clock

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[edit] English

The clock at Big Ben.

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Etymology 1

c. 1350–1400, Middle English clok, clokke, from Middle Dutch klocke 'bell, clock' (modern klok), from Old Northern French cloque 'bell' (French cloche), from Gaulish clocca (compare Welsh cloch, Irish clog), from Proto-Indo-European *klak. More at laugh. Related to Old English clucge, Low German Klock (bell, clock), German Glocke, Swedish klocka.

[edit] Noun

clock (plural clocks)

  1. An instrument used to measure or keep track of time; a non-portable timepiece.
  2. (UK) The odometer of a motor vehicle.
    This car has over 300,000 miles on the clock.
  3. (electronics) An electrical signal that synchronizes timing among digital circuits of semiconductor chips or modules.
[edit] Synonyms
  • (instrument used to measure or keep track of time): timepiece
  • (odometer of a motor vehicle): odometer
[edit] Derived terms
Terms derived from "clock"
[edit] Translations
instrument to measure or keep track of time
odometer
electrical signal
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

[edit] Verb

clock (third-person singular simple present clocks, present participle clocking, simple past and past participle clocked)

  1. (transitive) To measure the duration of.
  2. (transitive) To measure the speed of.
    He was clocked at 155 miles per hour.
  3. (transitive, slang) To hit (someone)
    When the boxer let down his guard, his opponent clocked him.
  4. (slang) To take notice of; to realise.
    Clock the wheels on that car!
    He finally clocked that there were no more cornflakes.
    • 2006, Lily Allen, Knock 'Em Out
      Cut to the pub on a lads night out,
      Man at the bar cos it was his shout,
      Clocks this bird and she looks OK,
      Caught him looking and she walks his way,
  5. (UK, slang) To falsify the reading of the odometer of a vehicle.
    I don't believe that car has done only 40,000 miles. It's been clocked.
[edit] Quotations
  • to take notice of
    • 2000, Phil Austin, Naugahide Days: The Lost Island Stories of Thomas Wood Briar[1], page 109:
      Bo John and I twisted our heads around as Miranda braked over to the gravelly shoulder, let the Scout wheeze to a stop. She was climbing out, hurrying back to whatever had caught her eye. Bo John leered into the door mirror, clocking her flouncing, leggy strut.
    • 2005, Jr. Aaron Bryant, Cupid Is Stupid[2], page 19:
      It is true. Carmen is an official gold digger. In fact, she is an instructor at the school of gold digging. Hood rats have been clocking her style for years. Wanting to pull the players she pulled, and wishing they had the looks she had.
    • 2006, Ken Bruen, [3], page 36:
      And he waits till I extend my hand, the two fingers visibly crushed. He clocks them, I say, "Phil."
[edit] Synonyms
  • (measure the duration of): time
  • (measure the speed of):
  • (slang: hit (someone)): slug, smack, thump, whack
  • (slang: take notice of): check out, scope out
  • (slang: falsify the reading of the odometer of a vehicle): turn back (the vehicle's) clock, wind back (the vehicle's) clock
[edit] Derived terms
[edit] Translations
measure the duration of
measure the speed of
slang: hit (someone)
slang: take notice of
slang: falsify the reading of the odometer of a vehicle

[edit] Etymology 2

Origin uncertain; designs may have originally been bell-shaped and thus related to Etymology 1, above.

[edit] Noun

clock (plural clocks)

  1. A pattern near the heel of a sock or stocking.
    • 2006, J. Munslow, Kathryn McKelvey, Fashion Source Book[4], ISBN 1405126930, page 231:
      Clocks: These are ornamental designs embroidered or woven on to the ankles of stockings.
    • 2004, Sheila McGregor, Traditional Scandinavian Knitting[5], Courier Dover, ISBN 0486433005, page 60:
      Most decoration involved the ankle clocks, and several are shown on p.15 in the form of charts.
    • 1894, William Barnes, “Grammer's Shoes”, Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect, page 110: 
      She'd a gown wi' girt flowers lik' hollyhocks
      An zome stockèns o' gramfer's a-knit wi' clocks
    • 1882, W.S. Gilbert, “When you're lying awake”[6], Iolanthe, or The Peer and the Peri: 
      But this you can't stand, so you throw up your hand,
      and you find you're as cold as an icicle,
      In your shirt and your socks (the black silk with gold clocks),
      crossing Salisbury Plain on a bicycle
[edit] Translations
pattern near heel of a sock or stocking

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Scots

[edit] Verb

tae clock (third-person singular simple present clocks, present participle clockin, simple past clockit, past participle clockit)

  1. to hatch (an egg)
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