rock

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɹɒk/
• (General American) enPR: rŏk, IPA^(key): /ɹɑk/

• Audio (US)

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• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ɹɔk/
• Homophones: roc, rawk
• Rhymes: -ɒk

From Middle English rocke, rokke (“rock formation”), from Old English *rocc (“rock”), as in Old English stānrocc (“high stone rock, peak, obelisk”), and also later from Anglo-Norman roque, (compare Modern French roc, roche, rocher), from Medieval Latin rocca (attested 767), of uncertain origin, sometimes said to be of Celtic (in particular, perhaps Gaulish) origin (compare Breton roc'h).[1] Related also to Middle Low German rocke (“rock ledge”).

rock (countable and uncountable, plural rocks)

Solid mineral aggregate.

A boulder.

A yellow diamond.

Several rocks of crack cocaine.

1. A formation of minerals, specifically:
   1. (uncountable) The naturally occurring aggregate of solid mineral matter that constitutes a significant part of the earth's crust.
      • 2013 June 29, “High and wet”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 28:

        Floods in northern India, mostly in the small state of Uttarakhand, have wrought disaster on an enormous scale. […] Rock-filled torrents smashed vehicles and homes, burying victims under rubble and sludge.

      The face of the cliff is solid rock.

   2. A mass of stone projecting out of the ground or water.

      The ship crashed on the rocks.

   3. (chiefly British) A boulder or large stone; or (US, Canada) a smaller stone; a pebble.

      Some fool has thrown a rock through my window.

   4. (geology) Any natural material with a distinctive composition of minerals.
   5. (slang) A precious stone or gem, especially a diamond.

      Look at the size of that rock on her finger!

      • 1997, “Mo Money Mo Problems”, in Life After Death, performed by The Notorious B.I.G. ft. Ma$e and Diddy:

        I call all the shots, rip all the spots / Rock all the rocks, cop all the drops

2. A large hill or island having no vegetation.

   Pearl Rock near Cape Cod is so named because the morning sun makes it gleam like a pearl.

3. (figuratively) Something that is strong, stable, and dependable; a person who provides security or support to another.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 16:18:

     And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

   • 1991, Robert Harling and Andrew Bergman, Soapdish, Paramount Pictures,

     Celeste Talbert: She is my rock, my right hand.

4. A lump or cube of ice.

   I'll have a whisky on the rocks, please.

5. (British, uncountable) A type of confectionery made from sugar in the shape of a stick, traditionally having some text running through its length.

   While we're in Brighton, let's get a stick of rock!

6. (US, slang) A crystallized lump of crack cocaine.

   Synonyms: crack rock, candy

   • 1995, “Dear Mama”, in Me Against the World, performed by 2Pac:

     I ain't guilty, ‘cause even though I sell rocks / It feels good puttin' money in your mailbox

   • 2014, Russell Brand, “Prologue”, in Revolution, →ISBN, page xiii:

     When I necked five-quid bottles of vodka, I did not read the label. When I scored rocks and bags off tumbleweed hobos blowing through the no-man's-land of Hackney estates, I conducted no litmus test.

7. (US, slang) An unintelligent person, especially one who repeats mistakes.
8. (South Africa, slang, derogatory) An Afrikaner.
9. (US poker slang) An extremely conservative player who is willing to play only the very strongest hands.
10. Any of several fish:
    1. The striped bass.
    2. The huss or rock salmon.

       We ordered rock and chips to take away.

11. (US, basketball, slang) A basketball.

    Yo homie, pass the rock!

    • 2021 July 14, A. A. Dowd, “Space Jam: A New Legacy is one big, witless commercial for Warner Bros. properties”, in The A.V. Club‎:

      It [the original Space Jam limped to 88 minutes with detours into Jordan’s swanky mansion and forced its cartoon cavalry to compete for screen time against Wayne Knight and a bunch of basketball players who delivered their lines much less confidently than they put the rock through the net.

12. (US, baseball, slang) A mistake.
    • 2014, Joe Morgan, Richard Lally, Baseball For Dummies, page 227:

      Now, you should never make the last out of an inning at third, and when a player does it, everyone knows he pulled a rock.

