chock
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be chock-a-block
1. To be squeezed or jammed closely together. So many people wanted to see the show that we were chock-a-block inside the venue. I know we're all chock-a-block right now, but you've got to push through the crowds to get up to the stage! Because of all the delays this morning, tons of commuters are chock-a-block inside the train station.
2. To be very full or tightly packed. Your office is chock-a-block with books and boxes. How do you even move around in here! The restaurant has been chock-a-block with guests all day. I'm sure the mall is chock-a-block today, it's Christmas Eve!
3. By extension, to be very busy; to be completely filled or engaged (with something). Every day of our vacation was chock-a-block with fun activities. Now that business has started to pick up, we've been chock-a-block with orders. When you have kids, every Saturday is just chock-a-block with sports, activities, and birthday parties. There's no such thing as a day off anymore!
chock full of (something)
Having a lot of something; very full of something. If you don't like raisins, you won't like this cake—it's chock full of them. Good luck fitting anything else in that storage locker—it is just chock full of boxes. You're looking to try out some new recipes? Well, that shelf over there is chock full of cookbooks, if you want to borrow one.
pull (up) chocks
1. To remove the wedges used to keep the wheels of a vehicle from moving. Used especially in reference to aviation, particularly in the military. I was put on duty pulling chocks for the fighter jets aboard the aircraft carrier. She was willing to do any tough job, from pulling chocks to hauling cargo.
2. To pack up and leave some place. OK, team, we're finished here—let's pull chocks and head back to headquarters. After a week of camping in the countryside, we finally pulled up chocks and decided to stay in a bed and breakfast for the night before going back home.
3. To leave one's place of residence or employment and relocate elsewhere. I've loved living in the city, but now that we have a baby on the way, it's time to pull up chocks and find somewhere more affordable. I always told myself that I would pull chocks after spending five years working for them.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
chock full of something
Fig. very full of something. These cookies are chock full of big chunks of chocolate.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
pull chocks
and pull up stakes tv. to leave a place. (see also up stakes.) Time to pull chocks and get out of here. We pulled up stakes and moved on.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
chock-a-block, to be
Also, chock-full. To be very full, tightly jammed together. It was originally a nineteenth-century nautical term, describing the blocks of a tackle drawn so close that they touched. In time it was transferred to objects, people—just about anything very crowded. W. Somerset Maugham used it, “The city’s inns were chock-a-block and men were sleeping three, four and five to a bed” (Then and Now, 1946). The synonymous “chock-full” is much older, dating from the fifteenth century, and actually may be used more often, in such locutions as, “Her paper was chock-full of typos.”
See also: to
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer