▪ I. ˈrocking, n. Sc.
[f. rock n.2]
A social gathering (originally a spinning party) of a kind formerly held on winter evenings in the country districts of Scotland.
| 1785 Burns 1st Ep. to Lapraik ii, On Fasteneen we had a rockin, To ca' the crack and weave our stockin. 1798 G. Burns in Currie Wks. Burns (1809) III. 377 It was at one of these rockings at our house..that Lapraik's song..was sung. 1825 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 62 A' sorts o' deivelry amang lads and lasses at rockins and kirns. |
▪ II. ˈrocking, vbl. n.1
[f. rock v.1 + -ing1.]
1. The action of swinging or swaying to and fro, or of causing such motion.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xx. (Bodl. MS.), Þe passions of teeþ is diuers.., as..breking and brusing.., rocking, wagging and falling.., and oþer suche. 1586 B. Young Guazzo's Civ. Conv. iv. 223 b, It hath wrought euen so with you, as the rocking of y⊇ cradil to little children. 1647 Hexham i, A rocking of a child, een wieginghe. 1756 Burke Subl. & B. Wks. 1842 I. 67 Rocking sets children to sleep better than absolute rest. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1824) II. 299 Some branches..may not be sufficiently strong, and still others may be too much exposed to the rockings of the wind. 1814 Scott Diary 21 Aug. in Lockhart, Go to bed and sleep soundly, notwithstanding the rough rocking. 1902 Banks Newspaper Girl 26, I was awakened..by so violent a rocking of my bed that I was tumbled out upon the floor. |
2. a. The operation of using the rocker or cradle in engraving. Also attrib.
| 1883 J. C. Smith Brit. Mezzotinto Portr. iv. ii. p. xxiii, The cradle, or rocking-tool, the scraper, etc. 1896 Daily News 16 Jan. 8/6 Those preliminaries of biting, rocking and other technicalities which have for so long deterred the painter from taking to etching or mezzotint-engraving. |
b. The action of using a rocker (rocker1 4 c) in gold-mining.
| 1850 J. W. Audubon Western Jrnl. (1906) 202 The men began ‘rocking’ yesterday, one cradle, and get about a dollar an hour. 1859 Brit. Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 3 Apr. 2/1 The lowest sum named by any miner as the product of a day's rocking is three to five dollars. 1896 C. H. Shinn Story of Mine 42 We started to rocking with my water. |
3. rocking-turn, a movement or figure in skating (see quot.). Cf. rocker1 5 c.
| 1869 Vandervell & Witham Syst. Figure-Skating 219 After having exhausted the Q, I began to consider the feasibility of making the change direct from the inside forwards to inside backwards and vice versâ..by the employment of a kind of turn, for which..I can find no more simple..name than the ‘Rocking Turn’. |
4. The action or practice of playing or dancing to popular music with a strong beat and rocking rhythm, esp. rock and roll.
| 1948 R. Brown (song-title) Good rockin' tonight. 1956 Newsweek 18 June 42/3 (heading) Rocking and rolling. 1974 Down Beat 18 July 38/2 The lyricism is as fervent as ever, but the rocking isn't... I don't mean..that the band ought to be rocking. |
▪ III. ˈrocking, vbl. n.2
variant of, or error for, roching vbl. n.
In quot. 1839 prob. after F. rocher (see Littré).
| 1674 Ray Coll. Words, Allom-Work 141 Thence it is taken and cast into a pan, which they call the rocking pan; and there melted. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 121 Bismuth has the advantage of boiling up, as well as of rocking or vegetating, with the silver, when the cupellation requires a high heat. 1854 Pharmac. Jrnl. XIII. 622 The formation of large masses of the alum..by..‘roaching’ or ‘rocking’. |
▪ IV. ˈrocking, vbl. n.3
[f. rock n.1]
A rough mode of dressing stone.
| 1856 Morton Cycl. Agric. II. 395/1 Rockwork, or rocking,..is that mode in which the stone has an artificial roughness given to it to imitate the natural face of a rock. |
▪ V. rocking, ppl. a.
(ˈrɒkɪŋ)
[rock v.1]
1. a. That rocks; swaying, oscillating; also, causing to rock.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. xlviii. (Bodl. MS.), Poudre þereof to feble teeþe and rokkinge strengþeþ and fasteþ ham. Ibid. xvii. xc. (1495) 658 Mastyck..fastnyth waggynge and rockynge teeth. 1632 Milton Penseroso 126 While rocking Winds are Piping loud. 1708 J. Philips Cyder i. 225 The rocking Town Supplants their Footsteps. 1812 J. Wilson Isle of Palms i. 109 The quiet voice of the rocking sea To cheer the gliding vision sings. 1817 Shelley Rev. Islam ii. xiv, And who shall stand Amid the rocking earthquake steadfast still? 1899 Mackail W. Morris I. 217 A stranger might well, from his rocking walk and ruddy complexion, have taken him for a Baltic sea-captain. |
b. Prosody. Designating a metre in which each foot consists of a stressed syllable standing between two unstressed syllables.
| c 1883 G. M. Hopkins Poems (1918) Pref. 1 If the stress is between two slacks there will be Rocking Feet and Rhythms. 1932 F. R. Leavis New Bearings in Engl. Poetry v. 167 Rocking Feet and Outriders will help no one to read his [sc. Hopkins's] verse. 1957 B. Deutsch Poetry Handbk. (1958) 130 When the stress falls between two unstressed syllables, as in this line of Swinburne's ‘Far o{uacu}t to the shállows and stráits of the f{uacu}ture, by ro{uacu}gh ways or pleásant’, the rhythm is a rocking one. 1965 A. F. Scott Current Lit. Terms 249 When the metrical stress falls between two unstressed syllables, the rhythm is called rocking. |
c. Of popular music: characterized by a strong beat and rocking rhythm (cf. rock n.3 2); that is performed in the style of rock music.
| 1949 Billboard 3 Dec. 108/2 Combo drives thru a rocking riffer, with a punching bary sax leading the way. 1954 Ibid. 13 Nov. 98 Another spirited rhythmic side in which the lead singer soars out wild and free over the rocking beat provided by the rest of the group. 1959 G. Avakian in M. T. Williams Art of Jazz (1960) ix. 88 One of the fastest rocking blues ever made. 1968 Melody Maker 30 Nov. 6/6 A rocking version of B. B. King's ‘Sweet Sixteen’. 1976 Leicester Trader 24 Nov. 4/7 One rocking track called Winnebago even reminds me of..the opening track from Argent's second album. |
2. In various technical terms, as rocking bar, rocking beam, rocking lever, rocking rod, rocking shaft, rocking tree, etc.
| 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. Pl. 10 A cylinder or segment of wood,..called a rocking tree, which goes across the frame, and moves on the pivots fixed into it. 1841 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. IV. 187/2 A double lever on the rocking-shaft for working the valve. 1844 Ibid. VII. 192/2 The rocking rods..enabled the water to open and close them. 1876 Preece & Sivewright Telegraphy 121 Let the ends of two rocking levers, by the tension of the springs s and s{p}, rest on these pins. Ibid. 125 The vibrations of the rocking-beam must be slower for long lines than for short ones. 1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 131 Three wheels gearing together are planted on the rocking bar. |