Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) to pawn; thus hockable adj.

1878		S.F. Trade Herald Aug. 2/2: To soak—to hock—Yer upper benjamin at yer uncle’s, to get the ‘sugar’ for a good square meal [DA].
1881		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 19 Nov. 10/2: ‘Of great value, cribbed it [i.e. a watch] you know, ’fraid I’ll be bagged if I hock it’.
1882		G.A. Sala America Revisited II 133: ‘Hock my sparks,’ ‘soak my gems,’ and ‘Walker my diamonds.’ [...] American euphemisms for the act of pawning your jewellery.
1891		W. De Vere ‘That Beautiful Snow’ Tramp Poems 78: Your overcoat ‘hocked,’ not a cent in your ‘kick’.
1895		F.P. Dunne in Schaaf Mr Dooley’s Chicago (1977) 169: I’ll hock me coronet.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 225: An alligator hand satchel [...] that I had somehow or other overlooked when I was hocking things.
1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 23: He had hocked the watch.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 5 June 1/6: ‘If I offered to hock it [i.e. a diamond locket] they’d send out a gineral alarm’’.
1903		A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 274: I, being compelled [...] to hock my gold watch for a fiver.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 120: They’d just got to hock Rajah to put the Imperial Consolidated in commission again.
1908		H. Green Maison De Shine 65: He’s hocked my earrings.
1917		in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 482: Frankie was a good woman, / As everybody knows, / She hocked her rings and all her things, / To buy her man some clothes.
1925		Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 109: I’ve hocked the misses’s silver teaset and my diamond ring.
1929		D. Hammett ‘Fly Paper’ Story Omnibus (1966) 33: Sue [...] had a couple of lonely weeks in which she hocked a ring to eat.
1932		E.S. Gardner ‘Bird in the Hand’ in Goulart (1967) 274: You don’t want me to [...] hock ’em or anything like that?
1939		R. Chandler ‘Pearls Are a Nuisance’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 106: I wouldn’t care to hock my gold fillings to buy me a piece of it.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 132: Let’s hock our instruments and buy us a Ford.
1951		Green & Laurie Show Biz from Vaude to Video 11: Besides, the ‘ice’ was always hockable.
1955		J.P. Donleavy Ginger Man (1958) 5: Does Marion know you’ve hocked the fire?
1956		J. Thompson ‘The Cellini Chalice’ in Fireworks (1988) 75: There wasn’t a thing that was hockable for more than a few bucks.
1959		W. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1968) 48: They hock everything to pay the gas bill.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 21: Morries never hock their gold kettles.
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 27: Going through it he came up with a pawn ticket. [...] ‘Why’d you hock it?’.
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 67: I can hock the Bright Red.
1980		(con. 1940s–60s) H. Huncke ‘Johnnie I’ in Eve. Sun Turned Crimson (1998) 117: I stole from him, hocking the articles for enough money to get a bag of junk.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 33: The Scholar had long ago hocked his lighter.
1992		K. Lette Llama Parlour 209: He’d [...] hocked his prized $400 airpump Reeboks.
1995		C. Hiaasen Stormy Weather 247: If I can’t hock the goddamn thing, I’m gone dump it.
1997		L. Davies Candy 46: You’re only hocking it, you’re not selling it.
2001		K. Waterhouse Soho 76: Silver framed they’d have been and she’d hocked them. Down on her luck.
2008		T. Dorsey Atomic Lobster 104: ‘What the hell do you want with that stupid TV?’ ‘Hock it. Good for a dime bag.’.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 168: lately she’d thought about hocking the engagament ring.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 178: [It] brings me brownie points with the pervy puritan I hocked my soul to!!!!

2. (US) to steal.

1934		B. Appel Brain Guy 130: We ride downtown in the hocked car [...] afraid of every cop who might be Eagle-Eye Gus.
1971		Current Sl. V:4.
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 15: I practically got to hock the Social Security to get half a bath.

3. to sell.

1941		‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 13 Dec. 9/6: LaVerne Simmons has a heart and is ready to hockett [sic] at the wish of Charles Crockett.
1959		H.E. Bates A Breath of French Air (1985) 176: Hocked ’em all to one of the fishing boat skippers this afternoon.
1982		M. Braun Judas Tree (1983) 53: I’ve hocked my soul to put this show on the road!
1997		L. Davies Candy 138: You start working for once. You hock your arse.
2006		C. Hiaasen Nature Girl 74: Disappointment in the mother who’d refused to hock her heirloom earrings and send Della to a prep school.
2013		D. Whish-Wilson Zero at the Bone [ebook] ‘No time for an inventory now, Perce. Cassidy wouldn’t be stupid enough to try and hock it himself. It’ll all be there’.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] [H]ocking his jungle juice at $10 a plastic cordial bottle.

4. (N.Z.) to get hold of, to obtain.

1963		B. Crump ‘One of Us’ in Best of Barry Crump (1974) 137: We might just hock a feed here, if we’re lucky.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 103: hock Achieve or gain something, like hock the used tennis balls after a tournament.

5. of money, to spend in advance.

1967

J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 9: Do you mean to say all your leave pay is hocked?