Forms: (1 clucge), 4–5 clok, clokke, clocke, 6 klooke, 6– clock. [OE. clucge (or cluccge) is found only once, and has no historical connection with the extant word which goes back app. only to the 13–14th c. ME. clok(ke, clocke, was either a. MDu. clocke (mod.Du. klok ‘bell, clock’), or a. ONF. cloke, cloque = Central Fr. cloche ‘bell.’ The Du. is cognate with OFris. klocka, klocke, EFris. klokke, klok, MLG. klocke, LG. klokke, klokk, klok, OHG. glocka, klocka, glogga, MHG. glocke, klocke, glogge, Ger. glocke ‘bell,’ ON. klocka, later klukka ‘bell,’ Norw. klokka, klukka, Sw. klocka, Da. klokke ‘bell, clock.’ The French cloque, cloche, with Pr. cloca, clocha, Piedm. cioca, descends directly from late L. cloc(c)a (8th c.). In all the prec., as in OE. clucge, the word is fem.; but in Celtic, OIr. cloc (genit. cluic:—*cloci), Irish clog, Gael. clag (genit. and pl. cluig), Corn. cloch, Bret. kloc’h, ‘bell,’ are masc.; only Welsh cloch is fem., and its pl. clych points perh. to an earlier masc.
Known since about 8th c. in Merovingian L., in Celtic, and in Teutonic; early diffusion app. connected with that of Christianity in western and northern Europe; not found in the southern Romanic langs. where campana is the word for ‘bell.’ Locality of origin undetermined: some refer it, on historical considerations, to Celtic; some think it possibly connected with OHG. cloccôn, chlocchôn, MHG. klocken ‘to strike, knock’; but the variant forms in OHG. point rather to its being foreign. Wherever it actually arose, it was prob. echoic, imitating the rattling made by the early handbells of sheet-iron and quadrilateral shape, rather than the ringing of the cast circular bell of later date. The relation of the rare OE. cluc(c)ge to the other forms, which agree generally with the types klok, klokka, is obscure.
For the original and general sense of this word in the other langs., English had the word BELL in regular use; it is probable, therefore, that clock was introduced either with striking clocks, or at least with bells on which the hours were mechanically struck; it was prob. never prevalent in ME. in the mere sense ‘bell.’]
† 1. A bell (the sense of OE. clucge; in ME. prob. only as a retention of the Fr. use). Later, the gong of a striking watch. Obs.
[c. 890. K. Ælfred, Bæda, IV. xxiii. Hleoðor heora clucgan (v.r. cluccgan).]
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 281/4. The clockes of Saynt Steuen … had a merueylous swetenes in theyr sowne.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., 193. And perchance hears the Clock and Alarum strike in it [a Watch].
[c. 1715. Lond. Gaz., No. 5307/3. A Gold striking Pendulum Clock Watch.]
2. An instrument for the measurement of time; properly, one in which the hours, and sometimes lesser divisions, are sounded by strokes of a hammer on a bell or similar resonant body; but many clocks now do not strike. The mechanism consists of a train of wheels set in motion by weights or a spring, actuating and regulated by a pendulum or balance-wheel, and requiring to be periodically wound up; the passage of hours, minutes, etc., is indicated by ‘hands’ or pointers, on a ‘face’ or dial-plate.
(The precise meaning in the earliest quots. is not certain.)
1371. Abbrev. Rotul. Origin., II. 314. Pro quadam campana pro horis diei et noctis per ipsam perpetuo designanda, clok vulgariter nuncupata, in eadem turri ponenda et sustentanda.
1371. in J. Britton, Cathedrals, York, 80. Till itte be hegh none smytyn by þe clocke.
1379. Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 103. In expens, super le Clok, xxiiij petr. [plumbi].
c. 1386. Chaucer, Nun’s Priest’s T., 34. Sikerer was his crowyng … Than is a clok, or an abbay orologge.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (1835), 20. Evene as the clok sevene had smet She entryd.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., I. xx. 118. Neuere saue in late daies was eny clok telling the houris … bi peise and bi stroke.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., I. ii. 42. Their Armes are set, like Clocks, still to strike on.
a. 1640. W. Fenner, Christ’s Alarm (1650), 286. When thou usest to stirre up Conscience every day, wind it up as a man does his Clock.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., V. 629. Like damag’d clocks, whose hand and bell dissent.
a. 1850. Longf., Old Clock on Stairs, vii. And in the hush that followed the prayer, Was heard the old clock on the stair,—For ever—never! Never—for ever!
3. (The hour of the day is expressed by a cardinal numeral, followed by a phrase which was originally a. of the clock, now only retained in formal phraseology; shortened subsequently to † b. of clock, † c. a clock (see A prep.2), d. o’clock, the current modern form; rarer obs. variants were † e. at the clock, and clock simply.)
a. c. 1386. Chaucer, Parson’s Prol., 5. Ten of the clokke it was tho as I gesse.
