Whipstock

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A mechanical device employed in drilling that facilitates the control of drill bit angles and direction during operations
2. A tool used to direct the angle and path of a drill bit during drilling operations
3. An apparatus designed to help steer and adjust the angle of drilling tools underground

Etymology: A whipstock is a compound of "whip" and "stock," and its literal sense comes from the older meaning of "stock" as a rigid support or handle. Whipstock is a plain technical coinage: the "whip" part is the wooden handle of a whip, and "stock" is the solid shaft or support it relates to. The name reflects the tool's shape as a long, slender piece that is set in a borehole and bent or guided in a chosen direction. Taken together, the two parts describe the device in a way that a driller of earlier times would have recognised. Here the "whip" element gives the sense of a flexible, bendable piece, while the "stock" element supplies the idea of a supporting body. The result is a term that describes the mechanism through its everyday physical parts rather than through any abstract idea of direction or angle.