Clock Definition

klŏk

clocked, clocking, clocks

noun

clocks

A device used for measuring and indicating time, traditionally by means of pointers moving over a dial: clocks, unlike watches, are not meant to be worn or carried about.

Webster's New World

Time clock.

Webster's New World

A source of regularly occurring pulses used to measure the passage of time, as in a computer.

American Heritage

A measuring or recording device suggestive of a clock, as a taximeter.

Webster's New World

Biological clock.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

verb

clocked, clocking, clocks

To measure the speed or record the time of (a race, runner, motorist, etc.) with a stopwatch or other timing device.

Webster's New World

To register or record with a mechanical device.

Clocked the winds at 60 miles per hour.

American Heritage Medicine

To measure (work done, distance covered, etc.) with a registering device.

Webster's New World

To hit or punch (someone) violently.

Webster's New World

To record working hours with a time clock.

Clocks in at 8:00 and out at 4:00.

American Heritage

Synonyms:

Synonyms:
time
measure time
register distance
register speed

idiom

around

Throughout the entire 24 hours of the day; continuously.

American Heritage

clean (someone's) clock

To beat or defeat decisively:

American Heritage

kill

To preserve a lead by maintaining possession of the ball or puck until playing time expires.

American Heritage

around the clock

day and night without stopping

Webster's New World

clock in <i>(or </i>out<i>)</i>

to record the time of one's arrival (or departure) by means of a time clock

Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Clock

Noun

Singular:

clock

Plural:

clocks

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Clock

Origin of Clock

c. 1350–1400, Middle English clok, clokke, from Middle Dutch klocke (“bell, clock”) (modern klok), from Old Northern French cloque 'bell' (French cloche), from Gaulish clocca (compare Welsh cloch, Irish clog), from Proto-Indo-European *klak. More at laugh. Related to Old English clucge, Low German Klock (bell, clock), German Glocke, Swedish klocka.

From Wiktionary
Middle English clokke from Old North French cloque bell or from Middle Dutch clocke bell, clock both from Medieval Latin clocca of imitative origin

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
Origin uncertain; designs may have originally been bell-shaped and thus related to Etymology 1, above.

From Wiktionary
Perhaps from clock bell (obsolete), from its original bell-shaped appearance

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