• (RP) IPA: /klɒk/
• (America) enPR: kläk, IPA: /klɔk/, /klɑk/
• (Scouse) IPA: [kl̥ɒχ]

c. 1350–1400, Middle English clokke, clok, cloke, from Middle Dutch clocke, from odt , from Medieval Latin clocca, probably of Celtic - origin, from Proto-Celtic *klokkos (compare Welsh cloch, Old Irish cloc), either onomatopoeic or from Proto-Indo-European *klek- (compare Proto-Germanic *hlahjaną).

Related to Old English clucge, Dutch klok, Saterland Frisian Klokke, Low German Klock, German Glocke, Swedish klocka.

clock

1. A chronometer, an instrument that measures time, particularly the time of day.
   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC ↗, Canto II:

     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.

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. (British) 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.
   • 1984, The Journal of Forth Application and Research, volume 2, page 83:

     Executing a NEXT to code takes 7 clocks, or 1.05 microseconds.

   • 1990, Joseph F. Traub, Barbara J. Grosz, Annual Review of Computer Science, page 180:

     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.

8. (uncountable) A luck-based patience or solitaire card game with the cards laid out to represent the face of a clock.

   Synonyms: clock patience

• (instrument used to measure or keep track of time) See chronometer
• (odometer of a motor vehicle) odometer

• French: horloge

  Gallo: sourder, berloqe

• German: Uhr
• Italian: orologio
• Portuguese: relógio
• Russian: часы́
• Spanish: reloj

• French: indicateur de vitesse, compteur de vitesse
• German: Tacho, Tachometer
• Italian: contachilometri, tachimetro, odometro
• Portuguese: velocímetro
• Spanish: cuentakilómetros

• German: Taktsignal
• Portuguese: relógio
• Spanish: reloj

clock (clocks, present participle clocking; simple past and past participle clocked)

1. (transitive) To measure the duration of.

   Synonyms: time

2. (transitive) To measure the speed of.

   He was clocked at 155 miles per hour.

3. (transitive, slang) To hit (someone) heavily.

   Synonyms: slug, smack, thump, whack

   When the boxer let down his guard, his opponent clocked him.

4. (transitive, informal) To notice; to take notice of (someone or something).

   Coordinate terms: check out, scope out

   Clock the wheels on that car!

5. (transitive, informal, with as) To recognize; to assess.

   I'd already clocked her as someone who couldn't reliably be believed when she spoke. And now this too!

6. (transitive, informal) To identify (someone) as having some attribute (for example, being trans or gay).

   Synonyms: read

   Once my transformation was complete I considered moving to London, where I felt there was less chance of being clocked and a larger support network.

7. (British, slang) To falsify the reading of the odometer of a vehicle.

   Synonyms: turn back (the vehicle's) clock, wind back (the vehicle's) clock

   I don't believe that car has done only 40,000 miles. It's been clocked.

8. (transitive, British, New Zealand, Australian, slang) To beat a video game.

   Have you clocked that game yet?

• Italian: cronometrare
• Portuguese: cronometrar
• Spanish: cronometrar

• Portuguese: medir a velocidade de
• Spanish: medir la velocidad de

• Spanish: golpear

• Portuguese: notar

clock (plural clocks)

1. A pattern near the heel of a sock or stocking.
   • c. 1720, Jonathan Swift, An Essay on Modern Education:

     his stockings with silver clocks were ravished from him

• Italian: baghetta

clock (clocks, present participle clocking; simple past and past participle clocked)

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

clock (plural clocks)

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

From Middle English clokken, from Old English cloccian, ultimately imitative; compare Dutch klokken, English cluck.

clock (clocks, present participle clocking; simple past and past participle clocked)

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

1. Surname.