Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An athletic supporter.
  • noun Sports An athlete, especially in a school setting.
  • noun Sports A jockey.
  • noun A disc jockey.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To jolt.
  • noun Same as Jack, 1.
  • noun [lowercase] Same as jockey.
  • noun An iron rod, usually pronged, which is attached to the rear end of a train of mine-cars ascending an incline, and trails behind, to stop the descent of the cars if the rope breaks.
  • noun A nautical name for a Scotch seaman.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun a person trained to compete in sports; an athlete.
  • noun A jockstrap.
  • noun A disk jockey.
  • noun a radio talk-show host who is notorious for voicing unpopular, controversial, or shocking opinions guaranteed to offend many people.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb slang to masturbate
  • verb slang to humiliate
  • verb slang to steal
  • noun slang, archaic A common man.
  • noun UK, slang, pejorative A Scotsman.
  • noun slang, rare, dated The penis.
  • noun An athletic supporter worn by men to support the genitals especially during sports, a jockstrap.
  • noun US, slang An athlete.
  • noun US, slang, pejorative An enthusiastic athlete or sports fan, especially one with few other interests. A slow-witted person of large size and great physical strength. A pretty boy that shows off in sport.
  • noun US, slang, computing A specialist computer programmer

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a support for the genitals worn by men engaging in strenuous exercise
  • noun a person trained to compete in sports

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for jockstrap.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for jockey.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Unknown. Suggested to be a hypocoristic for John.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

The computer slang meanings are derived from the athletic slang meanings. The athletic slang meanings in turn date from the middle 20th century and are simple abbreviations of jockstrap, which is in turn derived from the older slang meaning of jock itself, which dates from the 17th century, and whose etymology is unknown.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word jock.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • as a verb.

    December 25, 2006

  • "Rise Up Jock" is an old sea shanty recorded by Dramtreeo (among others, surely).

    February 10, 2008