Any coarse weedy plant of the genus Rumex, in the buckwheat family, that has a long taproot and is sometimes used as a potherb. Most docks are native to Europe but naturalized throughout North America. Examples include curly dock (R. crispus) and bitter dock (R. obtusifolius). The early basal leaves of patience-dock (R. patientia) are sometimes used in salads. The common weed R. acetosa is known variously as dock, common sorrel, or garden sorrel. Seealso sorrel.

Learn more about dock with a free trial on Britannica.com.

In transportation

• Dock (maritime), an area of water for building or repairing or loading and unloading ships or ferries. See also:
• Dry dock, a narrow basin that can be flooded and drained to allow a load to come to rest on a dry platform
• Ferry slip, a specialized docking facility that receives a ferryboat
• Harbor
• Jetty
• Marina
• Pier, a raised walkway over water, supported by widely spread piles or pillars
• Pontoon, a buoyant device, used to support docks or floating bridges
• Quay
• Ski dock
• Wharf, a fixed platform, commonly on pilings, where ships are loaded and unloaded
• Loading dock or Cargo bay, an unloading area for trucks to deliver cargo
• Space rendezvous, if it includes docking
• Stevedore, a worker who loads and unloads ships, also known as a docker or longshoreman

In natural sciences

• Dock (tailhead)
• Docking (animal), the removal of part of an animal, often tail or ears
• Docking (dog)
• Docking as human corporal punishment
• Burdock, a group of biennial thistles
• Rumex, plants called docks and sorrels including narrow-leaf dock (Rumex mexicanus), curly dock or curled dock (Rumex crispus), broadleaf dock or butter dock (Rumex obtusifolius) and many other members of the Rumex genus
• Some other species of plants such as prairie dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum, Silphium perfoliatum, Parthenium integrifolium),

In molecular biology

• DOCK (Dedicator of cytokinesis), a family of proteins involved in cell signalling
• Docking (molecular), a research technique for predicting the relative orientation of two molecules to each other in a bimolecular complex

In computing

• Dock (computing), a graphical user interface feature
• Docking station, for a portable computer

Other

• Dock (Hayden Scott-Barren), a UK manga illustrator
• Docking (sexual practice), between men
• Docking, Norfolk, a village in East Anglia, England
• The Docks Waterfront Entertainment Complex in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• The first level of the Heretic video game
• The former name of Devonport, Devon, now a part of the city of Plymouth
• The place where the defendant stands in a British courtroom (see the layout of courts in Scotland) hence the expression "in the dock"

See also

• Dox, a supposed hybrid between a dog and a fox
• DOC (disambiguation)
• Docklands, the area in London