pock

A pock is a small mark, pit, or scar, often on the skin. The word is strongly linked to smallpox, because that disease often left little hollow marks after the sores healed. In older writing, if someone had an uneven face marked by disease, those marks could be called pocks. The word can also be used for similar small holes or dents on another surface.

It has an old, historical feel, but it still works when you want to describe tiny damaged spots. For example, stone, wood, metal, or a wall may be said to have pocks if they are dotted with little pits or holes.

The word "pock" first brings to mind the marks left by diseases such as smallpox. These marks were usually small pits, scars, or raised spots on the skin. In that older medical and historical sense, a pock was one of the visible signs left behind after illness, especially after the sores had dried and healed. That is why the word still carries a strong connection to disease and to older descriptions of people's faces and skin.

Historically, pocks were sadly familiar. Before vaccination, smallpox left many people with pockmarked skin, and the word appeared often in medical writing, stories, and everyday description. It can also refer to a pustule or blister itself in older use, not just the scar that remains after it.

From there, the meaning widened. A pock can also be any small pit, hole, dent, or blemish that looks like such a mark. A stone surface may have pocks from weathering. A piece of metal may be pocked by rust. A wall or a road may show pocks where the surface has been worn or damaged. In this broader sense, the word suggests a scattered pattern of small marks rather than one large crack or break.

The word can also be used as a verb. If something is pocked, it is marked with little pits or spots. So the noun names the mark itself, and the verb describes the act or result of becoming covered with such marks. Whether it refers to skin, stone, wood, metal, or plaster, the idea is much the same: a small visible mark that breaks a smooth surface.