Forms: 6–7 clocke, (7 cloake), 7– clock.
[One of the conjectures offered is that the pattern consisted of bell-shaped ornaments, but evidence is wanting.]
1. An ornamental pattern in silk thread worked on the side of a stocking.
(From CLOCKED, it appears that it was formerly worn on other garments.)
1530. Palsgr., 206/1. Clocke of a hose [no French given].
1547. Salesbury, Welsh Dict., Kwyrk-hosan, a clocke.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (1879), 57. Nether-stocks … knit with open seam down the leg, with quirks and clocks about the ancles.
1617. Moryson, Itin., II. I. i. 46. Silke stockins, with blacke silke Grogran cloakes.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 3, ¶ 5. To knit all the Actions of the Pretender … in the Clock of a Stocking.
1858. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt. (1865), II. V. vii. 123. Red silk stockings, with probably blue clocks to them.
attrib. 1728. Vanbr. & Cib., Prov. Husb., IV. i. Nothing but Toys and Trinkets, and Fans, and Clock-Stockings.
2. (See quot.) [Perh. not the same word.]
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 15/2. Of a band [i.e., a collar] … the Clocks [are] the laying in of the cloth to make it round; the Plaites.
