brock

See also: Brock and Bröck

English

Etymology

From Middle English brok, from Old English broc (“badger”), related to Danish brok (“badger”); both probably originally from a Celtic source akin to Irish broc, Welsh broch, Cornish brogh and thus ultimately from Proto-Celtic *brokkos.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɹɒk/
• IPA^(key): /bɹɑk/
• Rhymes: -ɒk

Noun

brock (plural brocks)

1. (UK) a male badger.
   • Ben Jonson

     With pretence of chasing thence the brock

2. A brocket.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bailey to this entry?)

3. (obsolete) A dirty, stinking fellow.

Verb

brock (third-person singular simple present brocks, present participle brocking, simple past and past participle brocked)

1. To taunt.
   • 1988, Alan Hollinghurst, The Swimming-Pool Library, (Penguin Books, paperback edition, p.112)

     Then other boys noticed that he had a softness for me, and brocked us both, so that I, who had been as unconscious as ever of anything erotic, suddenly learnt what was going on &, by some profound power of suggestion, what my feelings actually were.

Anagrams

• Borck