jock

Pluraljocks

1. 1
   nounslangUScountable

   A young male athlete, up to and including college age.

   He was a jock in high school, lettering in football and baseball.

   The jocks sat together at the back of the bus on the way to the game.

   Similarathlete

   Note

   American slang, and mostly a word for school and college life: the jock is the student who plays on the teams, from high school through college age. Used plainly it simply labels a sporty young man; the sneer belongs to the stereotype of the brainless athlete.

2. 2
   nounslangderogatoryUScountable

   An enthusiastic athlete or sports fan, especially one with few other interests, often stereotyped as big, strong and slow-witted.

   In the film, the dumb jock can barely spell his own name.

   At our school the nerds and the jocks never sat at the same lunch table.

   Similarathlete

   Note

   The insult rests on a stereotype, and dumb jock is its usual pairing: the big athlete who thinks of nothing but sports. American school and college stories set it against nerd, its opposite, as in the 1984 film Revenge of the Nerds: "all jocks ever think about is sports". Said of a real person, it is a put-down, not a description.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   An athletic supporter that men wear to support the genitals, especially when playing sports.

   Don't forget to pack your cup and jock for hockey practice.

   The sporting goods store keeps jocks and compression shorts on the same rack.

   Similarjockstrap

   Note

   The word is simply jockstrap cut short, and the athletic slang of the mid-20th century grew from that shortening: the young athlete is, in effect, named after a piece of his gear. In the locker room jock and jockstrap are interchangeable; elsewhere the full word avoids any confusion with the athlete.

4. 4
   nounslangcountable

   A disc jockey; a person who presents recorded music on the radio or at a club.

   The morning jock at the station has been on the air for twenty years.

   Radio jocks across the city played the song nonstop the day it came out.

   SimilarDJ, deejay

   Note

   Radio is where this clipping of disc jockey is most at home: a station speaks of its presenters as its jocks, from the morning jock to the jocks within the station who object to a program. It is slang, comfortable in the trade and in casual talk but out of place in formal writing.

5. 5
   nouncolloquialcountable

   A person who rides horses in races; a jockey.

   The jock kept the filly on the rail until the final turn.

   Two of the top jocks were thrown in the third race.

   Similarjockey, rider

6. 6
   nounslangderogatoryBritishIrelandcountable

   A disparaging name for a Scotsman.

   His London colleagues called him a jock, and he never found it funny.

   Before the England-Scotland match, the home fans jeered every jock who walked into the pub.

   Note

   A Scottish pet form of John lies behind it, so a common first name became a label for a whole nation. In Britain and Ireland it is slang and often meant as a put-down; how it lands depends on who says it and how. It is usually treated as a separate word from the American athlete stereotype, which is short for jockstrap.

7. 7
   noundialectalYorkshireuncountable

   Food or meals.

   Mam had the jock on the table by the time the lads came in from the mill.

   There's plenty of jock in the pantry if you're hungry.

   Similarfood, grub

   Note

   This word belongs to Yorkshire dialect and is unrelated to the other jocks; its origin is unknown. It means food in general rather than a dish, as in William Cudworth's Yorkshire Dialect and Character Sketches: "Hah's a growing lad to thrive baht jock?", that is, how is a growing lad to thrive without food? Outside the dialect it is little known.

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