Chockstone

//ˈt͡ʃɑkstoʊn// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A stone, ranging in size from a boulder to a pebble, which has become wedged in a vertical fissure or cleft.

    "In these coldest hours before dawn, from three until six, I take up my knife again and hack at the chockstone. I continue to make minimal but visible progress in the divot."

  2. 2
    A metal wedge or nut, threaded on a wire, used in rock climbing for protection by wedging it into a crack in the rock.

Example

More examples

"In these coldest hours before dawn, from three until six, I take up my knife again and hack at the chockstone. I continue to make minimal but visible progress in the divot."

Etymology

From chock + stone. The climbing sense derives from the wedges' use as artificial chockstones.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.