Rocker Meaning
/ˈɹɒk.ə(ɹ)/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA curved piece of wood attached to the bottom of a rocking chair or cradle that enables it to rock back and forth.
nounA rocking chair.
Sentence Examples
The whole world is off its rocker.
That guy is off his rocker!
CEFR Practice Quiz
The famous ____ wore leather pants and sang loudly on stage.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The baby was soothed by the gentle motion of the ____ as her mother sang softly.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English rokker, rockere, rokkere, equivalent to rock + -er.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The cradle-rockers had done hard duty for so many years, under the weight of so many children, on that flagstone floor, that they were worn nearly flat, in consequence of which a huge jerk accompanied each swing of the cot, flinging the baby from side to side like a weaver's shuttle, as Mrs Durbeyfield, excited by her song, trod the rocker with all the spring that was left in her after a long day's seething in the suds."
— 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 30:
""By Jove, old boy," said Cripps, assisting the curate up, "should have warned you about that chair - the infernal rockers are sawn off short, you know.""
— 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 14:
"A few days before he turned 80
He was sittin' out back in a rocker"
— 2021, “Buy Dirt”, in Buy Dirt, performed by Jordan Davis:
"Like the editors of other Elamite texts, I omit the diacritic rocker from h in Elamite and from H in logograms in Elamite texts. I retain the rocker in ḫ and Ḫ in Sumerian and Akkadian."
— 1984, Matthew Wolfgang Stolper, Texts from Tall-i Malyan Elamite Administrative Texts (1972–1974) (Occasional Publications of the Babylonian Fund; 6), University of Pennsylvania Press, →ISBN, page XVII:
"Although the exact sound value of s remains uncertain, and there is only one such sibiliant in Hittite, it is traditionally transliterated with a so-called haček: š. This should not be taken, however, as evidence that it was a palatal sound (as sh in show). The same is true for the traditional “rocker” under the laryngeal ḫ: there is no other h-sign, and the diacritic is not strictly necessary."
— 2011, Theo van den Hout, The Elements of Hittite, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 13:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The famous ____ wore leather pants and sang loudly on stage.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The baby was soothed by the gentle motion of the ____ as her mother sang softly.