rock
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɹɒk/
enpr: rŏk
ipa: /ɹɑk/
ipa: /ɹɔk/
homophone: roc
homophone: rawk
rhymes: -ɒk
Forms: form: rocks
form: rocking
form: rocked
form: rocked
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English rokken, from Old English roccian, from Proto-West Germanic *rokkōn, from Proto-Germanic *rukkōną, from Proto-Germanic *rukkōną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃ruknéh₂ti, from *h₃rewk-, *h₃runk-.
See also obsolete Dutch rokken, Middle High German rocken (“to drag, jerk”), Modern German rücken (“to move, shift”), Icelandic rukka (“to yank”); also Latin runcāre (“to weed”), Latvian rũķēt (“to toss, dig”).
Senses: examples: text: Rock the baby to sleep.
text: The empty swing rocked back and forth in the wind.
text: To Edward […] he was terrible, nerve-inflaming, poisonously asphyxiating. He sat rocking himself in the late Mr. Churchill's swing chair, smoking and twaddling.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
glosses: To move gently back and forth.
examples: text: Don't rock the boat.
text: A rising earthquake rocked the ground.
ref: 1700, [John] Dryden, “Theodore and Honoria, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
text: The lights of Luluabourg disappeared, and we were in the blackness of the African night, which was continuously pierced by the showers of red sparks ejected skywards and red hot ashes deposited on the track as the fireman rocked his fire.
ref: 1958 February 23, Arthur F. Beckenham, “A Journey in the Belgian Congo”, in Railway Magazine, page 93:
glosses: To cause to shake or sway violently.
examples: text: The boat rocked at anchor.
glosses: To sway or tilt violently back and forth.
examples: text: The ores had been rocked and laid out for inspection.
glosses: To be washed and panned in a cradle or in a rocker.
raw_tags: of ore etc.
examples: text: Downing Street has been rocked by yet another sex scandal.
text: She rocked my world.
glosses: To disturb the emotional equilibrium of; to distress; to greatly impact (most often positively).
examples: text: The Blues' challenge had been rocking at that point, with Terry's centre-back partner Gary Cahill lost to injury and Barca having just levelled the tie through Busquets's neat, close-range finish from Isaac Cuenca's pull-back.
ref: 2012 April 24, Phil Dawkes, “Barcelona 2-2 Chelsea”, in BBC Sport:
glosses: To do well or to be operating at high efficiency.
examples: text: That band rocks!
glosses: To be cool.
examples: text: I wanna rock!
text: Cum on feel the noize, girls, rock your boys.
ref: 1973, Noddy Holder, Jim Lea, “Cum On Feel the Noize”, performed by Slade:
text: Rock me gently, rock me slowly, take it easy, don't you know, that I have never been loved like this before.
ref: 1974, Andy Kim, “Rock Me Gently”:
text: Open up your heart / And let the loving start / Oh, woman, take me in your arms / Rock your baby.
ref: 1974, Harry Wayne Casey, Richard Finch, “Rock Your Baby”, performed by George McCrae:
text: I just wanna rock you, all night long.
ref: 1980, Jonah Ellis, Alisa Peoples, Cavin Yarbrough, “Don't Stop the Music”, in The Two of Us, performed by Yarbrough and Peoples:
text: Try me out, and if you get excited
Take me home, I'd love to be invited
Once we're there, I'm sure you'll be delighted
We could rock all night
ref: 1999, Harry Connick Jr., “Come By Me”:
glosses: To make love to or have sex (with).
examples: text: Tends to tap fingers on desk or spin ring on finger, especially when stressed. Sucks thumb in private. Loves to rock.
ref: 2019 May 4, C. L. Lynch, “"Autism is a Spectrum" Doesn’t Mean What You Think”, in NeuroClastic:
glosses: To sway one's body as a stim.
Synonyms: sense: move gently back and forth
word: waver
word: sway
sense: cause to shake violently
word: agitate
sense: cause to shake violently
word: trouble
sense: sway violently back and forth
word: judder
word: shake
sense: do well
word: cook with gas
sense: do well
word: flourish
sense: be good
word: rules
sense: have sex with
word: go to bed with
word: hit
word: sleep with
word: copulate with
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from rock (etymology 2)
word: rerock
sense: Terms derived from rock (etymology 2)
word: rockabye
sense: Terms derived from rock (etymology 2)
word: rock along
sense: Terms derived from rock (etymology 2)
word: rock and roll
sense: Terms derived from rock (etymology 2)
word: rock 'n' roll
sense: Terms derived from rock (etymology 2)
word: rocker
sense: Terms derived from rock (etymology 2)
word: rocking
sense: Terms derived from rock (etymology 2)
word: rock on
sense: Terms derived from rock (etymology 2)
word: rock out
sense: Terms derived from rock (etymology 2)
word: rock someone's socks
sense: Terms derived from rock (etymology 2)
word: rock someone's socks off
sense: Terms derived from rock (etymology 2)
word: rock someone's world
sense: Terms derived from rock (etymology 2)
word: rock the boat
sense: Terms derived from rock (etymology 2)
word: rock the house
sense: Terms derived from rock (etymology 2)
word: rock up
sense: Terms derived from rock (etymology 2)
word: rock with laughter
sense: Terms derived from rock (etymology 2)
word: rocky
sense: Terms derived from rock (etymology 2)
word: the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world
sense: Terms derived from rock (etymology 2)
word: the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world