chockablock

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 11, 2024 is: chockablock \CHAH-kuh-blahk\ adjective Something described as chockablock is very full or tightly packed. // Their mantel is chockablock with knickknacks collected from their travels to all fifty states. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chockablock) Examples: "The official Taylor Swift online store is chockablock with earrings, hoodies, vinyl and other merchandise promoting the star's latest record-breaking album, 'The Tortured Poets Department.'" — Ari Shapiro, NPR, 26 Apr. 2024 Did you know? Ahoy, mateys! Though it is now more often used by [landlubbers](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/landlubber), chockablock has a nautical history. On board a sailing vessel, chock can refer to a wedge or block that is pressed up against an object to keep it from moving (on land, wheel chocks prevent vehicles from rolling), while a [block and tackle](https://bit.ly/3Alz88q) system combines pulleys, often in cases called "blocks," and rope or cable to provide [mechanical advantage](https://bit.ly/47dI4cF) for hoisting and hauling. Using a block and tackle to hoist a sail on a traditional sailing ship, there’s a point when the rope or cable is pulled as far as it will go—the blocks at that point are tight together and said to be "chockablock"; they can no longer move, as if they are being checked by a chock. When non-nautical types associated the chock of chockablock with [chock-full](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chock-full), from the Middle English adjective chokkefull, meaning "full to the limit" (likely a figurative use of "full to choking"), they gave chockablock the additional meaning "filled up." Chockablock can also be an [adverb](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chockablock) meaning "as close or as completely as possible," as in "dorms full of students living chockablock" or the seemingly redundant "chockablock full."