sock
/sɒk
/noun
1A garment for the foot and lower part of the leg, typically knitted from wool, cotton, or nylon.In more formal settings, black over-the-calf stretch nylon cotton or wool socks are fitting....
- Cotton socks absorb moisture and keep feet drier than nylon socks.
- Fleece picks up lint easily and a fleece garment washed with wool socks or terry towels will never look the same again.
1.1A removable inner sole placed inside a shoe or boot for added warmth or to improve the fit.
1.2A white marking on the lower part of a horse’s leg, not extending as far as the knee or hock: a Welsh pony mare, black with four white socks...
- Ranger is a 4-year old sorrel with a flaxen mane and tail, right hind sock, and left hind stocking.
- Shorty is a 3-year old brown gelding with a star, strip, snip, connected lower tip, left front sock and right front pastern.
2 informal A hard blow: a sock on the jaw...
- Instead of a hard sock in the arm, he got a soft smack in the arm.
- I was treated to a sock on the jaw by the same thugs later that night.
- The Maus mounted a 128 mm main gun that would punch through enemy armor like a thrown sock punches through a wall made out of gelatin.
2.1 [mass noun] US Force or emphasis: we have enough speed and sock in our line-up to score runs...
- If Martin can succeed, the lineup has enough sock elsewhere to cash in.
- Coming up from the minors is the right-handed-hitting Juan Uribe, who has good sock but can be undisciplined on breaking balls.
verb [with object] informal
Hit forcefully: Jess socked his father across the face...
- The guy protested and laid a hand on Novak - who responded by socking him and threatening to knock his teeth out.
- But this did nothing to stop Grant from fulfilling his end of the showdown; he socked Hearns with a straight right to the body and followed up with a left hook that must have made Hearns' cranium vibrate.
- He says he socked a taxi inspector at the airport.
Phrases
bless your (or his/her/their) little cotton socks
knock (or blow) someone's socks off
knock the socks off
—— one's socks off
pull one's socks up
put a sock in it
sock and buskin
sock it to someone
Phrasal verbs
sock something away
sock something in
Origin
Old English socc 'light shoe', of Germanic origin, from Latin soccus 'comic actor's shoe, light low-heeled slipper', from Greek sukkhos.
Old English socc was a ‘light shoe’. It goes back ultimately to Latin soccus ‘comic actor's shoe, light low-heeled slipper’, from Greek sukkhos. The phrase knock the socks off was originally US English from the early 19th century; pull one's socks up arose in the late 19th century; put a sock in it is early 20th century.