chock-full

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chock-full (colloq.) full to the utmost. The rare ME. (XIV) forms chokkefulle, chekefull are of doubtful status because of the uncertainty of the tradition; but, if genuine, they may repr. differentiated forms of OE. ċēoce or ċēace CHEEK, according as the diphthong was rising or falling. The modern chokefull dates from XVII, chockfull from XVIII, with a var. chuckfull, which may be due to the gen. variation between CHOCK and CHUCK.
Hence prob. chock adv. (XVIII) close (up) to, and in chock-a-block (i) naut., said of a tackle with the two blocks run close together, (ii) gen., crammed close together.

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