pock

[pok]

noun

a pustule on the body in an eruptive disease, as smallpox.
a mark or spot left by or resembling such a pustule.
a small indentation, pit, hole, or the like.

Scot. poke².

Origin of pock

before 1000; Middle English pokke, Old English poc; cognate with German Pocke; perhaps akin to Old English pocca. See poke²

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for pocks

scar, pockmark, spot, mark, blemish, hole, pustule

Examples from the Web for pocks

Historical Examples of pocks

The infection is most active during the formation and duration of the pocks.
Essays In Pastoral Medicine
Austin Malley
At last the mystery of the ages was solved: Who put the pocks in the face of the moon?
Old Friends Are the Best
Jack Sharkey
Buy linen, yarn, or anything; for these pocks are of absolute necessity—nothing can be done without them.
Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745
Mrs. Thomson
Shee replied, saying, thou mayest thank God thou art leane; for they feare thou hast the pocks: otherwise they would eate thee.
The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation, Volume XIV (of 16)
Richard Hakluyt
As soon as the pocks appear, rubbing must be avoided till the scabs are entirely gone.
Hydriatic treatment of Scarlet Fever in its Different Forms
Charles Munde

British Dictionary definitions for pocks

pock

noun

any pustule resulting from an eruptive disease, esp from smallpox
another word for pockmark (def. 1)

Derived Formspocky, adjective

Word Origin for pock

Old English pocc; related to Middle Dutch pocke, perhaps to Latin bucca cheek

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 pocks

pock

Old English pocc "pustule, blister, ulcer," from Proto-Germanic *puh(h)- "to swell up, blow up" (cf. Middle Dutch pocke, Dutch pok, East Frisian pok, Low German poche, dialectal German Pfoche), from PIE root *beu- "to swell, to blow" (see bull (n.2)). Middle French pocque is from Germanic. The plural form, Middle English pokkes, is the source of pox, which since early 14c. has been used in the sense "disease characterized by pocks."

pock

"to disfigure with pits or pocks," 1841. Related: Pocked; pocking.

pocks in Medicine

pock

[pŏk]

The characteristic pustular cutaneous lesion of smallpox.
A pockmark.