See Also: Head, Bessie(encyclopedia)
Bessie (as used in expressions)(encyclopedia)
Smith, Bessie(encyclopedia)
Smith, Bessie(dictionary)
dock(6)(dictionary)
dry dock(dictionary)
dock(1)(dictionary)
Dock(medicine)
dock(5)(dictionary)
dock(2)(dictionary)

dock(3) (iou) and Head, Bessie (sh)


dock(3) (iou)



dock noun3. LME.
[Middle Low German, Middle Dutch docke (mod. dok), of unkn. origin.]
An artificial basin, usu. with floodgates to control the water-level, in which ships can be repaired, built, or loaded and unloaded. LME.
b. The body of water between adjacent wharves. E19.
The bed (in the sand or mud) in which a vessel lies dry at low water; the hollow made by a vessel lying in the sand. L15-M17.
A creek in which ships may lie on the mud or ride at anchor, according to the tide. M-L16.
A trench or canal to admit a boat. M17-E18.
sing. & (usu.) in pl. A range of docks (sense 1 above) together with the adjoining wharves, warehouses, and offices (commercial docks); a dockyard (naval docks). E18.
A wharf, a pier. Orig. US. E19.
An enclosure in a platform into which a single railway line runs and terminates. L19.
Theatrical. More fully scene-dock. A storage space for scenes at the side or back of a stage. L19.
A raised platform from which lorries or railway trucks are loaded and unloaded. N. Amer. E20.
Phrases: dry dock: see DRY adjective. floating dock a floating structure serving as a dry dock. graving dock a dry dock. in dock colloq. in or into hospital; in or into a garage for repair etc. wet dock: see WET adjective.
Comb.: dock-glass a large wineglass of a type orig. used by excisemen for Wine-tasting; dockland, Dock the area about a city's docks, esp. those of London; dockside noun & adjective (situated in) the area immediately adjacent to a dock; docksman a man employed at a dock; spec. one who opens and shuts dock gates; dock-warrant a certificate given to the owner of goods warehoused at a dock.

Head, Bessie (sh)




orig. Bessie Amelia Emery

born July 6, 1937, Pietermaritzburg, S.Af.
died April 17, 1986, Serowe, Bots.

South African-born Botswanan writer.

Born of an illegal union between a white mother and a black father, she suffered rejection and alienation from an early age. She described the contradictions and shortcomings of pre-and postcolonial African society in morally didactic novels and stories, including When Rain Clouds Gather (1969), Maru (1971), A Question of Power (1973), The Collector of Treasures (1977), Serowe, Village of the Rainwind (1981), A Bewitched Crossroad (1984), and The Cardinals (1993).