chock-a-block

See also: chockablock and chock a block

English

Pronunciation

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Adjective

chock-a-block (comparative more chock-a-block, superlative most chock-a-block)

1. Alternative spelling of chockablock
   • 2019 November 6, Graeme Pickering, “New targets for Northumberland”, in Rail, page 49:

     "Parking at the railheads, Morpeth and so on, is just totally chock-a-block now. You won't get a parking space in Morpeth [station car park] after 0730, so we really need to be providing a service at these local stations."

Adverb

chock-a-block (comparative more chock-a-block, superlative most chock-a-block)

1. Alternative spelling of chockablock
   • 1999, Robert Harms, Games Against Nature:

     The first was my experience of motoring, paddling, and poling a dugout canoe through the Equatorial African swamplands that were once inhabited by people who called themselves Nunu and being struck by the astonishing array of micro-environments packed chock-a-block into a region only 40 kilometers long by 20 kilometers wide.

   • 2007, Becky Mercuri, The Great American Hot Dog Book, page 128:

     The Piney Creek General Store in Story, Wyoming, is chock-a-block filled with an enormous range of miscellaneous paraphernalia that includes groceries, gourmet cooking ingredients, beer and wine, cast-iron cookware, and kitschy souvenirs and gifts.

   • 2007, Don Woodland, Simon Bouda, Picking Up the Pieces:

     One room was chock-a-block full, to the ceiling; you couldn't get into that bedroom.

   • 2010, Kevin C. Mills, Sons and Daughters of the Ocean:

     The place is chock-a-block full of old empty bottles on shelves, a collection from around the world.

   • 2012, Michèle Roberts, Ignorance, page 218:

     The quay teemed chock-a-block with porters, officials, clumps of overcoated people under umbrellas.

   • 2013, Robert Barnard, Death and the Chaste Apprentice:

     I've had a feeling ever since this festival started up that one day I was going to get stuck with a case chock-a-block full of arty people.

References

• “chock-a-block”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.