Meaning & use
chock
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Meanings
nouncountabletechnical
A wedge or block put under or against a wheel or object to stop it rolling or sliding.
Grammar: Countable: a chock, two chocks.
Patterns
- a chock under something
- chock for something
He kicked a chock under the trailer wheel before unhooking it.
Ground crews place chocks against the plane's wheels.
A wooden chock held the barrel in place.
verbtransitivetechnical
To fix or hold something in place with a wedge or block.
Grammar: Takes an object: chock the wheels. Often with up or off.
Patterns
- chock something
- chock something up
Drivers must chock the wheels on a slope.
He chocked the boat's hull to keep it level.
We chocked the cart so it could not roll.
Word forms
| plural | chocks |
|---|---|
| third person singular | chocks |
| past tense | chocked |
| -ing form | chocking |
Common combinations
- wheel chock
- A wheel chock stopped the truck from drifting.
- chocks away
- The pilot called chocks away and began to taxi.
- chock-full
- The drawer was chock-full of old photographs.
- chock-a-block
- The street was chock-a-block with traffic.
- put a chock under
- Put a chock under the wheel before you jack it up.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- chock-full adjective
- completely full
- chock-a-block adjective
- crowded or tightly packed
- chocks noun
- plural, several wedges
Commonly confused: chock or chalk? chock or chuck?
chock vs chalk
Chalk is a soft white rock or stick for writing; chock is a wedge. They sound a little alike but are unrelated.
chock vs chuck
Chuck means throw casually, or is a part of a drill that grips; it differs from chock.
Practice
Before changing the tire, the mechanic put a ______ behind the other wheel.
Choose one answer.
A chock is a wedge that stops wheels from rolling. Chalk and chuck are lookalikes, and choke is unrelated.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “chock”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.