English

The clock at Big Ben.

The clock of a dandelion.

Alternative forms

• CLK (contraction used in electronics)

Noun

clock ‎(plural clocks)

1. An instrument used to measure or keep track of time; a non-portable timepiece.
   • 1995, Klein, Richard, “Introduction”, in Cigarettes are sublime, Paperback edition, Durham: Duke University Press, published 1993, ISBN 0-8223-1641-2, OCLC 613939086, page 8:

     In the June days of 1848 Baudelaire reports seeing revolutionaries (he might have been one of them) going through the streets of Paris with rifles, shooting all the clocks.

2. (Britain) The odometer of a motor vehicle.

   This car has over 300,000 miles on the clock.‎

3. (electronics) An electrical signal that synchronizes timing among digital circuits of semiconductor chips or modules.
4. The seed head of a dandelion.
5. A time clock.

   I can't go off to lunch yet: I'm still on the clock.‎

   We let the guys use the shop's tools and equipment for their own projects as long as they're off the clock.‎

Synonyms

• (instrument used to measure or keep track of time): timepiece
• (odometer of a motor vehicle): odometer

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

clock ‎(third-person singular simple present clocks, present participle clocking, simple past and past participle clocked)

1. (transitive) To measure the duration of.
2. (transitive) To measure the speed of.

   He was clocked at 155 miles per hour.‎

3. (transitive, slang) To hit (someone) heavily.

   When the boxer let down his guard, his opponent clocked him.‎

4. (slang) To take notice of; to realise.
   • 2000, Phil Austin, Naugahide Days: The Lost Island Stories of Thomas Wood Briar, page 109:

     Bo John and I twisted our heads around as Miranda braked over to the gravelly shoulder, let the Scout wheeze to a stop. She was climbing out, hurrying back to whatever had caught her eye. Bo John leered into the door mirror, clocking her flouncing, leggy strut.

   • 2005, Jr. Aaron Bryant, Cupid Is Stupid, page 19:

     It is true. Carmen is an official gold digger. In fact, she is an instructor at the school of gold digging. Hood rats have been clocking her style for years. Wanting to pull the players she pulled, and wishing they had the looks she had.

   • 2006, Ken Bruen, Dublin Noir: The Celtic Tiger Vs. the Ugly American, page 36:

     And he waits till I extend my hand, the two fingers visibly crushed. He clocks them, I say, "Phil."

   • 2006, Lily Allen (lyrics and music), “Knock 'Em Out”:

     Cut to the pub on a lads night out, / Man at the bar cos it was his shout, / Clocks this bird and she looks OK, / Caught him looking and she walks his way,

   Clock the wheels on that car!‎

   He finally clocked that there were no more cornflakes.‎

5. (Britain, slang) To falsify the reading of the odometer of a vehicle.

   I don't believe that car has done only 40,000 miles. It's been clocked.‎

6. (transitive, New Zealand, slang) To beat a video game.

   Have you clocked that game yet?‎

7. (transitive, informal) To recognize someone or something

   A trans person may be able to easily clock other trans people.‎

Synonyms

• (measure the duration of): time
• (measure the speed of):
• (slang: hit (someone)): slug, smack, thump, whack
• (slang: take notice of): check out, scope out
• (slang: falsify the reading of the odometer of a vehicle): turn back (the vehicle's) clock, wind back (the vehicle's) clock

Derived terms

• clock in
• clock on
• clock off
• clock out
• clock up

Translations

Etymology 2

Origin uncertain; designs may have originally been bell-shaped and thus related to Etymology 1, above.

Noun

clock ‎(plural clocks)

1. A pattern near the heel of a sock or stocking.
   • 1882, W.S. Gilbert, “When you're lying awake”, in Iolanthe, or The Peer and the Peri:

     But this you can't stand, so you throw up your hand,
     and you find you're as cold as an icicle,
     In your shirt and your socks (the black silk with gold clocks),
     crossing Salisbury Plain on a bicycle

   • 1894, William Barnes, “Grammer's Shoes”, in Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect, page 110:

     She'd a gown wi' girt flowers lik' hollyhocks
     An zome stockèns o' gramfer's a-knit wi' clocks

   • 2004, Sheila McGregor, Traditional Scandinavian Knitting, Courier Dover, ISBN 0486433005, page 60:

     Most decoration involved the ankle clocks, and several are shown on p.15 in the form of charts.

   • 2006, J. Munslow, Kathryn McKelvey, Fashion Source Book, ISBN 1405126930, page 231:

     Clocks: These are ornamental designs embroidered or woven on to the ankles of stockings.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Jonathan Swift to this entry?)

Translations

Verb

clock ‎(third-person singular simple present clocks, present participle clocking, simple past and past participle clocked)

1. (transitive) To ornament (e.g. the side of a stocking) with figured work.

See also

• meter
• watch

Etymology 3

Noun

clock ‎(plural clocks)

1. A large beetle, especially the European dung beetle (Geotrupes stercorarius).

Etymology 4

Verb

clock ‎(third-person singular simple present clocks, present participle clocking, simple past and past participle clocked)

1. (intransitive, dated) To make the sound of a hen; to cluck.

Scots

Verb

clock ‎(third-person singular present clocks, present participle clockin, past clockit, past participle clockit)

1. to hatch (an egg)