock

C16: short for hockshin, from Old English hōhsinu heel sinew

hock

noun

any of several white wines from the German Rhine

(not in technical usage) any dry white wine

Word Origin for hock

C17: short for obsolete hockamore Hochheimer

hock

verb

(tr) to pawn or pledge

noun

the state of being in pawn (esp in the phrase in hock)

in hock

in prison
in debt
in pawn

Derived Formshocker, noun

Word Origin for hock

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."

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.

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]