docking
noun · verb
Form of dock , present participle of dock.
Simple meaning
Securing an arriving vessel with ropes.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dahkingSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdɑkɪŋ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
nautical
The act of securing an arriving vessel with ropes
nautical
The securing of a vessel to the quayside with cables.
astronautics
The process of connecting one spacecraft to another.
The process of cutting off or trimming the tail or ears of an animal.
verb
present participle of dock
Remove or shorten the tail of an animal
present participle of dock
To clip or cut off a section of an animal's tail; to practise a caudectomy.
transitive verb
Culinary term for pricking many small holes into doughs and pastry.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The act of securing an arriving vessel with ropes
Used this way, docking is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a nautical use: it is standard at sea and largely unfamiliar ashore.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Sailing/maritime
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use docking
- “The captain carefully maneuvered the large ship into the harbor for docking.”noun
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.