chock-house

noun

A juke joint that sold chock, a highly potent homemade beer known commonly sold in logging and turpentine camps.

Meanings

nounchock-house (plural chock-houses)

plural chock-houses

  1. A juke joint that sold chock, a highly potent homemade beer known commonly sold in logging and turpentine camps.

    When Jefferson did play juke joints or chock houses he would sometimes have a fiddler to accompany him, often Lorenzo Ross.

    2012, Jonathan S. Lower, THE AMERICAN BLUES: MEN, MYTHS, AND MOTIFS, page 42
    2 more examples

    In the 'chock-houses' where a crude form of alcohol cost a matter of cents, pianists hit the keys in a rough-and-ready combination of ragtime and blues: barrelhouse, as it was called, after the rudest of joints where barrels supported a plank for the bar.

    2008, Jeff Place, Classic Piano Blues, page 4

    In 1915 he performed on Dallas radio station WWR, and continued to play for tips at various social gathering places, including chock-houses (homes or stores where home-brewed alcohol was served) and juke joints in Dallas.

    2020, boppinbob, “Whistlin' Alex Moore born 22 November 1899”, in From the Vaults

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
Cite this entry
APA

chock-house. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chock-house

MLA

“chock-house.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chock-house. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “chock-house,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chock-house.

Source: chock-house on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.