hock

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A Rhenish wine, of a light yellow color, either sparkling or still, from the Hochheim region; often applied to all Rhenish wines.

   “That night he strolled into the Palette Club about eleven o’clock, and found Trevor sitting by himself in the smoking-room drinking hock and seltzer.”

   “The dinner that they sat down to in the fly-specked dining-room was of boiled beef and carrots, with a turgid ginger pudding to follow, though Grierson went down to the cellar himself and found some dusty bottles of hock, overlooked for years because there was no demand for it in a beer-drinking community.”

2. (countable)The tarsal joint of a digitigrade quadruped, such as a horse, pig or dog.

   “Anyway, you only have one golden retriever, SWORDDOG, and she is already armed to the hocks.”

3. (countable, uncountable)Meat from that part of a food animal.
4. (countable)The hollow behind the knee.
5. (informal, uncountable)Pawn, obligation as collateral for a loan.

   “He needed $750 to get his guitar out of hock at the pawnshop.”

   “But Ford Motor Co. needs another agency, either Standard & Poor's or Moody's, to make the same upgrade before it can get its blue oval logo, factories and other assets out of hock.”

6. (informal, uncountable)Debt.

   “They were in hock to the bank for $35 million.”

7. (informal, uncountable)Installment purchase.

   “Later, Uncle Doc bought a couch on hock, then a bed.”

8. (informal, uncountable)Prison.
9. (alt-of, alternative, informal)Alternative form of hawk (“cough”).

   “One or two coughs signified 1 or 2. Clearing a throat meant 3. A loud hock was 4 and a loud sneeze or spit indicated 5. The new system gained favor. Jerry figured the guards must have thought the POWs were near death given the volume of bodily noise coming from Alcatraz.”

   “[…] said with another cough and a loud hock.”

10. (informal)The last card turned up in the game of faro.

verb

1. (transitive)To disable by cutting the tendons of the hock; to hamstring; to hough.
2. (colloquial, transitive)To leave with a pawnbroker as security for a loan.

   “Agent Beeman (Noah Emmerich): I think we got him. / Special Agent Gaad (Richard Thomas): Who? / Agent Beeman: I-I-I don't know. The guy who killed Chris, the--the Russians, the whole damn thing maybe. / Special Agent Gaad: You want to sit down? / Agent Beeman: The guy from the salvage yard who hocked the ring, and he does business with some riffraff from the projects.”

3. (US, informal)To bother; to pester; to annoy incessantly.
4. (alt-of, alternative, informal)Alternative form of hawk (“cough, clear one's throat of phlegm”).

name

1. A surname.