Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A pustule caused by smallpox or a similar eruptive disease.
  • noun A mark or scar left in the skin by such a pustule; a pockmark.
  • transitive verb To mark with pocks; pit.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A pustule raised on the surface of the body in an eruptive disease, as the smallpox.
  • noun A pox; an eruptive disease, as smallpox.
  • noun A Scotch form of poke.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) A pustule raised on the surface of the body in variolous and vaccine diseases.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A pus filled swelling on the surface on the skin caused by an eruptive disease.
  • noun Any pit, especially one formed as a scar
  • verb To scar or mark with pits

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb mark with a scar
  • noun a pustule in an eruptive disease

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English pokke, from Old English pocc.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English pocc, from Proto-Germanic *puh- (“swell up, blow up”) (compare Dutch pok, Low German Pocke).

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Examples

  • Simpson shuddered, recalling the pock-marked drummer on the

    O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1921 Various

  • You have heard of Sitting Bull, Rain in the Face (that is, a pock-marked individual), Antelope, and others of like character, could be drawn, and thus convey the name without difficulty.

    The Wonder Island Boys: Conquest of the Savages Roger Thompson Finlay

  • Actually there's a shattered window on the car, but damage just kind of pock-marked through the neighborhood depending on where people are.

    CNN Transcript Mar 2, 2007 2007

  • [94] The Filipinos have many mocking children's rhymes making fun of personal deformities, such as pock-marks, cross-eyes, very black skin, etc.

    Filipino Popular Tales Dean Spruill Fansler

  • This lets weld slag and splatter quickly build up on the sensor, melt the housing, and create small "pock" holes in the sensor face, which make the sensor even more vulnerable to weld slag and splatter.

    Machine Design - 2008

  • A big Chinaman, remarkably evil-looking, with his head swathed in a yellow silk handkerchief and face badly pock-marked, planted a pike-pole on the

    White and Yellow 2010

  • He of the yellow handkerchief and pock-marked face came toward me threateningly, but I put my hand into my hip pocket, and he hesitated.

    White and Yellow 2010

  • Leading them came a big, muscular man, conspicuous for his pock - marked face and the yellow silk handkerchief swathed about his head.

    YELLOW HANDKERCHIEF 2010

  • Named the Castilla De San Marcos it has pock marks made from cannon balls fired by Sir Francis Drake.

    Trivia time What is the oldest man made building in the U.S.A. 2009

  • Named the Castilla De San Marcos it has pock marks made from cannon balls fired by Sir Francis Drake.

    Trivia time What is the oldest man made building in the U.S.A. 2009

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