dock
Definitions
General English
Agriculture
- noun a broadleaved or curled weed Rumex with a long tap root, making it difficult to remove
- verb to cut off the tail of an animal
Commerce
- noun a harbour, a place where ships can load or unload
- verb to remove money from someone’s wages
Computing
- verb to connect a laptop computer to a special docking station on a desk to give it the same resources as a normal desktop
Construction
- A raised platform for the loading and unloading of trucks. Often, the elevation of a portion of the dock is adjustable to accommodate the differing heights of truck beds.
Electronics
- To plug into a docking station.
Food
- verb to make holes in rolled-out pastry to allow any air bubbles in the pastry to collapse and thus prevent irregularities when it is baked
Law
- noun the part of a court where an accused prisoner stands
Military
- noun a small area of water enclosed by wharves, where a ship can be loaded and unloaded
Origin & History of “dock”
English has no fewer than four distinct words dock. The oldest is the plant-name, which comes from Old English docce. Dock for ships (14th c.) was borrowed from middle Low German or Middle Dutch docke, which may have come from vulgar Latin *ductia ‘duct, conduit’, a hypothetical derivative of Latin dūcere ‘lead’ (source of English, duke, educate, etc). Dock ‘cut off’ (14th c.) was originally a verbal application of the noun dock ‘horse’s short tail’, which appears to go back to a Germanic *dukk- ‘bundle’; it may be the source of docket (15th c.). Dock for prisoners (16th c.) was originally thieves’ slang, borrowed from Flemish dok ‘cage’.
