TOP

Definition of hock noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

hock

noun
 
/hɒk/
 
/hɑːk/
 Idioms
jump to other results
  1. [countable] the middle joint of an animal’s back legTopics Animalsc2
  2. [uncountable, countable] (British English) a German white wine
  3. (also knuckle)
     [uncountable, countable] a piece of meat from the lower part of an animal’s leg, especially a pig
  4. [uncountable] (informal) if something that you own is in hock, you have exchanged it for money but hope to buy it back later
    5. Word Originnoun sense 1 and noun sense 3 late Middle English: variant of hough. noun sense 2abbreviation of obsolete hockamore, alteration of German Hochheimer (Wein) ‘(wine) from Hochheim’. noun sense 4 mid 19th cent. (in the phrase in hock): from Dutch hok ‘hutch, prison, debt’.
Idioms
be in hock (to somebody)
  1. to owe somebody something
    • I'm in hock to the bank for £6 000.
See hock in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary
Check pronunciation: hock

Other results

All matches

Nearby words

halfway
adverb
 
 
From the Word list
Oxford 5000
C1
Oxford Learner's Dictionaries Word of the Day