hock
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The tarsal joint of a digitigrade quadruped, such as a horse, pig or dog.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
hahkIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhɑk
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
countable
The tarsal joint of a digitigrade quadruped, such as a horse, pig or dog.
Meat from that part of a food animal.
countable
The hollow behind the knee.
Pawn, obligation as collateral for a loan.
A Rhenish wine, of a light yellow color, either sparkling or still, from the Hochheim region; often applied to all Rhenish wines.
Tarsal joint of the hind leg of hoofed mammals; corresponds to the human ankle
verb
transitivecolloquial
To leave with a pawnbroker as security for a loan.
us
To bother; to pester; to annoy incessantly.
To hunt with a hawk.
transitive
To disable by cutting the tendons of the hock; to hamstring; to hough.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The tarsal joint of a digitigrade quadruped, such as a horse, pig or dog.
Used this way, hock is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A game resembling ice hockey that is played on an open field.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Tarsal joint of the hind leg of hoofed mammals.
A small cut of meat from the leg just above the foot.
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.