clock

Etymology 1

c. 1350–1400, Middle English clokke, clok, cloke, from Middle Dutch clocke (“bell, clock”), from Old Dutch *klokka, from Medieval Latin clocca, probably of Celtic origin, from Proto-Celtic *klokkos (“bell”) (compare Welsh cloch, Old Irish cloc), either onomatopoeic or from Proto-Indo-European *klek- (“to laugh, cackle”) (compare Proto-Germanic *hlahjaną (“to laugh”)). Related to Old English clucge, Dutch klok, Saterland Frisian Klokke (“bell; clock”), Low German Klock (“bell, clock”), German Glocke, Swedish klocka. Doublet of cloak and cloche.

noun

1. A chronometer, an instrument that measures time, particularly the time of day.
   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. 1995, Richard Klein, “Introduction”, in Cigarettes are sublime, Paperback edition, Durham: Duke University Press, published 1993, →OCLC, page 8
2. (attributive) A common noun relating to an instrument that measures or keeps track of time.
   A 12-hour clock system; an antique clock sale; Acme is a clock manufacturer.
3. (Britain) The odometer of a motor vehicle.
   This car has over 300,000 miles on the clock.
4. (electronics) 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.
   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.
7. (computing, informal) A CPU clock cycle, or T-state.
   Executing a NEXT to code takes 7 clocks, or 1.05 microseconds. 1984, The Journal of Forth Application and Research, volume 2, page 83
   The best schedule produced by any hardware algorithm takes 7 clocks, whereas the statically reordered code in Figure 1.2(b) takes only 5 clocks. 1990, Joseph F. Traub, Barbara J. Grosz, Annual Review of Computer Science, page 180
8. (uncountable) A luck-based patience or solitaire card game with the cards laid out to represent the face of a clock.

verb

1. (transitive) To measure the duration of.
2. (transitive) To measure the speed of.
   Dan Patch clocked a scorching 1:55.5 flat. 1996, Jon Byrell, Lairs, Urgers and Coat-Tuggers, Sydney: Ironbark, page 186
   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. (transitive, slang) To take notice of; to realise; to recognize (someone or something).
   Clock the wheels on that car!
   He finally clocked that there were no more cornflakes.
   Pardon the way that I be talking ’bout the places I be rocking I love to perform for the people that be clocking 1988, “Nobody Beats the Biz”, in Goin' Off, performed by Biz Markie
   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. 2000, Phil Austin, Naugahide Days: The Lost Island Stories of Thomas Wood Briar, page 109
   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. 2005, Jr. Aaron Bryant, Cupid Is Stupid, page 19
   And he waits till I extend my hand, the two fingers visibly crushed. He clocks them, I say, "Phil." 2006, Ken Bruen, Dublin Noir: The Celtic Tiger Vs. the Ugly American, page 36
   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, 2006, Lily Allen (lyrics and music), “Knock 'Em Out”
   First it was only when I was with him—we would pass a pretty girl, I would notice her first, and my eyes would dart to his to see him clock her. 2021, Megan Nolan, Acts of Desperation, Random House
   I had just long enough at Lancaster to clock another plaque to a great Victorian railway engineer, Joseph Locke (1805-60). December 29 2021, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Lancaster (1860)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 58
   1. (transgender slang) To identify (someone) as being transgender.
      A trans person may be able to easily clock other trans people.
      For me, makeup was like armor. I figured that if I applied it well enough, people wouldn't be as likely to clock me as a trans woman. 2017-04-26, Katelyn Burns, “I'm A Trans Mom, & This Was My Style Journey”, in Romper
      Consuella Lopez, the director of operations and housing at Casa Ruby, remembers. "The more passable your body was, the less bullying you'd get, the more chances of you getting a regular job at a regular place without somebody clocking you." 2019-09-01, Dani Nett, “For Trans Women, Silicone 'Pumping' Can Be A Blessing And A Curse”, in NPR
      These issues are not a game, and it is gross to use someone's coming out story as a way of testing your ability to "clock" trans women. 2020-01-15, Princess Weekes, “Beauty Guru Nikkie Tutorials Came Out as a Trans Woman, but Under Distressing Circumstances”, in The Mary Sue
      Quarantine had thrown a new wrench "do not perceive me" discourse, but trans people have arguably always had a messy relationship to being perceived. We avoid it, and yet we also juice our lives to be seen. Getting clocked feels bad, but being hot feels good. 2022-03-01, Charlie Markbreiter, “"Other Trans People Make Me Dysphoric": Trans Assimilation and Cringe”, in The New Inquiry
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, Britain, New Zealand, Australia, slang) To beat a video game.
   Have you clocked that game yet?

Etymology 2

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

noun

1. A pattern near the heel of a sock or stocking.
   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 1882, W.S. Gilbert, “When you're lying awake”, in Iolanthe, or The Peer and the Peri
   She'd a gown wi' girt flowers lik' hollyhocks 1894, William Barnes, “Grammer's Shoes”, in Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect, page 110
   Most decoration involved the ankle clocks, and several are shown on p.15 in the form of charts. 2004, Sheila McGregor, Traditional Scandinavian Knitting, Courier Dover, page 60
   Clocks: These are ornamental designs embroidered or woven on to the ankles of stockings. 2006, J. Munslow, Kathryn McKelvey, Fashion Source Book, page 231
   his stockings with silver clocks were ravished from him c. 1720, Jonathan Swift, An Essay on Modern Education

verb

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

Etymology 3

noun

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

Etymology 4

Old English cloccian ultimately imitative; compare Dutch klokken, English cluck.

verb

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