1463. Bury Wills (Camd. Soc.), 17. At vij of ye clokke.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. cxxiii. 148. Bytwene noone and thre of the clocke.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., II. (1843), 53/2. The House met allways at eight of the Clock.
1739. Chesterf., Lett., I. xxv. 92. In prose, you would say very properly, ‘it is twelve of the clock at noon,’ to mark the middle of the day.
1884. Gladstone in Parlt. 26 Feb., 2/5. That the Speaker … be presented to-morrow at two of the clock in the House of Lords.
b. 1473. Warkw., Chron., 16. From iiij of clokke in the mornynge.
1647. Lilly, Chr. Astrol., iii. 31. Eleven of clock at night.
c. 1480. Plumpton Corr., 40. Uppon Munday by viij a clocke.
1584. R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., XII. xvii. 213. So manie strokes as the holder thinketh it a clocke.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 185. Died suddainely, as he was asking a boy what it was a clocke.
1747. Chalkley, Wks. (1766), 190. About one or two a Clock.
d. c. 1720. Prior, Alma, III. (R.). ’Tis the stomach’s solid stroke, That tells this being, what’s o’clock.
1829. Southey, Roprecht, II. From noon Till ten o’clock.
1848. Thackeray, Bk. Snobs, xlviii. Five-o’clock-in-the-morning men.
e. 1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas. (1845), 75. Make you redy, At ix. at the clocke.
1634. Brereton, Trav. (1884), 1. We … took water about three clock in afternoon.
1712. Hearne, Collect. (Oxf. H. S.), III. 381. This day at 2 Clock in the Afternoon.
† f. Hence, the hour as struck by the clock.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., III. iv. 44. To weepe ’twixt clock and clock.
1768. Bristol Jrnl., in Harper’s Mag., July (1883), 232/1. Aboute the time of the tollynge the tenth clock.
4. Phrases. Like a clock: with steady regularity (cf. CLOCKWORK). To lie at nine o’clock (see quot.). To tell the clock: to count the hour, give or record the time. To know (find) what o’clock it is: to know (discover) the real state of things. When one’s clock strikes: when one’s hour comes.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 81. She … opened the locke, And lookt in the bag, what it was a clocke.
1565. Jewell, Def. Apol. (1611), 597. Emperours … sate by the Bishops and held their peace, and told the clocke.
1610. Shaks., Temp., II. i. 289. They’l tell the clocke to any businesse that We say befits the houre.
1681. Dryden, Span. Friar, V. i. 66 (J.). I told the Clocks, and watch’d the wasting Light.
1797. W. G. Maton, Observ. W. Counties, II. 129. The veins … run in a direction pretty nearly from south-east to north-west, or, to use the terms of the miners themselves, lie at nine o’clock.
1836–9. Dickens, Sk. Boz, 451 (Hoppe). Our governor’s wide awake…. He knows what’s o’clock.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., I. i. 14. He is certainly worth that sum anywhere,—steady, honest, capable, manages my whole farm like a clock.
1878. Browning, Poets Croisic, 94. You’ve learnt your lesson, found out what’s o’clock.
1887. Rider Haggard, K. Solomon’s Mines, 10. I hope it won’t be brought up against me when my clock strikes.
5. transf. and fig.; usually with qualifying addition or context.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, vii. 87. The same workmaister which hath set up the Clocke of ye hart.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, I. ii. 39. His honour, Clocke to itselfe, knew the true minute when Exception bid him speake.
1791. Cowper, Yardley Oak, 46. By thee I might correct, erroneous oft, The clock of history.
1836. Emerson, Nature, Beauty, Wks. (Bohn), II. 146. The succession of native plants … makes the silent clock by which time tells the summer hours.
1866. B. Taylor, Autumnal Vespers, Poems 351. The snug warm cricket lets his clock run down.
6. A watch. Obs. except in modern slang.
1559. W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, 110. If it agre with the some which your clock sheweth.
1670. Walton, Life Donne, 63. That striking Clock which he had long worn in his pocket.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 29 Dec., 4/1. The rich harvest of clocks and slangs (watches and chains) … gathered at South Kensington station.
† 7. Applied to a sun-dial. Obs. rare.
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst. (1634), Table Script. Quot., The lines by the which it went downe into the clocke of Ahaz [cf. 2 Kings xx. 11, where Wyclif has ‘orloge,’ Coverdale ‘dyall’].
8. A trivial name for the pappus of the dandelion or similar composite flower. [So called from the child’s play of blowing away the feathered seeds to find ‘what o’clock it is.’]
