Word: yoke Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From Middle English iuc, jok, yok, yoke, ȝok, ȝook, from Old English ġeoc, ġioc, ioc (“yoke”), from Proto-West Germanic *juk, from Proto-Germanic *juką (“yoke”), from Proto-Indo-European *yugóm (“yoke”), from *yewg- (“to join, yoke”). Doublet of yuga, jugum, yoga and possibly yogh. Senses 3.1 (“area of arable land”) and 3.2 (“amount of work done with draught animals”) probably referred to the area of land that could generally be ploughed by yoked draught animals within a given time. Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian Juk (“yoke”), Cimbrian jòch (“yoke”), Dutch juk (“yoke; burden”), German Joch (“yoke”), Luxembourgish Jach (“yoke”), Danish åg (“yoke”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Swedish ok (“yoke”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk åk (“yoke”), Gothic 𐌾𐌿𐌺 (juk, “yoked pair of animals”); also Breton yev (“yoke”), Irish and Scottish Gaelic cuing (“yoke; bond, tie”), Manx quing (“yoke”), Welsh iau (“yoke”), Latin iugum, jugum (“yoke”), Greek ζυγός (zygós, “even; twin”), Latvian jūgs (“yoke; bondage; cart”), Lithuanian jungas (“yoke”), Bulgarian и́го (ígo), юго (jugo, “yoke”), Czech jho (“yoke”), Kashubian jigò, jugò (“yoke”), Macedonian иго (igo, “yoke”), Polabian jaiďü (“yoke”), Russian и́го (ígo, “yoke”), Serbo-Croatian и́го, ígo (“yoke”), Slovene igo (“yoke”), Ukrainian і́го (ího, “yoke”), Armenian լուծ (luc, “harness, yoke”), Persian یوغ (yuġ, “yoke”), Hittite 𒄿𒌑𒃷 (yukan, “yoke”), Tocharian A yokäm (“door”), Sanskrit युग (yuga, “yoke; brace; couple, pair”). Pronunciation: /jəʊk/, /joʊk/ 1. Senses relating to a frame around the neck. Example: Thy seruant in walking thy pastures aboute: / for yokes, forkes and rakes, let him loke to finde oute. / And after at leyser let this be his hier: / to trimme them and make them at home by the fier. Example: The Oxe hath therefore ſtretcht his yoake in vaine, / The Ploughman loſt his ſweat, and the greene corne / Hath rotted, ere his youth attainde a bearde: […] 2. Senses relating to a frame around the neck. Example: Steam Engines. […] The valve rods are coupled by connecting-rods […] and yokes[…], to eccentrics[…]. 3. Senses relating to a frame around the neck. Example: And whenever to rest she her buckets set down, / She jingled her yokes to and fro, / And her yokes she might jingle till morn—a rude clown, / Ere he it seem'd offered to go. Example: The speaker, who had been carrying a pair of pails on a yoke, deposited them upon the edge of the pavement in front of the inn, and straightened his back to an excruciating perpendicular. 4. Senses relating to a frame around the neck. 5. Senses relating to a frame around the neck. 6. Senses relating to a frame around the neck. Example: Nothing says you're a dedicated lifter and true athlete more than a massive yoke—that is, the muscles of the neck, traps, and rear delts. 7. Senses relating to a frame around the neck. Example: The country children thereabouts wore their dresses to their shoe-tops, but this city child was dressed in what was then called the "Kate Greenaway" manner, and her red cashmere frock, gathered full from the yoke, came almost to the floor. Example: The dresses her mother made looked ugly, even obscene, for her breasts were well grown, and the yokes emphasized them, showing flattened bulges under the tight band of material; and the straight falling line of the skit was spoiled by her full hips. 8. Senses relating to a frame around the neck. 9. Senses relating to a frame around the neck. 10. Senses relating to a frame around the neck. 11. Senses relating to a frame around the neck. Example: A light whale-boat, handsomely painted, and fitted out with stern seats, yoke, tiller-ropes, &c. hung on the starboard quarter, and was used as the gig. […] The bow-man had charge of the boat-hook and painter, and the coxswain of the rudder, yoke, and stern-sheets. 