hock n.2
the state of being pawned; the act of pawning; usu. in phr. in hock
Life In Sing Sing 249: Hock. pawnbroker’s office. | ||
God’s Man 277: I knew him when he couldn’t get the ham and eggs out of hock, the shrimp! | ||
Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | ||
DAUL 98/2: Hock, in. 1. Out of funds; broke. 2. In pawn. | et al.||
Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Honestly these rings they know more about hock than a German wine taster! | ‘Hole in One’||
‘The First day of Hell Week’ in ThugLit Dec. [ebook] Someone gut the wiring from all the rooms—a quick copper hock to stave off the need for the next fix. |
In compounds
(US police) a list of stolen goods that may have been pawned.
Homeboy 99: We have to keep an eye on the hock sheets. |
1. a pawnbroker’s shop; thus attrib.
Lantern (N.O.) 22 Sept. 2: Take the bed too, and run it into a hock shop. | ||
Tales of the Ex-Tanks 27: ‘Vair you get zis?’ he asked me [...] ‘At a hock shop, for a couple o’ dollars,’ said I. | ||
Courier (Lincoln, Neb.) 1 Nov. 7/1: It is nothing unusual for the hock-shop man to . . | ||
Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 39: Ab you don’ shut it up by your rotten hock shop this ferflugte bell I throw right away through your vindeh a teapot. | ‘Charlie the Wolf’ in||
You Can’t Win (2000) 117: How about getting them [i.e. pistols] in a hockshop? | ||
World I Never Made 222: If he didn’t sell it them, he would try a hock shop. | ||
Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 234: Can you see me walking into a hock shop with stuff like that? | ||
Tough Guy [ebook] A hulking kid and a kid with shaggy dark blond hair, wearing hockshop specials for coats. | ||
Lead With Your Left (1958) 52: Give me more work making the rounds of the hock shops looking for a damn stolen jacket. [Ibid.] 53: Two hock shop tickets dated five and eight days ago. | ||
City of Night 262: Neil wouldnt even tell the cops about the stolen guns — wouldnt even check the hockshops. | ||
(con. late 1940s) Tattoo (1977) 607: He had got two dollars at a hock shop – it wasn’t much of a camera. | ||
Bachman Books (1995) 572: Molie ran a Dock Street hockshop. | Running Man in||
Candy 46: The hock-shop door was locked. | ||
Gutshot Straight [ebook] Marvin Oates, bug-eyed Vegas hock-shop proprietor. | ||
(con. 1943) Irish Fandango [ebook] [He] got off a few stops later outside Sol’s hock shop. |
2. a prison.
From Here to Eternity (1998) 616: He’s a three time loser and the smartest joe in this hockshop. |
In phrases
caught in the act.
Vocabulum 42: Caught in hock; caught by the heels. ‘If the cove should be caught in the hock he won’t snickle,’ if the fellow should be caught in the act, he would not tell. |
(N.Z.) to get rid of, to dump.
Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. |
1. in prison; thus the reverse, out of hock.
Vocabulum 113: Among thieves a man is in hock, when he is in prison . | ||
Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 7 Dec. 3/3: [N]ow she's in hock. The pretty Bertha is now in thoeChicago lock-up charged with swindling. | ||
Back to the Woods 60: I [...] rushed away to formulate some plan to get Bunch out of hock. | ||
Zone Policeman 88 134: To-day there will arrive and also be put in hock the three gents whose names you have there. | ||
Broadway Brevities Aug. 40/1: Betty stuck and finally had Cook trundled over to the night-court [...] Dave hastily donned his galluses, taxied unto the station and took Cook out of hock. | ||
Rocky Mountain News (Denver) 13 Nov. in AS III:3 255/1: In hock, in hospital, out of town, away—In prison. | ||
Milk and Honey Route (1930) 194: It was a scheme to get me lousy when they landed me in hock. | ‘The Old Cook County Jail’ in Stiff||
Little Sister 150: This ex-Cleveland gangster was supposed to be in hock at the County Jail. | ||
DAUL 79/2: Get one out of hock. 1. To get one out on bail. 2. (P) To effect one’s release from punishment cells; (by extension) to get one out of his cell any time, as when the guard inadvertently neglects to leave him out for recreation, church services, etc. | et al.||
Young Wolves 121: I oughta save this for the spring-lawyer to get Pop outa hock. |
2. (US) out of sight, suspended from one’s occupation.
Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 23 Nov. 2/2: How was it that a certain ‘peeler’ was recently kept ‘in hock’ on the quiet, until the ‘bloke’ had sailed from the city? | ||
N.Y. Age 22 Nov. 9/6: [of someone suffering a STD] Just ask the doc. For a while, my lad’s in hock ( [...] you can’t play with fire without being burned). | ‘Observation Post’ in
3. in pawn; thus the reverse, out of hock.
