Dock

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /dÉ’k/
• Rhymes: -É’k
• Homophones: Doc, doc

Middle English dokke, from Old English docce, from Proto-Germanic *dukk-- (compare Old Danish dokke ‘water-dock’, West Flemish dokke, dokkebladeren ("coltsfoot, butterbur")), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeu- ‘dark’ (compare Latvian duga ‘scum, slime on water’).

Vladimir Orel, A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, s.v. “*đukkōn” (Leiden: Brill, 2003), 78.

William Morris, ed., The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, coll. edn., s.v. “dock

4

” (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979), 387; Calvert Watkins, ed., “Indo-European Roots”, Appendix, AHD, s.v. “dheu-

1

”, 1513.

Full definition of dock

Noun

1. Any of the genus Rumex of coarse weedy plants with small green flowers related to buckwheat, especially the common dock, and used as potherbs and in folk medicine, especially in curing nettle rash.
• Spenser Faerie Queene, II.xi:And vnder neath him his courageous steed,
  The fierce Spumador trode them downe like docks ....
2. A burdock plant, or the leaves of that plant.

Middle English dok, from Old English -docca (as in fingirdoccana (genitive pl.) ‘finger muscles’), from Proto-Germanic *dukkōn (compare West Frisian dok ‘bunch, ball (twine)’, Low German Dokke ‘bundle of straw’, Icelandic dokkur ‘stumpy tail’), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeu-k- ‘to spin, shake’ (cf. Lithuanian dvė̃kti ‘to breathe, wheeze’, dvãkas ‘breath’, Albanian dak ‘big ram’, Sanskrit dhukśati ‘to blow’).

Wolfgang Pfeifer, ed., Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, s.v. “Docke” (Munich: Deutscher Taschenbucher Vertrag, 2005).

Noun

1. The fleshy root of an animal's tail.
2. The part of the tail which remains after the tail has been docked.
3. (obsolete) The buttocks or anus.
4. A leather case to cover the clipped or cut tail of a horse.

Verb

1. (transitive) To cut off a section of an animal's tail.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 4, The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track....Their example was followed by others at a time when the master of Mohair was superintending in person the docking of some two-year-olds, and equally invisible.
2. (transitive) To reduce (wages); to deduct from.
3. (transitive) To cut off, bar, or destroy.
   to dock an entail

From Middle English dock ‘mud channel’, from Middle Dutch docke ‘channel’ (modern dok ‘lock (canal)’), from Old Italian doccia ‘conduit, canal’ or Medieval Latin ducta, ductus ‘id.’. More at douche and duct.

Marlies Philippa et al., eds., Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands, A-Z, s.v. “dok” (Amsterdam UP, 3 Dec. 2009):

.

Noun

1. A fixed structure attached to shore to which a vessel is secured when in port.
• 1910, w, The Purchase Price Chapter 1, With just the turn of a shoulder she indicated the water front, where, at the end of the dock on which they stood, lay the good ship, Mount Vernon, river packet, the black smoke already pouring from her stacks.
2. The body of water between two piers.
3. A structure attached to shore for loading and unloading vessels.
4. A section of a hotel or restaurant.
• coffee dock
5. (electronics) A device designed as a base for holding a connected portable appliance such as a laptop computer (in this case, referred to as a docking station), or a mobile telephone, for providing the necessary electrical charge for its autonomy, or as a hardware extension for additional capabilities.
6. (computing, graphical user interface) A toolbar that provides the user with a way of launching applications, and switching between running applications.
7. An act of docking; joining two things together.

Synonyms

• (body of water between piers) slip
• (structure for loading and unloading vessels) wharf, quay

Hypernyms

• (structure at shore to which vessel is secured) mooring, moorage

Verb

1. (intransitive) To land at a harbour.
• 29 February 2012, Aidan Foster-Carter, BBC News North Korea: The denuclearisation dance resumeshttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17213948On 28 February, for example, a US Navy ship docked in Nampo, the port for Pyongyang, with equipment for joint searches for remains of US soldiers missing from the 1950-1953 Korean War. China may look askance at the US and North Korean militaries working together like this.
2. To join two moving items.
• 2013-06-01, Ideas coming down the track, A “moving platform” scheme...is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays.
3. (transitive, computing) To drag a user interface element (such as a toolbar) to a position on screen where it snaps into place.

Originally criminal slang; from or akin to Dutch (Flemish) dok 'cage, hutch'.

Noun

1. Part of a courtroom where the accused sits.

Related terms

• in the dock