brock
English
Etymology
From Middle English brok, from Old English broc (“badger”), related to Danish brok (“badger”); both probably originally from a Celtic source akin to Irish broc, Welsh broch, Cornish brogh and thus ultimately from Proto-Celtic *brokkos.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /bɹɒk/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /bɹɑk/
- Rhymes: -ɒk
Noun
brock (plural brocks)
- (UK) a male badger.
- 1756 [1704], Ben Jonson, “The Tale of a Tub”, in Peter Whalley, editor, The Works of Ben Jonson, page 108:
- Or with pretence of chasing thence the brock,
Send in a cur to worry the whole flock.
- (archaic, possibly obsolete) A brocket, a stag between two and three years old.
- (obsolete) A dirty, stinking fellow.
Verb
brock (third-person singular simple present brocks, present participle brocking, simple past and past participle brocked)
- To taunt.
- 1988, Alan Hollinghurst, The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 112:
- Then other boys noticed that he had a softness for me, and brocked us both, so that I, who had been as unconscious as ever of anything erotic, suddenly learnt what was going on &, by some profound power of suggestion, what my feelings actually were.
Anagrams
Manx
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle Irish brocc, from Proto-Celtic *brokkos (“badger”) (compare Welsh broch).
Scots
Etymology 1
Old Scots brok or broke, from Old English broc, Scottish Gaelic broc (“badger”).
Noun
brock (plural brocks)
- badger
- a despised person
- 1833, James Hogg, The Brownie of Bodsbeck, page 13:
- He wantit to wheedle my wife out o’ ilk thing she had, an’ to kiss my daughter too, if he could. Vile brock!
- He wished to talk my wife out of everything she had, and to kiss my daughter too, if he could. Vile blackguard!
Etymology 2
From Old English gebroc (“fragment”), from brecan (“to break”).
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