12. Senses relating to a frame around the neck. Labels: US 13. Senses relating to a frame around the neck. Labels: historical 14. Senses relating to a frame around the neck. Labels: historical Example: Strong yoke for a hog, with a twicher and rings, / with tar in a tarpot, for dangerous things: […] Example: Each hog had a wooden triangular yoke about its neck, by which it was hindered from penetrating through the holes in the encloſures; and for this reaſon, the encloſures are made very ſlender, and eaſy to put up, and do not require much wood. 15. Senses relating to a frame around the neck. Labels: Ancient-Rome, historical Example: [H]is will and pleaſure was they ſhould paſſe all under the yoke or gallows: the maner wherof is this. They took three ſpears or javelins, and ſet two of them pitched in the ground endlong, and their overthwart faſtned unto the other. Under this kind of gallows the Dictator compelled the Æquians to go. Example: [T]he Æqui being attacked on both ſides and unable to reſiſt or fly, begged a ceſſation of arms. They offered the dictator his own terms; he gave them their lives, but obliged them, in token of ſervitude, to paſs under the yoke, which was two ſpears ſet upright, and another acroſs, in the form of a door, beneath which the vanquiſhed were to march. 16. Senses relating to a pair of harnessed draught animals. Labels: historical Example: I have bought fyve yooke of oxẽ [oxen]⸝ ãd I must goo to prove thẽ⸝ I praye the have me excuſed. Example: One yoke of cattle became so foot sore that they were unserviceable, and we were obliged to drive them behind the wagon. 17. Senses relating to a pair of harnessed draught animals. Labels: archaic Example: [T]heſe that accuſe him in his intent towards our wiues, are a yoake of his diſcarded men: very rogues, now they be out of ſeruice. Example: [T]hese whales, influenced by some views to safety, now swim the seas in immense caravans, so that to a large degree the scattered solitaries, yokes, and pods, and schools of other days are now aggregated into vast but widely separated, unfrequent armies. 18. Senses relating to a pair of harnessed draught animals. Labels: Ireland, Scotland Example: […] I missed the train home and I couldn't get any kind of a yoke to give me a lift for, as luck would have it, there was a mass meeting that same day over in Castletownroche and all the cars in the country were there. 19. Senses relating to a pair of harnessed draught animals. Labels: Ireland, informal Example: These three yokes [AK-47s] we're throwin' them up to them [CIRA]^([sic]) either way… 20. Senses relating to a pair of harnessed draught animals. Labels: Ireland, informal 21. Senses relating to a pair of harnessed draught animals. Labels: Ireland, slang 22. Senses relating to quantities, and other extended uses. Labels: Kent, archaic Example: Of this ſuling Ralph de Curbeſpine holds one yoke and an half, which is and was worth ſeparately ten ſhillings. Adelold had half a ſuling and half a yoke, and in the time of K. Edward the Confeſſor it was worth 40 ſhillings, and afterwards 20 ſhillings, now 40 ſhillings. 23. Senses relating to quantities, and other extended uses. Labels: England, Kent, Scotland, also, especially, historical Example: to work two yokes 24. Senses relating to quantities, and other extended uses. Labels: figuratively Example: [I]n companions / That do conuerſe and waſte the time together, / Whoſe ſoules do beare an equall yoke of loue, / There muſt be needs a like proportion / Of lineaments, of manners, and of ſpirit […] Example: Such were his Looks, ſo gracefully he ſpoke, / That were I not reſolv'd againſt the Yoke / Of hapleſs Marriage; […] / To this one Error I might yield again: […] 25. Senses relating to quantities, and other extended uses. Labels: figuratively Example: Their mothers bed-chamber ſhould not be ſafe, / For theſe baſe bond-men to the yoake of Rome. Example: Whereupon our enemies, kindled with rage, and pricked forward with an ignominious indignity, leſt they ſhould be brought under the yoke of a womans government, with a strong power of choiſe youth, by force of armes invaded her kingdome, which was foreſeen by us: […]