Entry · catalog no. 0056
rock with
/ /ˈrɑk wɪt/ /ROCK-wit
verb phrase · nationwide; strongest in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and South · 2000s
✓ Verified
1.
To like and back a person, with loyalty implied rather than mere approval.
“I rock with her, she's been solid since day one.”
2.
To accept a plan, a decision, or a version of events without argument.
“You want to push it to Thursday? I can rock with that.”
3.
In the negative, to withhold endorsement — usually as a quiet cut.
“I don't rock with him like that.”
Origin & Attribution
Built on rock as a verb, which lexicographers mark as originally Black American across its senses — to move, to perform, to carry a room, and most recently to conduct oneself, to function. The support reading of rock with is a late-twentieth and early-twenty-first-century Black American extension of that last sense, spread through hip-hop and everyday speech. It has nothing to do with rock music, and it is not the same phrase as Michael Jackson's 1979 Rock with You, which uses the older dance-and-romance sense. Same words, different word.
2003
Ashanti's Rock wit U puts the companionship reading at number two on the Hot 100
2007
The endorsement sense appears in print — I definitely want to rock with these cats
2020
The acceptance sense — I can rock with that — recorded in a category marked Black American
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
nationwide; strongest in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and South · 2000s
Spoken by
Black Americans; broadly adopted afterward
$ROCKWIThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady19 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
78/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
2007
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Ashanti, Rock wit U (Awww Baby), Murder Inc./Def Jam
2003
■
Tim Dorsey, Hurricane Punch
2007
■
+ Cite a sourceBaynard Woods and Brandon Soderberg, I Got a Monster
2020
See also