coak

English

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈkəʊk/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ˈkoʊk/
  • Rhymes: -əʊk
  • Homophones: coke, Coke

Etymology 1

Uncertain. The 1933 Oxford English Dictionary suggests a possible relation to an Old French cognate of Italian cocca (“notch”), to English cock or to coak,[1] caulk ("drive oakum between planks"), "all referring to the fitting of a projection into a notch, indentation, or hollow". (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

coak (countable and uncountable, plural coaks)

  1. A wooden dowel.
  2. (nautical) The brass bearing in the sheave of a block.

Verb

coak (third-person singular simple present coaks, present participle coaking, simple past and past participle coaked)

  1. To unite (timbers etc.) by means of tenons or dowels in the edges or face.
    • 1832, The Edinburgh Encyclopedia:
      The orlop clamps and shelfpieces are then worked, and the beams and half beams placed thereon, these are coaked and bolted thereto […]

Etymology 2

Noun

coak (countable and uncountable, plural coaks)

  1. Obsolete spelling of coke (“coal fuel”).

References

  1. ^ Robert Wilson (1788) The Seaman's Manual, page 25: “CAUKING or CALKING of a Ship, driving in oakum into the seams or between the planks, to prevent a ship's leaking.”
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