Obs. exc. dial. Forms: 1 þurruc, 4–5 thurrok(e, thorrok(e, 5 thorrocke, 8 thorruck, 9 dial. thurrock, -uck. [In sense 1, OE. þurruc ‘cumba,’ small ship (?), bottom of a ship, bilge = Da. durk bilge (cf. durck, dorck ‘sentina’ in Kilian), of unknown etymology. It is doubtful whether senses 2 and 3 belong to the same word.]
1. The bilge of a ship. Also fig.
c. 1050. Suppl. Ælfric’s Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 181/35. Cumba, uel caupolus, þurruc.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pars. T., ¶ 363. The smale dropes of water that entren thurgh a litel creuace in to the thurrok [v.r. thorrok] and in the botme of the shipe. Ibid., ¶ 715. Ydelnesse is the thurrok [v.r. thorroke] of alle wikked and vileyns thoghtes.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 493/2. Thurrok, of a schyppe, sentina.
1450–1530. Myrr. our Ladye, 109. A place in the bottome of a shyppe wherein ys gatheryd all the fylthe that cometh in to the shyppe…. And that place stynketh ryghte fowle and yt ys called in some contre of thys londe a thorrocke.
1855. Norfolk Words, in Trans. Philol. Soc., 37. Thurruck, the lower flooring of the stern of a boat.
1866. in Nall, Gt. Yarmouth & Lowestoft, 672.
1904. in Eng. Dial. Dict.
2. dial. A heap, spec. of muck or dirt.
1708. Kersey, Thorruck (O.). a Heap.
1721. in Bailey.
1881. Leicester Gloss., Thurrock, a heap: chiefly applied to dirt or ‘muck.’
3. dial. A covered drain. Cf. THOROUGH sb. 2.
1847–78. Halliwell, Thurruck, a drain. Kent.
1887. Kentish Gloss., Thurrock, a wooden drain under a gate; a small passage or wooden tunnel through a bank.
