rock
[A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z] [FULL LIST]
rock1 verb To pelt (with rocks) in order to intimidate or to drive away or back. [DARE labels this usage "chiefly South, South Midland" in the U.S.]
1913 Kephart Our Sthn High 259 A prime amusement of the small boys is “rocking” (throwing stones at marks or at each other), in which rather doubtful pastime they become singularly expert. 1921 Campbell Sthn Highlander 125 The boys "up the branch" or "down the creek" gather, especially on Sundays, for amusements which, if not vicious in themselves, are usually accompanied by more or less vicious features. It is such gangs that express their lawless independence and rural conservatism by “rocking” individuals and objects that meet with their disfavor, burning private and sometimes public property, robbing orchards, and similar offenses not peculiar to the mountain region. 1939 Hall Coll (Nine Mile Creek TN) He'd run a bear in on them, and they got to rocking it. 1986 Sevier Settler 8:25 “Rocking” people was a practice that was done on Halloween and throughout the year. If a fellow was walking his girl friend home from church, and if his friends knew which route he would be taking, the fellow’s friends might hide in the bushes until the couple came along. Then someone would yell, “Pick 'em up,” and his friends would throw a handful of rocks at the couple. The rocks were never meant to harm the couple, they were only meant as a teasing joke.
rock2 noun as a mass noun (perhaps by analogy with stone).
1939 Hall Coll (Cosby Creek TN) They would haul dry wood and pile rock on that and heat them rocks. Ibid. (Mt Sterling NC) We heared a dynamite blast go off and in about a second another one went off. We jumped behind some trees, rock flew all over us.