chock

plural chocks

1. Any object used as a wedge or filler, especially when placed behind a wheel to prevent it from rolling.

   Artificial anchor points are those constructed from equipment carried by the team. These are usually the chocks or pitons placed in cracks or bolts drilled in the rock.

   2006, Paul Tawrell, Camping & Wilderness Survival: The Ultimate Outdoors Book

   1 more example

   On April 28, 1927, on Dutch Flats, below San Diego, Charles Lindbergh signaled chocks-away to those on the ground below him. A young mechanic named Douglas Corrigan nipped under the wing and pulled them away. Lindbergh gunned the plane and rolled it over the baked clay surface of the field, then gave it full throttle.

   2000, Leonard Mosley, Lindbergh: A Biography, page 82

2. nauticalAny fitting or fixture used to restrict movement, especially movement of a line; traditionally was a fixture near a bulwark with two horns pointing towards each other, with a gap between where the line can be inserted.

present singular third person chocks · participle present chocking · participle past chocked · past chocked

1. transitiveTo stop or fasten, as with a wedge, or block; to scotch.

   Alejandro jumped out and set the emergency brake (chocking the left rear wheel with a wood block he kept behind the cabina).

   2010, J. C. McKenney, The Rainwoman, page 93

   1 more example

   Gondolas with drop or hopper doors not boarded over should have lading cleated and chocked so as to prevent shifting over doors.

   1915, Railway Line Clearances and Car Dimensions Including Weight Limitations of Railroads in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Cuba

2. intransitiveobsoleteTo fill up, as a cavity.

   1 more example

   When the bells ring, the wood-work thereof shaketh and grapeth (no defect, but perfect of structure), and exactly chocketh into the joynts again; so that it may pass for the lively embleme of the sincere Christian, who, though he hath motum trepidationis, of fear and trembling, stands firmly fixt on the basis of a true faith.

   1662, Thomas Fuller, Worthies of England

3. nauticalTo insert a line in a chock.

1. not comparablenauticalEntirely; quite.

   Tom Hickey, our good-humored, blundering cabin-boy, decorated since poor Schubert's death with the dignities of cook, is in that little dirty cot on the starboard side; the rest are bedded in rows, Mr. Brooks and myself chock aft.

   1857, Elisha Kent Kane, Arctic Explorations, page 431

   1 more example

   Merchant vessels usually hoist a little on the halyards, so as to clear the sail from the top, then belay them and get the lee sheet chock home; then haul home the weather sheet, shivering the sail by the braces to help it home, and hoist on the halyards until the leaches are well taut, taking a turn with the braces, if the wind is fresh, and slacking them as the yard goes up.

   1862, Dana's Seamen's Friend: Containing a Treatise on Practical Seamanship

plural chocks

1. obsoleteAn encounter.

present singular third person chocks · participle present chocking · participle past chocked · past chocked

1. obsoleteTo encounter.

1. Representing a dull sound.

   This chair, which had been purchased by a certain man as a birthday present for his wife, developed an annoying “chock, chock” noise after it had been used a few days.

   1927 September 4, “Huckstering Not a Good Practice: In Neighborhood Stores It Is Calculated to Alienate Customers”, in The New York Times (section 2), volume LXXVI, number 25,425, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 Sep 2025, page 14, column 3

   2 more examples

   With his eyes closed, Al could hear her drop the pinecone rhythmically on the tile, chock chock chock chock, the bass, her little toenails clicking a tune around it. Didn’t he deserve a really big horse?

   2000 April 6, Jane Smiley, “Jack Russell”, in Horse Heaven, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 13

   The light is still that bright-green shining through new leaves, and from afar we hear pheasants calling: a smart chock, chock call not quite sufficiently suggestive of their epic dumbness.

   2011 May 8, Emma Townshend, “Wakehurst Place: Kew's country cousin is as accessible as tricky terrains come”, in The Independent, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 07 Jul 2022

present singular third person chocks · participle present chocking · participle past chocked · past chocked

1. To make a dull sound.

   She saw him hurry to the door, heard the bolt chock. He tried the latch.

   1913, D.H. Lawrence, chapter 1, in Sons and Lovers

   1 more example

   After some delay an apparently new chair was returned to the purchaser, and the incident seemed closed. Within forty-eight hours, however, it began to “chock” like the first chair, which it really was. The dealer had merely glued it up again and returned it.

   1927 September 4, “Huckstering Not a Good Practice: In Neighborhood Stores It Is Calculated to Alienate Customers”, in The New York Times (section 2), volume LXXVI, number 25,425, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 Sep 2025, page 14, column 3

1. UShistoricaluncountableAn illicit, fermented alcoholic beverage brewed on-site.

plural Chocks

1. A surname.