Hock Definition

hŏk
hocked, hocking, hocks
noun
hocks
The joint bending backward in the hind leg of a horse, ox, etc., corresponding to the human ankle.
Webster's New World
The corresponding joint in the leg of a fowl.
Webster's New World
A small cut of meat, especially ham, from the front or hind leg directly above the foot.
American Heritage
Any white Rhine wine, originally that from Hochheim, Germany.
Webster's New World
Webster's New World
Synonyms:
verb
hocked, hocking, hocks
To disable by cutting the tendons of the hock.
Webster's New World
To pawn.
Hock a diamond ring.
American Heritage

​(colloquial) To leave with a pawnbroker as security for a loan.

Wiktionary

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

Wiktionary
Synonyms:
idiom
in hock
  • in (or out of) pawn
  • in (or out of) debt
Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Hock

Noun

Singular:
hock
Plural:
hocks

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Hock

  • in hock

Origin of Hock

  • 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 (kaṅkāla) ‘skeleton’)

    From Wiktionary

  • Yiddish האַק (hak), 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”)

    From Wiktionary

  • Short for obsolete Hockamore alteration of German Hochheimer from Hochheim , a town of west-central Germany

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English hokke from Old English hōh heel

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Probably from Dutch hok prison

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From Dutch hok (“prison, debt”).

    From Wiktionary

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