1847. Halliwell, Clock, the downy head of the dandelion in seed.
1884. J. E. Taylor, Sagac. & Morality Plants, 110. The pappus or ‘clock’ best known in the Dandelion.
† 9. The core of an apple. Obs. rare.
[Cf. Du. klokhuis, E.Fris. belhüske, bell-house, belfry, also seed-vessel, core of apple, etc., ‘partly from resemblance in form, but prob. more from the rattling of the loose seeds or pips’ (Franck). The original of the quot. is ‘Low Dutch.’ But see also COLK.)
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 116/1. Take a good apple … peele him, and cut out the clockes therof.
10. Comb., chiefly attrib., as clock-alarm, -bell, -dial, -hand, -rate, -trade, -wheel.
1453. Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 161. Operanti ibidem super le Clokbell.
1821. Edgeworth, Mem., I. 39. The engine for cutting teeth in clock-wheels.
1864. A. McKay, Hist. Kilmarnock (ed. 3), 284. Above the inscription are three clock-dials.
1871. B. Stewart, Heat, § 79. Regularity in their clock-rates.
11. Special comb.: clock-beam (nonce-wd.), a pendulum; clock-calm (Naut.), ‘when not a breath of wind ruffles the water’ (Adm. Smyth); clock-case, the framework enclosing a clock’s works; clock-face, the dial-plate of a clock, techn. the time shown by it; clock-finger, the hand of a clock; clock-head, the upper part of a clock-case; clock-keeper, one who attends to and regulates a clock; clock-like a., like clockwork, regular, monotonous; clock-line, the cord suspending the weights in a clock; clock-maker, one who makes and repairs clocks; clock-master = clock-keeper; clock-pillar, one of the posts holding the plates of the clock-work in position; clock-quarters, the bells in a large clock on which the quarter-hours are struck or chimed; clock-setter = clock-keeper; clock-smith = clock-maker; clock-stars (see quot.); clock-story, the part of a clock-tower in which the clock is placed; clock-tower, one built for the display of a large clock; clock-watch (see quot.); clock-wise adv., in the way of a clock, in the direction in which its hands move. See also CLOCK-HOUSE, -WORK.
1862. Thornbury, Turner, II. 16. A sustained dull *clock-beam cadence imitative of Pope.
1761. Maskelyne, Clock, in Phil. Trans., LII. 437. The pendulum … was secured to the *clock-case.
1879. Newcomb & Holden, Astron., 72. The time as shown by the clock (technically ‘the *clock-face’).
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 447. Or that the course of ye Sonne should be apportioned after the will of John *clockekeeper.
1741–70. Miss Talbot, Lett. Miss Carter (1808), 26. If you love that same sort of regular *clock-like life.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 230. A *Clock-line, having a counterpoise at the other end.
1723. Lond. Gaz., No. 6188/8. John Chevins … Clock-line Weaver.
1453. Mem. Ripon (Surtees), III. 101. Joh. Ripley de Ebor. *Clokmaker.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 15/2. Queen Elizabeths Clock-maker bore a Sphere for his Crest.
1837. Haliburton, (Sam Slick) title, The Clockmaker.
1626. Massinger, Rom. Actor, V. ii. Cæsar. Is’t past five? Parthenius. Past six, upon my knowledge; and in justice, Your *clock-master should die.
1801. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Odes to Ins & Outs, Wks. 1812, IV. 377. Thus Paul’s four small *Clock-quarters Instruct their mighty Master when to sound.
1595. Shaks., John, III. i. 324. Old Time the *clocke setter, yt bald sexton Time.
1556. Stanford Churchw. Acc., in Antiquary (1888), March, 120. To a *klocke smythe for makyng & mendyng.
1870. E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., I. 137. Turning to the clocksmith, he inquired [etc.].
1867–77. G. F. Chambers, Astron., 914. *Clock-stars, certain stars usually employed for the regulation of clocks in an observatory, by reason of the fact that their positions have been very accurately determined.
1867. A. Barry, Sir C. Barry, vii. 255. The whole *clock-story was made to project beyond the body of the tower.
1880. Times, 24 June, 10/1. Mr. Bradlaugh was removed, under the care of Inspector Denning, to the rooms near the *Clock Tower [i.e., that of the Houses of Parliament, Westminster, used as a place of confinement for offenders against the privileges of Parliament]. Ibid. If he is kept in the Clock Tower for any length of time the people will come to fetch him.
1683. Lond. Gaz., No. 1804/4. Lost on the fourth Instant a Gold *Clock-Watch.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 62. [A] Clock Watch … [is] a watch that strikes the hours in passing, as distinguished from a repeater which strikes the hours at any time on putting special mechanism in motion.
1888. R. Abercromby, in Times, 11 Sept., 10/1. The general sense of the [wind’s] rotation is counter-clockwise in the northern, *clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
