pock

P3O1C3K5
UK/pɒk/US/pɑk/

noun

A pus-filled swelling on the surface on the skin caused by an eruptive disease.

UncommonScrabble 12

Meanings

nounpock (plural pocks)

plural pocks

  1. A pus-filled swelling on the surface on the skin caused by an eruptive disease.
  2. Any pit, especially one formed as a scar.
verbpock (third-person singular simple present pocks, present participle pocking, simple past and past participle pocked)

present singular third person pocks · participle present pocking · participle past pocked · past pocked

  1. To scar or mark with pits.

    Just next door, at Al Azhar University, a rocket mangled the protective metal bars as it crashed through the windows of the president’s office this month, destroying his desk and pocking his walls with shrapnel.

    2007 February 23, Greg Myre, “Palestinian Universities Dragged Into Factional Clashes”, in New York Times
    1 more example

    In and out of the tufts they went, with their eyes dilating; wishing to be out of harm, if conscience were but satisfied. And of this tufty flaggy ground, pocked with bogs and boglets, one especial nature is that it will not hold impressions.

    1869, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, chapter VII, in Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. […], volume III, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Marston, […], →OCLC, page 111

Synonyms & antonyms

verbmark with a scar

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*bew-
  2. Proto-Germanic*pukkaz
  3. Proto-West Germanic*pokk
  4. Old Englishpoc
  5. Middle Englishpok
  6. Englishpock

From Middle English pok, from Old English poc, pocc (“pock; pustule; ulcer”), from Proto-West Germanic *pokk, from Proto-Germanic *pukkaz, *pukkǭ (“pock; swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew-, *bʰew- (“to grow; swell”). Cognate with Dutch pok (“pock”), Low German Pocke (“pock”), German Pocke (“pock”).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Bulgarian пъпка
  • пъпка (păpka)pus filled swelling
Chinese Mandarin 痘
  • 痘 (dòu)pus filled swelling
Czech neštovice
  • neštovicepus filled swelling
Finnish rokko, rakkula
  • rokkopus filled swelling
  • rakkulapus filled swelling
Polish ropna krosta
  • ropna krostapus filled swelling
Spanish vejiga
  • vejigapus filled swelling
Swedish koppa
  • koppapus filled swelling

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with pock

All rhymes →
Cite this entry
APA

pock. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pock

MLA

“pock.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pock. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pock,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pock.

Source: pock on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.