Word of the Day: Yoke and Yolk

Yoke

yoke /  yōk

noun

1.      a bond, something that binds or joins together

Exchange the galling burden of bachelorship for the easy yoke of matrimony.James Madison, 1751-1836

2.      a wooden bar used to join two animals and attached to a plow or cart enabling them to work together

In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke.

William Shakespeare, 1564-1616

3.      a pair of draft animals joined together for work

The fingers of the housewife do more than a yoke of oxen.

German Proverb

4.      a frame worn over the shoulders designed to carry a load on either side

The good-looking young woman in clogs, swinging the empty pails on the yoke, ran on before him to the well for water.

From “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy, 1828 – 1910

5.      a clamp connecting or holding together parts of a machine

A maximum amount of fluid is then metered to the control piston area, causing the yoke to shift to minimum pump displacement.

from Vickers Piston Pumps Overhaul Manual at www.eaton.com.

6.      an experience or situation that limits one’s freedom; a burden

The yoke you wear determines the burden you bear.

Edwin Louis Cole, 1922-2002

7.      a fitted piece of fabric on clothing at an opening, such as at the neck or armhole, to which an unfitted part is attached

To start, sew the outer yoke to the dress back at a 1/4″ seam allowance with right sides facing.

8.      a symbol or condition of servitude or suffering

Action must be taken at once; there is no time to be lost; we shall yet see the oppressors’ yoke broken and the fragments scattered on the ground.

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, 1753 – 1811

verb

1.      to join with a yoke

An ox and an ass don’t yoke well to the same plow.

Dutch Proverb

2.      to harness a draft animal to

The more horses you yoke the quicker everything will go – not the rending of the block from its foundation, which is impossible, but the snapping of the traces and with that the gay and empty journey.

Franz Kafka, 1883 – 1924

3.      to bind or join together

When strength is yoked with justice, where is a mightier pair than they?

Aeschylus, 525 BC – 456 BC

4.      to force into heavy labor or servitude

It astonishes me to find… [that so many] of our countrymen… should be contented to live under a system which leaves to their governors the power of taking from them the trial by jury in civil cases, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of commerce, the habeas corpus laws, and of yoking them with a standing army.

Thomas Jefferson.

Yolk

yolk  / yōk

noun

1.      the yellow part inside an egg, surrounded by albumen (the white); the part of an egg that primarily contains protein and fat, used to nourish a growing embryo

Hope is an egg, of which one man gets the yolk, another the white, and a third the shell.

Danish Proverb

2.      a greasy substance secreted by sheep found on its wool

The fleece of a healthy sheep is covered by an oily substance called yolk, which consists of wool grease and dried perspiration.

from www.didyouknow.org/animals