Oratorical Stump Speaker 26: My other coat’s in hock [DA]. | ||
Artie (1963) 94: They go back home and leave all their stuff in hock. | ||
Pink ’Un and Pelican 270: Torquato Tasso [...] put his father’s sword, four sheets, two table-covers, and an embroidered lawn toga in hock for twenty-five lira. | ||
A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 7: With the whole bankroll gone and the old cannon in hock, he is still at it. | ||
Detective Story 19 Oct. 🌐 You mean th’ nickel-grabbers couldn’t drag in enough jack t’ keep th’ subway out of hock? | ‘Mr Clacksworthy Tells the Truth’||
Chicago May (1929) 249: I also got his clothes out of hock, but could never find my own coat, which the Jane had pawned. | ||
Just Enough Liebling (2004) 259: He asked me for a loan of three dollars so he could get his teeth out of hock to con a sucker. | ‘The Jollity Building’ in||
Really the Blues 29: I went right down to take my old flute out of hock. | ||
Riverslake 124: Most of them went into hock for a flash bike, or a car. | ||
Naked Lunch (1968) 150: So all that winter, one after another, the diamonds, emeralds, pearls [...] go in hock. | ||
City of Night 135: Theyll certainly understand what a girl feels like with all her drag clothes in hock! | ||
Get Your Ass in the Water 11: She feeds me when I’m hungry, keeps my clothes out a soak [hock], / and as long as I got this fabulous old broad I can’t be broke. | ||
Homeboy 22: Their’s [i.e. a television] had been in hock these last two weeks. | ||
Sun. Tel. Mag. 11 Jan. 12: We’re in hock. We’ve invested the same again since we came here. | ||
Wind & Monkey (2013) [ebook] He can get his lawnmower out of hock. | ||
Guardian G2 17 Mar. 18: They’d already be in hock. | ||
Big Boat to Bye-Bye 142: ‘Did he have big debts? Was he in hock to the mob?’. | ||
‘Gato Negro’ in ThugLit Apr. [ebook] ‘You ever get your bike out of hock?’. | ||
Back to the Dirt 158: ‘[H]e even lets folks wager their homes and vehicles, lets them get in deep hock to him’. |
4. indebted to, owing both money and metaphorical debts; thus the reverse, out of hock.
Tales of the Ex-Tanks 170: I [...] got some duds out of hock. | ||
Boss 135: The Chief has got that jurist in hock to him, d’y see! | ||
Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 136: Most o them were ‘in hock to the club’ at the beginning of every season. | ‘Loosening Up of Hogan’ in||
Fighting Blood 87: Here I go and put myself in hock to Nate Shapiro for more dough than I ever seen in my life so’s to help Mrs. Willcox out of a hole, and the only enemy I got in the wide, wide world gets the credit for it! | ||
You Can’t Win 390: I was in hock to friends who saved me from a heavy sentence. | ||
Runyon on Broadway (1954) 595: I am pretty much in hock here and there. | ‘That Ever-Loving Wife of Hymie’s’ in||
N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 11 Apr. 16: The chick you get should punch a clock, / To help you pay the bills and keep you out of hock! | ||
USA Confidential 20: A borrower never gets out of hock. | ||
On the Waterfront (1964) 212: These men had their lives in hock. | ||
Rockabilly (1963) 162: He’s been getting into hock more and more. | ||
letter 16 Jan. in Charters II (1999) 465: He said, ‘Don’t get in hock with the publishers, just sell my letters that I wrote to you.’. | ||
Scruples 293: The Belmondo film went down the toilet, I’m in hock, Maggie. | ||
Fort Apache, The Bronx 282: Did you ever know a pimp who was in hock? Did you ever know a cop who wasn’t? | ||
G’DAY 1: The Foster family are up to their eyes in hock. They used to live in a unit in Bondi but they got turfed out. | ||
What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] Now to get himself out of hock he’s going to flog off his resorts. | ‘Tall Poppies Deserve Shrift’ in||
(con. early 1950s) L.A. Confidential 382: I told her you still love dope and you’re in hock to some bookies. | ||
Indep. Rev. 5 May 10: It concerns a cocky gambler [...] in hock to a hooligan bookie. | ||
Mystery Bay Blues 19: Now here he was [...] still in hock to Les for two hundred dollars. | ||
Bad Boy Boogie [ebook] ‘I’m owed a debt, now I’m the one in hock’. | ||
(con. 1962) Enchanters 89: She’s in hock to half the quack doctors [...] on the west side. |
5. in trouble.
Argosy All-Story 30 Dec. 🌐 Unless we prepare to meet Japan in the fast approaching future, the Japs will soon be hanging around Times Square like locusts, and then we’ll all be in hock. | ‘Art for Artie’ in
(US tramp) impoverished.
Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 137: On the Hocks.–Literally, standing. Impoverished. |
on credit.
A Steady Rain I i: joey: And across the living room the screen on the big set… denny: …the 52-incher, the one we just knobbed on hock from Best Buy. |