What does "dock" mean?
Any of the genus Rumex of coarse weedy plants with small green flowers related to buckwheat, especially bitter dock (Rumex obtusifolius), and used as potherbs and in folk medicine, especially in curing nettle rash.
Dock
/dɒk/ name, noun, verb, slang
name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: Any of the genus Rumex of coarse weedy plants with small green flowers related to buckwheat, especially bitter dock (Rumex obtusifolius), and used as potherbs and in folk medicine, especially in curing nettle rash.
- Grammar: dock is listed as name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: pier, wharf, abbreviate, abridge.
- Useful contrasts: barging, canoes, cruise.
- Usage evidence: The ship is now in dock for a refit.
How to use "dock"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "dock" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
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- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "dock" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
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Compare nearby meanings
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Definition decision workflow
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Definitions
Noun
- 1 Any of the genus Rumex of coarse weedy plants with small green flowers related to buckwheat, especially bitter dock (Rumex obtusifolius), and used as potherbs and in folk medicine, especially in curing nettle rash. countable, uncountable
"And vnder neath him his courageous ſteed, / The fierce Spumador trode them downe like docks […]"
- 2 The fleshy root of an animal's tail; specifically after clipping or cutting.
"The Dock is about 1 inch thick, and two inches broad, like an Apothecaries Spatule. Of what length the whole, is uncertain, this being only part of it, though it looks as if cut off near the Buttock"
- 3 A fixed structure attached to shore to which a vessel is secured when in port; usually for loading and unloading. US
"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."
- 4 Part of a courtroom where the accused sits.
- 5 a short or shortened tail of certain animals wordnet
Show 16 more definitions
- 6 A burdock plant, or the leaves of that plant. countable, uncountable
- 7 The buttocks or anus. obsolete
"And on a Cuſhion ſtuffed with Flocks, / She clapt her dainty pair of Docks."
- 8 The body of water next to and around a pier. UK
- 9 the solid bony part of the tail of an animal as distinguished from the hair wordnet
- 10 A leather case used to cover the clipped or cut tail of a horse.
- 11 The area of arrival and departure of a train in a railway station.
- 12 landing in a harbor next to a pier where ships are loaded and unloaded or repaired; may have gates to let water in or out wordnet
- 13 A section of a hotel or restaurant.
"coffee dock"
- 14 an enclosure in a court of law where the defendant sits during the trial wordnet
- 15 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.
- 16 a platform where trucks or trains can be loaded or unloaded wordnet
- 17 A toolbar that provides the user with a way of launching applications by their icons, and switching between running applications.
- 18 a platform built out from the shore into the water and supported by piles; provides access to ships and boats wordnet
- 19 An act or instance of docking; joining two things together.
- 20 any of certain coarse weedy plants with long taproots, sometimes used as table greens or in folk medicine wordnet
- 21 Ellipsis of scene-dock. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
Verb
- 1 To clip or cut off a section of an animal's tail; to practise a caudectomy. transitive
"The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track.[…]Their example was followed by others at a time when the master of Mohair was superintending in person the docking of some two-year-olds, and equally invisible."
- 2 To land at a harbour. intransitive
"On 28 February, for example, a US Navy ship docked in Nampo, the port for Pyongyang, with equipment for joint searches for remains of US soldiers missing from the 1950-1953 Korean War. China may look askance at the US and North Korean militaries working together like this."
- 3 maneuver into a dock wordnet
- 4 To reduce (wages); to deduct from (someone). transitive
"Her wages were docked by ten dollars."
- 5 To join two moving items.
"to dock spacecraft"
Show 11 more definitions
- 6 remove or shorten the tail of an animal wordnet
- 7 To reduce the wages of (a person). informal, transitive
"They docked me ten dollars for breaking the vase."
- 8 To move a spaceship into its dock/berth under its own power.
- 9 come into dock wordnet
- 10 To cut off, bar, or destroy. transitive
"to dock an entail"
- 11 In male homosexual sex, to engage in docking, the inserting of the tip of one participant's penis into the foreskin of the other participant. intransitive, slang, vulgar
- 12 deduct from someone's wages wordnet
- 13 To pierce holes, as pricking dough with a fork, to prevent excessive rising in the oven. transitive
"Pricking holes in the rolled-out pie dough allows the steam to escape while it's baking. Without this, the steam would puff up in bubbles and pockets throughout the crust, which would make some parts of the crust cook too quickly and also result in an uneven surface for your filling. Docking is simple. Just roll out your pie dough and lift it into the pan. After pressing it in and shaping the edge, prick it all over with a fork."
- 14 To drag a user interface element (such as a toolbar) to a position on screen where it snaps into place. transitive
- 15 deprive someone of benefits, as a penalty wordnet
- 16 To place (an electronic device) in its dock. transitive
"I docked the laptop and allowed it to recharge for an hour."
Proper Noun
- 1 A male given name or nickname. US, dated, rare
- 2 A surname.
Example
"The ship is now in dock for a refit."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "dock"?
Common synonyms include: pier, wharf, abbreviate, abridge, abscind, abstract.
How do you use "dock" in a sentence?
The ship is now in dock for a refit.
How do you pronounce "dock"?
Pronounced /dɒk/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English dokke, from Old English docce, from Proto-West Germanic *dokkā, from Proto-Germanic *dukkǭ (compare Old Danish dokke (“water-dock”), West Flemish dokke, dokkebladeren (“coltsfoot, butterbur”)), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰew- (“dark”) (compare Latvian duga (“scum, slime on water”)).
Etymology 2
A horse with a fully docked (etymology 2 sense 1) tail A dog with a partially docked (etymology 2 sense 1) tail From Middle English dok (“trimmed hair, dock”), from Old English *docce, *docca (as in fingerdocce (“finger muscles”)), from Proto-West Germanic *dokkā, from Proto-Germanic *dukkǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeu-k- (“to spin, shake”). Compare Icelandic dokkur (“stumpy tail”), Low German Dokke (“bundle of straw”), West Frisian dok (“bunch, ball (twine)”), Albanian dak (“big ram”), Lithuanian dvė̃kti (“to breathe, wheeze”), dvãkas (“breath”), Sanskrit धुक्षति (dhukṣati, “to blow”). The verb is from Middle English dokken (“to cut short, dock, curtail”), derived from the noun.
Etymology 3
A dock (etymology 3 sense 1, etymology 3 sense 2) for cruise ships A laptop docking (etymology 3 sense 5) station A GUI dock (etymology 3 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.
Etymology 4
Originally criminal slang; from or akin to obsolete Dutch (West Flemish) dok (“cage, hutch”) or docke (“cage”), possibly from Middle Dutch docke (“block, wooden object”), related to Middle Low German docke (“tenon, banister rod, bench cheek, side panel of a pew”), of uncertain origin.
Etymology 5
* As an English surname, possibly from the noun duck. * As a Norwegian surname, from Old Norse dǫkk (“pit, depression”), from Proto-Germanic *dankwaz (“dark”). * As a German surname, spelling variant of Docke, related to the noun Tuch (“cloth, piece of fabric”).