chock

See also: Chock

English

Wheels being secured with chocks.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /tʃɒk/

• Audio (UK)

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /tʃɑk/
  • Homophone: chalk (cot-caught merger)
• Rhymes: -ɒk

Etymology 1

From Anglo-Norman choque (compare modern Norman chouque), from Gaulish *'śokka (compare Breton soc’h (“thick”), Old Irish tócht (“part, piece”)), itself borrowed from Proto-Germanic *stukkaz. Doublet of stock.

Noun

chock (plural chocks)

1. Any object used as a wedge or filler, especially when placed behind a wheel to prevent it from rolling.
   • 2000, Leonard Mosley, Lindbergh: A Biography‎^[1], page 82:

     On April 28, 1927, on Dutch Flats, below San Diego, Charles Lindbergh signaled chocks-away to those on the ground below him.

   • 2006, Paul Tawrell, Camping & Wilderness Survival: The Ultimate Outdoors Book:

     Artificial anchor points are those constructed from equipment carried by the team. These are usually the chocks or pitons placed in cracks or bolts drilled in the rock.

2. (nautical) Any fitting or fixture used to restrict movement, especially movement of a line; traditionally was a fixture near a bulwark with two horns pointing towards each other, with a gap between where the line can be inserted.

Derived terms

• chockablock
• chocks away
• chockstone
• dousing-chock

 

Translations

object used as a wedge or filler

• Bulgarian: клин (bg) m (klin)
• Catalan: tascó (ca) m, falca (ca) f
• French: coinceur (fr) m

• Galician: calzo m
• Russian: клин (ru) m (klin), упо́р для колёс (upór dlja koljós), башма́к (ru) m (bašmák)
• Spanish: calzo (es) m

nautical: fitting or fixture used to restrict movement, especially movement of a line

• Bulgarian: кнехт m (kneht)

• French: remplissage (fr) m, tin (fr) m

Verb

chock (third-person singular simple present chocks, present participle chocking, simple past and past participle chocked)

1. (transitive) To stop or fasten, as with a wedge, or block; to scotch.
   • 1915, Railway Line Clearances and Car Dimensions Including Weight Limitations of Railroads in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Cuba:

     Gondolas with drop or hopper doors not boarded over should have lading cleated and chocked so as to prevent shifting over doors.

   • 2010, J. C. McKenney, The Rainwoman, page 93:

     Alejandro jumped out and set the emergency brake (chocking the left rear wheel with a wood block he kept behind the cabina).

2. (intransitive, obsolete) To fill up, as a cavity.
   • 1662, Thomas Fuller, Worthies of England:

     When the bells ring, the wood-work thereof shaketh and grapeth (no defect, but perfect of structure), and exactly chocketh into the joynts again; so that it may pass for the lively embleme of the sincere Christian, who, though he hath motum trepidationis, of fear and trembling, stands firmly fixt on the basis of a true faith.

3. (nautical) To insert a line in a chock.

Derived terms

• unchock

Translations

to stop or fasten, as with a wedge, or block

• Bulgarian: запирам (bg) (zapiram), слагам клин (slagam klin)
• Catalan: tasconar (ca)

• Galician: calzar
• Spanish: engalgar (es)

(nautical) to insert a line in a chock

Derived terms

Derived terms

• chock-a-block

• chocks away
• unchock

(Note: chock full is not derived from this word. In fact, it is an alteration of the earlier choke-full, which most likely derives from a variant of the word cheek.)

Adverb

chock (not comparable)

1. (nautical) Entirely; quite.
   • 1857, Elisha Kent Kane, Arctic Explorations, page 431:

     Tom Hickey, our good-humored, blundering cabin-boy, decorated since poor Schubert's death with the dignities of cook, is in that little dirty cot on the starboard side; the rest are bedded in rows, Mr. Brooks and myself chock aft.

   • 1862, Dana's Seamen's Friend: Containing a Treatise on Practical Seamanship:

     Merchant vessels usually hoist a little on the halyards, so as to clear the sail from the top, then belay them and get the lee sheet chock home; then haul home the weather sheet, shivering the sail by the braces to help it home, and hoist on the halyards until the leaches are well taut, taking a turn with the braces, if the wind is fresh, and slacking them as the yard goes up.

Translations

Translations

• French: carrément (fr), en plein (fr)

Etymology 2

French choquer. Compare shock (transitive verb).

Noun

chock (plural chocks)

1. (obsolete) An encounter.

Verb

chock (third-person singular simple present chocks, present participle chocking, simple past and past participle chocked)

1. (obsolete) To encounter.

Etymology 3

Onomatopoeic.

Verb

chock (third-person singular simple present chocks, present participle chocking, simple past and past participle chocked)

1. To make a dull sound.
   • 1913, D.H. Lawrence, chapter 1, in Sons and Lovers:

     She saw him hurry to the door, heard the bolt chock. He tried the latch.

References

• “chock”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.÷
• chock at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Partridge, Eric (2006): Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English

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Swedish

Noun

chock c

1. shock

Declension

Declension of chock
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	chock	chocken	chocker	chockerna
Genitive	chocks	chockens	chockers	chockernas

Related terms

Related terms →

• chocka
• chockartad

• chockera
• nakenchock