Hock Meaning
/hɒk/Definition, CEFR level C2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA Rhenish wine, of a light yellow color, either sparkling or still, from the Hochheim region; often applied to all Rhenish wines.
nounThe tarsal joint of a digitigrade quadruped, such as a horse, pig or dog.
Sentence Examples
The U.S. is in hock up to its eyeballs.
Did Tom hock his saxophone again?
CEFR Practice Quiz
He needed money quickly, so he decided to ____ his watch at the pawn shop.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The horse had a slight injury to its ____, which made it limp slightly while walking.
Word Origin & History
Clipping of hockamore, from German.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"That night he strolled into the Palette Club about eleven o’clock, and found Trevor sitting by himself in the smoking-room drinking hock and seltzer."
— 1891 [1887], Oscar Wilde, “The Model Millionaire”, in Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories:
"The dinner that they sat down to in the fly-specked dining-room was of boiled beef and carrots, with a turgid ginger pudding to follow, though Grierson went down to the cellar himself and found some dusty bottles of hock, overlooked for years because there was no demand for it in a beer-drinking community."
— 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 158:
"Agent Beeman (Noah Emmerich): I think we got him. / Special Agent Gaad (Richard Thomas): Who? / Agent Beeman: I-I-I don't know. The guy who killed Chris, the--the Russians, the whole damn thing maybe. / Special Agent Gaad: You want to sit down? / Agent Beeman: The guy from the salvage yard who hocked the ring, and he does business with some riffraff from the projects."
— 2013, “Only You” (20:08 from the start), in The Americans, season 1, episode 10:
"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."
— 2012 April 25, Patty Murphy, “Business bulletin”, in Associated Press, page 10A:
"Later, Uncle Doc bought a couch on hock, then a bed."
— 2007, Tara Hanks, The Mmm Girl: Marilyn Monroe, by Herself, page 28:
Explore More C2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
He needed money quickly, so he decided to ____ his watch at the pawn shop.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The horse had a slight injury to its ____, which made it limp slightly while walking.