# jock

Pronunciation: say "JOK" US /ˈd͡ʒɑk/, UK /ˈd͡ʒɒk/

## Noun

1. A young male athlete, up to and including college age. *(slang, US)*
   - Simple: A boy or young man who plays sports, at school or in college.
   - _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._
2. An enthusiastic athlete or sports fan, especially one with few other interests, often stereotyped as big, strong and slow-witted. *(slang, US)*
   - Simple: A person who loves sports and not much else, often thought of as big, strong and not very smart.
   - _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._
3. An athletic supporter that men wear to support the genitals, especially when playing sports.
   - Simple: Special underwear that holds a man's private parts in place during 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._
4. A disc jockey; a person who presents recorded music on the radio or at a club. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A person who plays music on the radio, also called a DJ.
   - _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._
5. A person who rides horses in races; a jockey. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A person who rides horses in races.
   - _The jock kept the filly on the rail until the final turn._
   - _Two of the top jocks were thrown in the third race._
6. A disparaging name for a Scotsman. *(slang, British, Ireland)*
   - Simple: An unkind name for a man from Scotland.
   - _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._
7. Food or meals. *(dialectal, Yorkshire)*
   - Simple: Food, or a meal.
   - _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._

## Noun

8. A computer programmer who specializes in a particular area, used after a word naming that area. *(dated, US)*
   - Simple: A computer programmer who is an expert in one kind of work.
   - _We hired a compiler jock from a rival lab to speed up the new language._
   - _Ask the systems jocks downstairs why the network keeps crashing._
9. An ordinary man; a common fellow. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: In old times, an ordinary man.
   - _The laird's son drank in the same tavern as any jock from the glen._
   - _Soldiers, carters and plowmen, the jocks of the district filled the market square._
10. The penis. *(dated)*
   - Simple: A slang word for the penis.

## Other meanings

- (verb) To masturbate.
- (verb) To steal.
- (verb) To humiliate.

## Origin

**Meanings 6, 9** — From Jock, a Scottish pet form of John (compare Jack).
**Meanings 1–5, 8, 10** — The computer slang meanings come from jockey. The athletic slang meanings date from the mid-20th century and are simple shortenings of jockstrap.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/jock (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).