: a pustule in an eruptive disease (such as smallpox)
also
: a spot suggesting such a pustule
Synonyms
Examples of pock in a Sentence
Noun
noticed strange pocks on his torso
Verb
one of the many craters that pock the moon's surface
Recent Examples on the Web
Irene Wright, Miami Herald, 9 Feb. 2024
Barks, not the pock of tennis balls, were heard across the sunny, 40-acre (16-hectare) grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
—Jennifer Peltz, ajc, 6 May 2023
After Carey’s stay, the home’s wooden floors had to be replaced—to the tune of $90,000—thanks to pock marks from her high heels.
—Tori Latham, Robb Report, 30 Mar. 2023
The cars, parked next to a basketball goal, are riddled with pock marks.
—Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, 12 Mar. 2023
His sallow legs are stippled with acid pock marks.
—Washington Post, 16 Feb. 2022
In the five years since Bentley released his last studio album, 2018’s The Mountain, and went into Rocky Mountain exile, open divisions and infighting driven by political differences and the culture wars have pock-marked the genre.
—Joseph Hudak, Rolling Stone, 6 Mar. 2023
Each pock on the fruit’s exterior is called an achene, and each achene is an individual fruit with a corresponding seed in the interior.
—Elsbeth Sites, Discover Magazine, 12 Aug. 2014
In more corrosive water, the once-pristine shells become flaked and pock-marked—a harbinger of an early death.
—WIRED, 2 Nov. 2022
Hanif Abdurraqib, The New Yorker, 24 Mar. 2024
All roads leading out of the city are blocked by gangs, as is access to the port, and the city’s international airport has been shuttered, its walls pocked with bullet holes.
—Caitlin Stephen Hu, CNN, 15 Mar. 2024
The nonprofit National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which hosts the Grammys, pocked more than $75 million in broadcast, sponsorship, and ticket sale revenues in 2021 and paid no income taxes on those proceeds.
—Scott Hodge, Orange County Register, 26 Feb. 2024
And the woods can be pocked with streams, ponds and swamps that freeze quickly.
—Luis Ferré-Sadurní, New York Times, 11 Feb. 2024
Today, a chain-link fence wraps around the historic landmark pocked with peeling paint.
—Catherine Muccigrosso, Charlotte Observer, 22 Feb. 2024
Today, those boys — ages 5 and 1 — are displaced, hungry and terrified, their insides churning from contaminated water and their faces pocked with shrapnel wounds.
—Anastacia Galouchka, Washington Post, 7 Feb. 2024
Packed snow covered the ground, pocked with hoof prints.
—Kate Brody, New York Times, 13 Jan. 2024
The vista along Seventh Street NW is pocked with vacant storefronts, including those once occupied by Urban Outfitters and Bed Bath & Beyond.
—Paul Schwartzman, Washington Post, 13 Dec. 2023
Noun
They were riddled with lesions, pock marks and holes.
—Irene Wright, Miami Herald, 9 Feb. 2024
Barks, not the pock of tennis balls, were heard across the sunny, 40-acre (16-hectare) grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
—Jennifer Peltz, ajc, 6 May 2023
After Carey’s stay, the home’s wooden floors had to be replaced—to the tune of $90,000—thanks to pock marks from her high heels.
—Tori Latham, Robb Report, 30 Mar. 2023
The cars, parked next to a basketball goal, are riddled with pock marks.
—Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, 12 Mar. 2023
His sallow legs are stippled with acid pock marks.
—Washington Post, 16 Feb. 2022
In the five years since Bentley released his last studio album, 2018’s The Mountain, and went into Rocky Mountain exile, open divisions and infighting driven by political differences and the culture wars have pock-marked the genre.
—Joseph Hudak, Rolling Stone, 6 Mar. 2023
Each pock on the fruit’s exterior is called an achene, and each achene is an individual fruit with a corresponding seed in the interior.
—Elsbeth Sites, Discover Magazine, 12 Aug. 2014
In more corrosive water, the once-pristine shells become flaked and pock-marked—a harbinger of an early death.
—WIRED, 2 Nov. 2022
Verb
The series begins in the 2017-18 season, when Sunderland has been relegated after a decade in the tier-one Premier League, but the club’s entire history is pocked with spectacular failures.
—Hanif Abdurraqib, The New Yorker, 24 Mar. 2024
All roads leading out of the city are blocked by gangs, as is access to the port, and the city’s international airport has been shuttered, its walls pocked with bullet holes.
—Caitlin Stephen Hu, CNN, 15 Mar. 2024
The nonprofit National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, which hosts the Grammys, pocked more than $75 million in broadcast, sponsorship, and ticket sale revenues in 2021 and paid no income taxes on those proceeds.
—Scott Hodge, Orange County Register, 26 Feb. 2024
And the woods can be pocked with streams, ponds and swamps that freeze quickly.
—Luis Ferré-Sadurní, New York Times, 11 Feb. 2024
Today, a chain-link fence wraps around the historic landmark pocked with peeling paint.
—Catherine Muccigrosso, Charlotte Observer, 22 Feb. 2024
Today, those boys — ages 5 and 1 — are displaced, hungry and terrified, their insides churning from contaminated water and their faces pocked with shrapnel wounds.
—Anastacia Galouchka, Washington Post, 7 Feb. 2024
Packed snow covered the ground, pocked with hoof prints.
—Kate Brody, New York Times, 13 Jan. 2024
The vista along Seventh Street NW is pocked with vacant storefronts, including those once occupied by Urban Outfitters and Bed Bath & Beyond.
—Paul Schwartzman, Washington Post, 13 Dec. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pock.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near pock
Cite this Entry
“Pock.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pock. Accessed 23 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
pock
noun
: a pustule in an eruptive disease (as smallpox)
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