hock¹ / häk/ • n. 1. the joint in a quadruped's hind leg between the knee and the fetlock, the angle of which points backward.2. a knuckle of meat, esp. of pork or ham.hock² • v. [tr.] informal term for pawn² .PHRASES: in hock having been pawned. ∎  in debt: East European states in hock to Western bankers.hock³ • n. Brit. a dry white wine from the German Rhineland.

Hock designating days of or events connected with the beginning of the second week after Easter, formerly important for the payment of rents, the collection of Hock money (often by roughly humorous methods) for parish purposes, and as the beginning of the summer half of the rural year. The origin of the name is unknown.
Hock Monday and Hock Tuesday names for the second Monday and Tuesday after Easter Sunday. Hocktide is the period comprising these days.

hock
1. Generic term for white wines from the Rhine region, known in the USA as Rhine wines; bottled in brown glass, to distinguish from Moselle wines (in green glass).

2. The knuckle of pork; also used in the USA for foreleg pork shank.

hock2 German white wine. XVII. Short for †hockamore — G. Hochheimer (wein) wine of Hochheim on the Main, Germany.

hock1 joint of the hind leg XVI; knuckle end of a gammon XVIII. Short for hockshin (hokschyne XIV), OE. hōhsinu; see HOUGH.