First use appears c. 1370. 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 *hlahjaną (“to laugh”)). Cognate with Old English clucge (“bell”), Saterland Frisian Klokke (“bell, clock”), Dutch klok (“clock, bell”), Low German Klock (“bell, clock”), German Glocke (“bell”), Danish and Norwegian klokke (“clock, bell”), Faroese klokka (“clock, bell”), Icelandic klukka (“clock, bell”), Swedish klocka (“clock, bell”), Asturian llueca (“cowbell”), Galician and Portuguese choca (“cowbell”), Doublet of cloak and cloche.
A chronometer, an instrument that measures time, particularly the time of day.
When the clock says midnight.
The seasons bring the flower again, And bring the firstling to the flock; And in the dusk of thee, the clock Beats out the little lives of men.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto II”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
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An interesting feature of the church is the invisible clock, which you can hear thumping away as you enter. Constructed in 1525, it is one of the oldest timepieces in England. It chimes the hours and the quarters, and every three hours it plays a hymn. But it has no faces.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 163:
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, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 8:
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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.
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:
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A luck-based patience or solitaire card game with the cards laid out to represent the face of a clock.
Arthur Morrison, Chance of the Game But if the clock was a red 'un, and the opportunity undoubted; to be pinched in the Bow Road merely might well imply loss of caste in the mob, but nobody need be ashamed to be pinched anywhere for a gold watch, after all.
First use appears c. 1370. 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 *hlahjaną (“to laugh”)). Cognate with Old English clucge (“bell”), Saterland Frisian Klokke (“bell, clock”), Dutch klok (“clock, bell”), Low German Klock (“bell, clock”), German Glocke (“bell”), Danish and Norwegian klokke (“clock, bell”), Faroese klokka (“clock, bell”), Icelandic klukka (“clock, bell”), Swedish klocka (“clock, bell”), Asturian llueca (“cowbell”), Galician and Portuguese choca (“cowbell”), Doublet of cloak and cloche.
When the boxer let down his guard, his opponent clocked him.
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Informal To notice; to take notice of (someone or something).
Clock the wheels on that car!
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:
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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, “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, →ISBN:
He made it to ten yards away. Still they hadn't clocked him. Five yards. He felt increasingly confident about grabbing the actual thief, even if it meant letting the other lad get away. Both were pretty scrawny kids, although the other one was quite a bit older, maybe twenty,[…]2021 July 1, Nick Oldham, Scarred, Severn House Publishers Ltd, →ISBN:
I had just long enough at Lancaster to clock another plaque to a great Victorian railway engineer, Joseph Locke (1805-60).2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Lancaster (1860)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 58:
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Informal, With as To recognize; to assess, register.
I'd already clocked her as someone who couldn't reliably be believed when she spoke. And now this too!
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:
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Informal To identify (someone) as having some attribute (for example, being trans or gay).
Once my transition was complete I considered moving to London, where I felt there was less chance of being clocked and a larger support network.
Jaz said that the palpitations of fear he used to experience at the prospect of being publicly outed in the gurdwara dissipated after he clocked other gay Sikhs in there, even one who professed a Jat caste identity, he said – Jatness being associated with stereotypical dominant macho masculinity. He reflected that this was a major factor in his rapprochement with his[…]2018 September 14, Nicola Frost, Tom Selwyn, Travelling towards Home: Mobilities and Homemaking, Berghahn Books, →ISBN, page 23:
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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 September 1, Dani Nett, “For Trans Women, Silicone 'Pumping' Can Be A Blessing And A Curse”, in NPR:
Jess was a sixty-something, short, White, bald man who could easily be "clocked" as gay.2022 February 1, Townsand Price-Spratlen, Addiction Recovery and Resilience: Faith-based Health Services in an African American Community, State University of New York Press, →ISBN:
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 March 1, Charlie Markbreiter, “"Other Trans People Make Me Dysphoric": Trans Assimilation and Cringe”, in The New Inquiry:
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UK, 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.
Ambitransitive To expose or attack someone, typically in a targeted and insulting manner.
Chiefly African-American Vernacular and LGBTQ slang
Did you hear what she said about my outfit? She kind of clocked me.
You clocked, that guy is always running his mouth.
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Its always a good day when I can clock someone using the (made up word) "unlessen". I just...ch...2013 April 30, @NICKIMINAJ, Twitter (post), archived from the original on 03 Dec 2025:
not ariana getting her ass clocked on the set of victorious2020 November 11, @BhadDhad, Twitter (post), archived from the original on 03 Dec 2025:
she just clocked all these mediocre men2025 September 23, @buffys, X (post), archived from the original on 03 Dec 2025:
Etymology Uncertain; designs may have originally been bell-shaped and thus related to Etymology 1, above.
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 bicycle1882, 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 An zome stockèns o' gramfer's a-knit wi' clocks1894, William Barnes, “Grammer's Shoes”, in Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect, page 110:
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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, →ISBN, page 60:
Clocks: These are ornamental designs embroidered or woven on to the ankles of stockings.2006, J. Munslow, Kathryn McKelvey, Fashion Source Book, →ISBN, page 231:
his stockings with silver clocks were ravished from himc. 1720, Jonathan Swift, An Essay on Modern Education:
clock
verb
Etymology Uncertain; designs may have originally been bell-shaped and thus related to Etymology 1, above.
1
To ornament (e.g. the side of a stocking) with figured work.