Where did the phrase "chock-full" come from?

Solution 1:

The Online Etymology Dictionary offers more detail:

c.1400, chokkeful “crammed full,” possibly from choke “cheek” (see cheek (n.)). Or it may be from Old French choquier “collide, crash, hit” [similar to shock].

Middle English chokkeful already had the same meaning as modern chock-full. Both this word and choke “to strangle” likely derive ultimately from Old English words meaning “jaw, cheek.” The end result is the same: a mouthful.

Alternately, chokkeful may derive from a more violent word: forced full.

(Wiktionary offers a false etymology based on the kind of chocks used in carpentry and shipbuilding: full up to the chocks, perhaps. However that sense of chock only dates to the 1670s, far too late to influence the Middle English word.)