dock
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɒk/
ipa: /dɑk/
rhymes: -ɒk
homophone: doc
homophone: Doc
homophone: dark (non-rhotic, father-bother merger)
Forms: form: docks
Etymology: A dock (sense 1, sense 2) for cruise ships
A laptop docking (sense 5) station
A GUI dock (sense 6) on Linux
From Early Modern English meaning "area of mud in which a ship can rest at low tide, dock", borrowed from either Dutch dok (“dock, wharf”) or Middle Low German docke (“dock, wharf”), both from Middle Dutch docke (“port, harbour”), of uncertain origin. The original sense may have been "the furrow a grounded vessel makes in a mud bank". Compare Danish dok, Dutch dok, West Frisian dok, German Dock, Low German Dock, Swedish docka.
Some sources link this word to an unattested Middle Dutch *docke (“watercourse, trench, canal”), which is a ghost word, only being inferred from Mediaeval Latin documents in the form of ducta, doctus, doccia (“conduit, canal”). However, if this theory is correct, then it would relate the word to Italian doccia (“drainpipe”), making dock a doublet of douche and duct.
An alternative theory ties Middle Dutch docke to a North Germanic or Scandinavian source, notably Old Norse dǫkk, dökð (“depression in the landscape, pit, pool, trench”); compare Icelandic dökk, Norwegian dokk (“hollow, low ground”), Swedish dank (“marshy ground”). If so, this would make dock a doublet of dank.
Senses: examples: text: With just the turn of a shoulder she indicated the water front, where, at the end of the dock on which they stood, lay the good ship, Mount Vernon, river packet, the black smoke already pouring from her stacks.
ref: 1910, Emerson Hough, “A Lady in Company”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
topics: nautical
transport
synonyms: dockyard
pier
quay
wharf
hypernyms: mooring
moorage
glosses: A fixed structure attached to shore to which a vessel is secured when in port; usually for loading and unloading.
topics: nautical
transport
synonyms: harbor
harbour
slip
berth
glosses: The body of water next to and around a pier.
glosses: The area of arrival and departure of a train in a railway station.
examples: text: coffee dock
glosses: A section of a hotel or restaurant.
topics: business
electrical-engineering
electricity
electromagnetism
electronics
energy
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: A device designed as a base for holding a connected portable appliance for providing the necessary electrical charge for its autonomy, or as a hardware extension for additional capabilities.
topics: computing
engineering
graphical-user-interface
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A toolbar that provides the user with a way of launching applications by their icons, and switching between running applications.
glosses: An act or instance of docking; joining two things together.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
theater
glosses: Ellipsis of scene-dock.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: airdock
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: balance dock
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: Barry Dock
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: cattle dock
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dock connector
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dock door
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: docker
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dockhand
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dockie
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dockization
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dockize
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dockland
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: docklands
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dockless
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: docklike
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dockman
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dockmaster
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dockmistress
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dockominium
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dockside
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dock walloper
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dock walloping
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dock warrant
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dock worker
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dockworker
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dockworking
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: docky
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dockyard
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: don't fish off the company dock
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dry-dock
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: dry dock
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: drydock
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: floating dock
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: graving dock
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: loading dock
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: Pembroke Dock
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: slip dock
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: spacedock
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: stardock
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: Tyne Dock
sense: Terms derived from dock (Etymology 4)
word: wet dock