chock

Definition

Any object used as a wedge or filler, especially when placed behind a wheel to prevent it from rolling.

Etymology

From Middle English *chokke (possibly attested in Middle English chokkefull), from Anglo-Norman choque (compare modern Norman chouque), from an Old Northern French variant of Old French çouche, çouche (“block, log”), of Celtic origin, from Gaulish *tsukka (compare Breton soc’h (“thick”), Old Irish tócht (“part, piece”), itself borrowed from Proto-Germanic *stukkaz. Doublet of stock.

Example Sentences

• "On April 28, 1927, on Dutch Flats, below San Diego, Charles Lindbergh signaled chocks-away to those on the ground below him. A young mechanic named Douglas Corrigan nipped under the wing and pulled them away. Lindbergh gunned the plane and rolled it over the baked clay surface of the field, then gave it full throttle."
• "Artificial anchor points are those constructed from equipment carried by the team. These are usually the chocks or pitons placed in cracks or bolts drilled in the rock."