dock

plural docks

1. countableuncountableAny of the genus Rumex of coarse weedy plants with small green flowers related to buckwheat, especially bitter dock (Rumex obtusifolius), and used as potherbs and in folk medicine, especially in curing nettle rash.

   And vnder neath him his courageous ſteed, / The fierce Spumador trode them downe like docks […]

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 352

2. countableuncountableA burdock plant, or the leaves of that plant.

plural docks

1. The fleshy root of an animal's tail; specifically after clipping or cutting.

   The Dock is about 1 inch thick, and two inches broad, like an Apothecaries Spatule. Of what length the whole, is uncertain, this being only part of it, though it looks as if cut off near the Buttock

   1681, Nehemiah Grew, Musæum Regalis Societatis. Or A Catalogue & Description of the Natural and Artificial Rarities Belonging to the Royal Society and Preserved at Gresham Colledge. […], London: […] W. Rawlins, for the author, →OCLC

2. obsoleteThe buttocks or anus.

   And on a Cuſhion ſtuffed with Flocks, / She clapt her dainty pair of Docks.

   1665, Charles Cotton, Scarronnides

3. A leather case used to cover the clipped or cut tail of a horse.

present singular third person docks · participle present docking · participle past docked · past docked

1. transitiveTo clip or cut off a section of an animal's tail; to practise a caudectomy.

   1 more example

   The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track.[…]Their example was followed by others at a time when the master of Mohair was superintending in person the docking of some two-year-olds, and equally invisible.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, pages 58–59

2. transitiveTo reduce (wages); to deduct from (someone).

   Her wages were docked by ten dollars.

   3 more examples

   They docked me ten dollars for breaking the vase.

   Workers are docked points—meaning money—for failing to keep up with the machine, for toilet breaks, for late arrival from home or meals, while constant movement prevents association with fellow employees.

   2018, James Bridle, “Complexity”, in The New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future, Verso Books, →ISBN, page 116

   The team have been docked six points at Paris 2024 and Priestman received a one-year football ban from world governing body Fifa.

   2024 July 28, “Priestman 'heartbroken' by drone scandal as funding pulled”, in BBC

3. transitiveTo cut off, bar, or destroy.

   to dock an entail

4. transitivecookingTo pierce holes, as pricking dough with a fork, to prevent excessive rising in the oven.

   1 more example

   Pricking holes in the rolled-out pie dough allows the steam to escape while it's baking. Without this, the steam would puff up in bubbles and pockets throughout the crust, which would make some parts of the crust cook too quickly and also result in an uneven surface for your filling. Docking is simple. Just roll out your pie dough and lift it into the pan. After pressing it in and shaping the edge, prick it all over with a fork.

   2008 July 11, Emma Christensen, “How and When to Dock a Pie Crust”, in The Kitchn

plural docks

1. USnauticalA fixed structure attached to shore to which a vessel is secured when in port; usually for loading and unloading.

   With just the turn of a shoulder she indicated the water front, where, at the end of the dock on which they stood, lay the good ship, Mount Vernon, river packet, the black smoke already pouring from her stacks.

   1910, Emerson Hough, “A Lady in Company”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms: dockyard, pier, quay, wharf

2. UKnauticalThe body of water next to and around a pier.

   Synonyms: harbor, harbour, slip, berth

3. The area of arrival and departure of a train in a railway station.
4. A section of a hotel or restaurant.

   coffee dock

5. businessA device designed as a base for holding a connected portable appliance for providing the necessary electrical charge for its autonomy, or as a hardware extension for additional capabilities.
6. computingA toolbar that provides the user with a way of launching applications by their icons, and switching between running applications.
7. An act or instance of docking; joining two things together.
8. abbreviationellipsisentertainmentEllipsis of scene-dock.

present singular third person docks · participle present docking · participle past docked · past docked

1. intransitiveTo land at a harbour.

   On 28 February, for example, a US Navy ship docked in Nampo, the port for Pyongyang, with equipment for joint searches for remains of US soldiers missing from the 1950-1953 Korean War. China may look askance at the US and North Korean militaries working together like this.

   29 February 2012, Aidan Foster-Carter, BBC News North Korea: The denuclearisation dance resumeshttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17213948

2. To join two moving items.

   to dock spacecraft

   1 more example

   A “moving platform” scheme[…]is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. Local trains would use side-by-side rails to roll alongside intercity trains and allow passengers to switch trains by stepping through docking bays.

   2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly)

3. space flightTo move a spaceship into its dock/berth under its own power.
4. intransitiveslangIn male homosexual sex, to engage in docking, the inserting of the tip of one participant's penis into the foreskin of the other participant.
5. transitivecomputingTo drag a user interface element (such as a toolbar) to a position on screen where it snaps into place.
6. transitiveTo place (an electronic device) in its dock.

   I docked the laptop and allowed it to recharge for an hour.

plural docks

1. lawPart of a courtroom where the accused sits.

1. USdatedrareA male given name or nickname.
2. A surname.