Hock

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /hÉ’k/
• US IPA: /hÉ‘k/
• Rhymes: -É’k, -É‘k

From hockamore, from the name of the German town of Hochheim am Main.

Full definition of hock

Noun

1. A Rhenish wine, of a light yellow color, either sparkling or still, from the Hochheim region, but often applied to all Rhenish wines.

From Middle English hoch, hough, hocke, from Old English hōh, from Proto-Germanic *hanhaz (cf. West Frisian hakke, Dutch hak, Low German Hack), from Proto-Indo-European *kenk (compare Lithuanian kìnka ‘leg, thigh, knee-cap’, kenklė̃ ‘knee-cap’, Sanskrit कङ्काल ‘skeleton’)

Noun

1. The tarsal joint of a digitigrade quadruped, such as a horse, pig or dog.
2. Meat from that part of a food animal.

Derived terms

• rattle one's hocks

Verb

1. (transitive) To disable by cutting the tendons of the hock; to hamstring; to hough.

From Dutch hok ("prison, debt").

Verb

1. (pawned)(transitive, colloquial) To leave with a pawnbroker as security for a loan.

Noun

1. Pawn, obligation as collateral for a loan.He needed $750 to get his guitar out of hock at the pawnshop.
• 2012, April 25, Patty Murphy, Business bulletin, But Ford Motor Co. needs another agency, either Standard & Poor's or Moody's, to make the same upgrade before it can get its blue oval logo, factories and other assets out of hock.
2. Debt.They were in hock to the bank for $35 million.
3. Installment purchase.
• 2007, Tara Hanks, The Mmm Girl: Marilyn Monroe, by Herself, Later, Uncle Doc bought a couch on hock, then a bed.
4. Prison.

Derived terms

• Hock Monday
• Hock Tuesday

Yiddish האַק, imperative singular form of האַקן (hakn, "to knock"), from the idiomatic expression האַק מיר נישט קען טשײַניק (hak mir nisht ken tshaynik, "don't hock me a teakettle")

Alternative forms

• hak

Verb

1. (US) To bother; to pester; to annoy incessantly

Anagrams

• Koch