(clocks, clocking, clocked)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
A clock is an instrument, for example in a room or on the outside of a building, that shows what time of day it is.
He was conscious of a clock ticking...
He also repairs clocks and watches...
...a digital clock.
N-COUNT
2.
A time clock in a factory or office is a device that is used to record the hours that people work. Each worker puts a special card into the device when they arrive and leave, and the times are recorded on the card.
Government workers were made to punch time clocks morning, noon and night.
N-COUNT: oft n N
3.
In a car, the clock is the instrument that shows the speed of the car or the distance it has travelled. (mainly BRIT)
The car had 160,000 miles on the clock...
N-COUNT: usu sing, the N
4.
To clock a particular time or speed in a race means to reach that time or speed.
Elliott clocked the fastest time this year for the 800 metres...
VERB: V n
5.
If something or someone is clocked at a particular time or speed, their time or speed is measured at that level.
He has been clocked at 11 seconds for 100 metres...
VERB: usu passive, be V-ed at amount
6.
7.
If you are doing something against the clock, you are doing it in a great hurry, because there is very little time.
The emergency services were working against the clock as the tide began to rise...
It's now become a race against the clock.
PHRASE: PHR after v, n PHR
8.
If something is done round the clock or around the clock, it is done all day and all night without stopping.
Rescue services have been working round the clock to free stranded motorists...
PHRASE: PHR with v, PHR n
9.
If you want to turn the clock back or put the clock back, you want to return to a situation that used to exist, usually because the present situation is unpleasant.
In some ways we wish we could turn the clock back...
We cannot put back the clock.
PHRASE: V inflects