yoke
pronunciation
How to pronounce yoke in British English:
UK [jəʊk]
How to pronounce yoke in American English:
US [joʊk]
-
- Noun:
- fabric comprising a fitted part at the top of a garment
- an oppresssive power
- two items of the same kind
- a pair of draft animals joined by a yoke
- support consisting of a wooden frame across the shoulders that enables a person to carry buckets hanging from each end
- a connection (like a clamp or vise) between two things so they move together
- stable gear that joins two draft animals at the neck so they can work together as a team
-
- Verb:
- become joined or linked together
- link with or as with a yoke
- put a yoke on or join with a yoke
Word Origin
- yoke
- yoke: [OE] The etymological ideal underlying yoke is of ‘joining’ – here, of joining two animals together. The word came ultimately from Indo-European *jugom, which also produced Latin jugum ‘yoke’ (source of English conjugal, jugular [16], and subjugate [15]), Welsh iau ‘yoke’, Czech jho ‘yoke’, Sanskrit yugám ‘yoke’, etc.The prehistoric Germanic descendant of this was *jukam (borrowed into Finnish as juko), which evolved into German joch, Dutch juk, Swedish ok, Danish aag, and English yoke. The Indo-European form itself was derived from the base *jug-, *jeug-, *joug- ‘join’, which also produced Latin jungere ‘join’ (source of English join, junction, etc) and Sanskrit yoga ‘union’ (acquired by English via Hindi as yoga [19], which literally denotes ‘union with the universal spirit’).=> conjugate, join, jugular, junction, subjugate, yoga
- yoke (n.)
- Old English geoc "contrivance for fastening a pair of draft animals," earlier geoht "pair of draft animals" (especially oxen), from Proto-Germanic *yukam (cognates: Old Saxon juk, Old Norse ok, Danish aag, Middle Dutch joc, Dutch juk, Old High German joh, German joch, Gothic juk "yoke"), from PIE root *yeug- "to join" (see jugular). Figurative sense of "heavy burden, oppression, servitude" was in Old English.
- yoke (v.)
- Old English geocian "to yoke, join together," from yoke (n.). Related: Yoked; yoking.
Example
- 1. Towns that threw off the colonel 's yoke want to keep a measure of independence from the new rulers .
- 2. Not everyone has taken kindly to this new authoritarian yoke .
- 3. Many women in the richer parts of asia have gone on " marriage strike " , preferring the single life to the marital yoke .
- 4. Do they want to throw off the yoke of austerity and break with europe , with all the risks such a policy would entail ?
- 5. So why not release the yoke ?