chock-a-block
Variants
chock-and-blockMorphology
rhyme reduplication epenClassification
quantityDefinition
of a place or person, crammed with, chock-full of.; said of a tackle with the two blocks run close together so that they touch each other-the limit of hoisting; transf. jammed or crammed close together; also of a place or person, crammed with, chock-full of.s.v. chock.
Quotations
1840 R. Dana Bef. Mast xxv. 82 Hauling the reef-tackles chock-a-block.1850 H. Melville White-Jacket II. xxxi. 209, I'm blessed if we ar'n't about chock a' block here!
1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Chock-a-block, or Chock and Block is the same with block-a-block and two-blocks.
1881 W. C. Russell Sailor's Sweeth. II. ii. 122 They hoisted it chock a block.
1885 H. O. Forbes Naturalist's Wand. iii. viii. 259 Sideways, lengthwise, crossways, choke-a-block, as if the river had swept away a village or two and stranded them there anyhow.
1889 Pall Mall Gaz. 30 Sept. 6/2 You will find the place chock-a-block.
1894 Idler Sept. 132 We'll see_if that there foundered ship ain't a-going to work out this traverse the same as if she was chock-a-block with bullion.
1903 Smart Set IX. 9/1 Good-for-nothings in shop 22, who were full, chock-a-block, of socialism.
1946 W. S. Maugham Then & Now v. 15 The city's two or three inns were chock-a-block and men were sleeping three, four and five in a bed.
Elaboration
Thun (p 146): "In the original sense chock-a-block belongs to nautical language (OED 1840) and is said 'of a tackle with the two blocks run close together so that they touch each other--the limit of hoisting.' There is also a transferred sense 'jammed or crammed close together', which first occurs in 1885. The sense of fullness may have developed partly under the influence of chock-full, choke-full hte history of which is obscure (see OED s.v.) but which is older than chock-a-block. There is, however, also an adv. chock (EDD Lan) meaning 'full, straight; completely' which first occurs in a text that is older than 1885."; Naut.References
The Oxford English dictionary, 2nd ed. Edited by J.A. Simpson and E.S.C. Weiner. Clarendon Press, 1989. [See biblography.]Nils Thun. Reduplicative words in English: a study of formations of the types tick-tick, hurly-burly, and shilly-shally. 1963. [See biblography.]
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