in hock
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Last year, Burnham told the New Statesman magazine: "We've got to get beyond this thing of being in hock to the bond markets."
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2026
The Simon & Schuster transaction will leave the publisher $1 billion in hock, ratcheting up pressure to repay the debt — and turn a profit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2023
He meticulously piles up the arguments of the witch-mongers and knocks them down; charmers, soothsayers, alchemists, conjurors and occultists aren’t in hock to the devil, he says, they are charlatans.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 17, 2020
Determined to make money, Aldo has a long history of failed entrepreneurial ventures, leaving him in hock to a host of aggrieved investors.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 14, 2015
Bad Jack is doing a ten-year stretch in Sing Sing, Clever Charley is in hock at Joliet, and Sweet William is the only one who is at large—it must be William.'
From Danger! A True History of a Great City's Wiles and Temptations The Veil Lifted, and Light Thrown on Crime and its Causes, and Criminals and their Haunts. Facts and Disclosures. by William F. Howe
