rock

noun

1. 1

   A formation of minerals, specifically: The naturally occurring aggregate of solid mineral matter that constitutes a significant part of the earth's crust.

   The face of the cliff is solid rock.

   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.

   This park’s strange and beautiful rock formations were formed by the Yellowstone River and various streams that have cut through the rock over millions of years, carving out hoodoos, spires and caprocks. The name Makoshika comes from a Lakota word for badlands.

2. 2

   A formation of minerals, specifically: A mass of stone projecting out of the ground or water.

   The ship crashed on the rocks.

   This enormous, 1.7 million acre property offers hikes to spectacular formations like Metate Arch in Devil’s Garden and the Wahweap Hoodoos, slender, ghostly rocks that can reach several stories high.

3. 3

   A formation of minerals, specifically: A boulder or large stone; or (US, Canada) a smaller stone; a pebble.

   Some fool has thrown a rock through my window.

4. 4

   A formation of minerals, specifically: Any natural material with a distinctive composition of minerals.

5. 5

   A formation of minerals, specifically: A precious stone or gem, especially a diamond.

   Look at the size of that rock on her finger!

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

   Here she is, a billionaire’s wife, yet gripped by constant social anxiety, forever agonising that she’d worn her best rocks to an event that actually called for “patio jewellery” (necklaces $1m or under).

   In an Instagram post on Monday, Georgina Rodríguez, the longtime girlfriend of the soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, shared a photo of a gigantic rock on her ring finger.

6. 6

   A large hill or island having no vegetation.

   The captain named it Pearl Rock after the rising sun illuminated the surface of the island.

7. 7

   figurativeSomething that is strong, stable, and dependable; a person who provides security or support to another.

   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.

   Being the best husband I can to my fantastic wife, Vic, who has been a rock by my side, through good times and bad.

8. 8

   A lump or cube of ice.

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

9. 9

   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!

   With my little stick of Blackpool rock/Along the promenade I stroll.

   Most Kenyans blithely assumed that if the British high commissioner said something, it represented British policy, a thought-through position running from one end of government to the other, like the lettering in a stick of Brighton rock.

10. 10

    slangA crystallized lump of crack cocaine.

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

    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.

11. 11

    slangAn unintelligent person, especially one who repeats mistakes.

12. 12

    slangAn Afrikaner.

13. 13

    slangAn extremely conservative player who is willing to play only the very strongest hands.

14. 14

    Any of several fish: The striped bass.

15. 15

    Any of several fish: The huss or rock salmon.

    We ordered rock and chips to take away.

16. 16

    slangA basketball.

    Yo homie, pass the rock!

    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.

17. 17

    slangA mistake.

    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.

18. 18

    Synonym of stone.

19. 19

    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.

20. 20

    informalA cricket ball, especially a new one that has not been softened by use

21. 21

    A crystal used to control the radio frequency.

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

22. 22

    A cheap golf ball.

verb

1. 1

   To pelt with rocks; to stone.

   Do you chaps mean to say you didn't make Rabbits-Eggs drunk and bribe him to rock King's rooms?

verb

1. 1

   To move gently back and forth.

   Rock the baby to sleep.

   The empty swing rocked back and forth in the wind.

   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. 2

   To move gently back and forth. To sway one's body as a stim.

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

3. 3

   To cause to shake or sway violently.

   Don't rock the boat.

   A rising earthquake rocked the ground.

   The lights of Luluabourg disappeared, and we were in the blackness of the African night, which was continuously pierced by the showers of red sparks ejected skywards and red hot ashes deposited on the track as the fireman rocked his fire.

4. 4

   To sway or tilt violently back and forth.

   The boat rocked at anchor.

5. 5

   To be washed and panned in a cradle or in a rocker.

   The ores had been rocked and laid out for inspection.

6. 6

   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.

7. 7

   To do well or to be operating at high efficiency.

   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.

8. 8

   slangTo be very favourable or skilful; excel; be fantastic.

   Chocolate rocks.

   My holidays in Ibiza rocked! I can't wait to go back.

9. 9

   slangTo make love to or have sex (with).

   I wanna rock!

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

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

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

noun

1. 1

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

noun

1. 1

   A style of music characterized by basic drum-beat, generally 4/4 riffs, based on (usually electric) guitar, bass guitar, drums, keyboards (often), and vocals.

verb

1. 1

   To play, perform, or enjoy rock music, especially with a lot of skill or energy.

   Let's rock!

   I wanna rock! (Rock!) / I wanna rock! (Rock!) / I want to rock! (Rock!) / I wanna rock! (Rock!)

2. 2

   To thrill or excite, especially with rock music.

   Let's rock this joint!

3. 3

   To have people dancing and enjoying rock music.

   The scene was rocking, all were digging the sounds Igor on chains, backed by his baying hounds The coffin-bangers were about to arrive With their vocal group, The Crypt-Kicker Five.

4. 4

   To do something with excitement yet skillfully.

   I need to rock a piss.

5. 5

   To wear (a piece of clothing, outfit etc.) successfully or with style; to carry off (a particular look, style).

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

   Take today, where she's rocking that well-known fashion combo – a Tory Burch outfit offset with a whacking great bruise attained by smacking her head on a plane's overhead lockers.

   Rihanna was the pick of the best bunch, rocking a black backless crocodile dress from Tom Ford’s Autumn 2012 collection

noun

1. 1

   Distaff.

   Sad Clotho held the rocke, the whiles the thread / By grisly Lachesis was spun with pain, / That cruel Atropos eftsoon undid.

   By order of the General Court in 1642, the "prudentiall" men of each town were instructed "to take care of such [children] as are sett to keep cattle be set to some other employment withal, as spinning upon the rock, knitting, weaving tape, etc., and that boys and girls be not suffered to converse together so as may occasion any wanton, dishonest or immodest behavior.

   A prepared end of yarn being fixed into the notch, the spinster, by a smart rolling motion of the spindle with the right hand against the right leg, threw it out from her, spinning in the air, while, with the left hand, she drew from the rock an additional supply of fibre which was formed into a uniform and equal strand with the right.

   It is true that in Ireland, even in recent years, the flax, before being placed on the rock or distaff, was tangled into a mass, or, as Cormmelin expresses it, “drawn out in a flat cake.”

2. 2

   The flax or wool on a distaff.

noun

1. 1

   Variant of rocarchaicArchaic form of roc (mythical bird).

Forms

plural

rocks

past tense

rocked

past participle

rocked

present participle

rocking

third person singular

rocks