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clock

Pronunciation: /klɒk/

The English word “clock” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A chronometer, an instrument that measures time, particularly the time of day.
  2. A common noun relating to an instrument that measures or keeps track of time.
  3. The odometer of a motor vehicle.
  4. An electrical signal that synchronizes timing among digital circuits of semiconductor chips or modules.
  5. The seed head of a dandelion.
  6. A time clock.
  7. A CPU clock cycle, or T-state.
  8. A luck-based patience or solitaire card game with the cards laid out to represent the face of a clock.
  9. A watch (timepiece).
  10. A face; the head.
  11. A pattern near the heel of a sock or stocking.

verb

  1. To measure the duration of.
  2. To measure the speed of.
  3. To hit (someone) heavily.
  4. To notice; to take notice of (someone or something).
  5. To recognize; to assess, register.
  6. To identify (someone) as having some attribute (for example, being trans or gay).
  7. To falsify the reading of the odometer of a vehicle.
  8. To beat a video game.
  9. To expose or attack someone, typically in a targeted and insulting manner.

Etymology

From Middle English clokke, clok, cloke (“clock”), from Middle Dutch clocke (“bell, clock”), from Old Dutch *klokka, from Medieval Latin clocca (“bell, clock, cloak”), probably of Celtic origin, from Proto-Celtic *klokkos (“bell”) (compare Welsh cloch (“bell”), Old Irish cloc (“bell, clock”)), either onomatopoeic or from Proto-Indo-European *klek- (“to laugh, cackle”) (compare Proto-Germanic…

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