13. (curling) Synonym of stone.
14. (rock paper scissors) A closed hand (a handshape resembling a rock), that beats scissors and loses to paper. It beats lizard and loses to Spock in rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock.
15. (informal, cricket) A cricket ball, especially a new one that has not been softened by use
16. (CB radio slang) A crystal used to control the radio frequency.
    • 1980, Joseph J. Carr, The Complete Handbook of Radio Receivers, page 199:

      It was easily possible to double the cost of a CB rig just by adding all of the "rocks" necessary to do the job.

• (natural mineral aggregate): stone
• (projecting mass of rock): cliff
• (boulder or large stone): boulder, pebble, stone
• (something strong, stable, and dependable): foundation, support
• (precious stone or gem): gem, diamond
• (lump of ice): ice, ice cube
• (crystallized lump of crack cocaine): crack
• (Afrikaner): Afrikaner
• bedrock

• (geology): country rock, ingenious rock

From Middle English rokken, from Old English roccian, from Proto-West Germanic *rokkōn, from Proto-Germanic *rukkōną (compare obsolete Dutch rokken, Middle High German rocken (“to drag, jerk”), Modern German rücken (“to move, shift”), Icelandic rukka (“to yank”)), from Proto-Germanic *rugnōną, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃ruk-néh₂, from *h₃rewk-, *h₃runk- (compare Latin runcāre (“to weed”), Latvian rũķēt (“to toss, dig”)).

rock (third-person singular simple present rocks, present participle rocking, simple past and past participle rocked)

1. (transitive and intransitive) To move gently back and forth.

   Rock the baby to sleep.

   The empty swing rocked back and forth in the wind.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     To Edward […] he was terrible, nerve-inflaming, poisonously asphyxiating. He sat rocking himself in the late Mr. Churchill's swing chair, smoking and twaddling.

2. (transitive) To cause to shake or sway violently.

   Don't rock the boat.

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Theodore and Honoria, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     A rising earthquake rocked the ground.

3. (intransitive) To sway or tilt violently back and forth.

   The boat rocked at anchor.

4. (transitive and intransitive, of ore etc.) To be washed and panned in a cradle or in a rocker.

   The ores had been rocked and laid out for inspection.

5. (transitive) To disturb the emotional equilibrium of; to distress; to greatly impact (most often positively).

   Downing Street has been rocked by yet another sex scandal.

   She rocked my world.

6. (intransitive) To do well or to be operating at high efficiency.
   • 2012 April 24, Phil Dawkes, “Barcelona 2-2 Chelsea”, in BBC Sport:

     The Blues' challenge had been rocking at that point, with Terry's centre-back partner Gary Cahill lost to injury and Barca having just levelled the tie through Busquets's neat, close-range finish from Isaac Cuenca's pull-back.

7. (intransitive, stative) to be cool.

   That band rocks!

8. (slang, transitive, euphemistic) to make love to or have sex with.
   • 1973, Noddy Holder, Jim Lea (lyrics and music), “Cum On Feel the Noize”, performed by Slade:

     Cum on feel the noize, girls, rock your boys.

   • 1974, Andy Kim (lyrics and music), “Rock Me Gently”:

     Rock me gently, rock me slowly, take it easy, don't you know, that I have never been loved like this before.

   • 1974, Harry Wayne Casey, Richard Finch (lyrics and music), “Rock Your Baby”, performed by George McCrae:

     Open up your heart / And let the loving start / Oh, woman, take me in your arms / Rock your baby.

   • 1980, Jonah Ellis, Alisa Peoples, Cavin Yarbrough (lyrics and music), “Don't Stop the Music”, in The Two of Us, performed by Yarbrough and Peoples:

     I just wanna rock you, all night long.

9. (intransitive) To sway one's body as a stim.
   • 2019 May 4, C. L. Lynch, “"Autism is a Spectrum" Doesn’t Mean What You Think”, in NeuroClastic:

     Tends to tap fingers on desk or spin ring on finger, especially when stressed. Sucks thumb in private. Loves to rock.

• (move gently back and forth): waver; see also Thesaurus:sway
• (cause to shake violently): agitate, trouble
• (sway violently back and forth): judder; see also Thesaurus:shake
• (do well): cook with gas, flourish
• (be good): rules
• (have sex with): go to bed with, hit, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

rock (plural rocks)

1. An act of rocking; a rocking motion; a sway.