rock up
English edit
Etymology 1 edit
From rock (“to move back and forth”) + up.
Verb edit
rock up (third-person singular simple present rocks up, present participle rocking up, simple past and past participle rocked up)
- (informal) To turn up at a place or function spontaneously or unexpectedly, without notice or prior warning.
- 2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Chippenham (1841)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 57:
- I'm sure the Brunel-designed stone-built structure would have had a hatstand for his trademark stovepipe. I can picture him rocking up there of a morning and lobbing it nonchalantly onto the hatstand.
Translations edit
to turn up unexpectedly
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Etymology 2 edit
Verb edit
rock up (third-person singular simple present rocks up, present participle rocking up, simple past and past participle rocked up)
- (climbing) To work one's way vertically up a chimney or cleft using a rocking movement.
- (slang, drugs) To turn powder cocaine into crack cocaine by cooking.
References edit
- “rock up”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.