sock
1 Americannoun
-
socks,
plural
-
sox
plural
-
a short stocking usually reaching to the calf or just above the ankle.
-
a lightweight shoe worn by ancient Greek and Roman comic actors.
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comic writing for the theater; comedy or comic drama.
-
Furniture. a raised vertical area of a club or pad foot.
idioms
verb (used with object)
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socks,
present (3rd person singular)
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socked,
past participle, past
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socking
present participle
noun
-
a hard blow.
-
a very successful show, performance, actor, etc..
The show was a sock.
adjective
verb phrase
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sock in to close or ground because of adverse weather conditions.
The airport was socked in.
-
sock away to put into savings or reserve.
noun
-
a cloth covering for the foot, reaching to between the ankle and knee and worn inside a shoe
-
an insole put in a shoe, as to make it fit better
-
a light shoe worn by actors in ancient Greek and Roman comedy, sometimes taken to allude to comic drama in general (as in the phrase sock and buskin ) See buskin
-
another name for windsock
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informal to make a determined effort, esp in order to regain control of a situation
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slang be quiet!
verb
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(tr) to provide with socks
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slang (of an airport) closed by adverse weather conditions
verb
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(usually tr) to hit with force
-
to make a forceful impression on
noun
Usage
What is a basic definition of sock? A sock is a piece of clothing worn on the foot that usually extends to around the ankle. As a verb, sock means to hit hard. The word sock has a few other senses as a noun and an adjective. A sock is worn on the foot and is almost always made of cloth, such as cotton or wool. It usually covers the entire foot and stretches to around the ankle but may sometimes extend higher. Socks are almost always made or sold in pairs, in order to cover both feet. The plural of sock is socks or, rarely, sox. Sox rarely appears in formal writing with two exceptions: The names of the American baseball teams the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox (Go Sox!).
- Real-life examples: You are probably wearing a pair of socks right now. Soccer players wear knee-high socks. Most people don’t wear socks while wearing sandals.
- Used in a sentence: Whenever I do laundry, I somehow end up with a leftover sock.
- Used in a sentence: I watched as the boxer was socked right in the jaw and fell down.
- Used in a sentence: After the boxer got a sock in the jaw, he fell down.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
socksimple
-
sockssimple
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have sockedperfect
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has sockedperfect
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am sockingprogressive
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are sockingprogressive
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is sockingprogressive
-
have been sockingperfect progressive
-
has been sockingperfect progressive
Past
-
sockedsimple
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had sockedperfect
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was sockingprogressive
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were sockingprogressive
-
had been sockingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sock1
First recorded before 900; Middle English sok, socke, Old English socc “light shoe, slipper, stocking,” from Latin soccus
Origin of sock2
First recorded in 1690–1700; origin uncertain
Explanation
A sock is a piece of clothing you wear on your foot, under your shoe, and socks usually come in pairs. You can wear only one sock if you like, but your other foot might get jealous. Some socks barely cover the foot, while others reach up over the knee. When you sock someone, it has nothing to do with footwear; you punch them. If something "knocks your socks off," it makes you extremely enthusiastic or excited, and if your brother tells you to "put a sock in it," he means "be quiet."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The interview is described as a "new Sussex psychodrama" by the Daily Mail, which reads: "Oh, do put a sock in it Harry!"
From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2026
But it also helps us understand why a crumpled sock in the middle of the living room or dirty dishes on the kitchen counter makes the exhausted woman in your life crash out.
From Salon ● Oct. 18, 2026
Benchmark U.S. natural-gas futures are trading about 10% below year-ago levels thanks to strong domestic production and comfortable spring weather that enabled traders to sock away fuel in storage caverns.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
Wearing a handmade sock puppet with large googly eyes she found at Walmart, Esquivel read “Snuggle Puppy!” in a high-pitched voice as her teenage daughter recorded.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2026
He didn’t seem at all ashamed of it, for when I explained and hurried on, he waved his hand, sock and all, saying in his loud, cheerful way...
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
Shortly after, a heavyset man wearing gray sweats, white socks and black sandals and a black hooded sweatershirt exits the passenger-side door.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026
However, any toy promo from McDonald’s in December would have a high bar to clear after last year’s “Grinch”-themed socks, available with a “Grinch”-themed meal, sold quickly.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 26, 2026
During our first three days in Irdning, they had worked their socks off.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2026
I asked Muse to buy socks every three weeks and it was like, OK, just let me access your data.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
The patient is the one in the cotton gown and wool socks, lying unconscious on the table.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
On August 18, 2017, a new age in astronomy dawned, appropriately, with a tweet: “New LIGO. Source with optical counterpart. Blow your sox off!”
From Scientific American ● Aug. 21, 2019
On 18 August, astronomer J. Craig Wheeler of the University of Texas at Austin began the public rumour mill when he tweeted, “New LIGO. Source with optical counterpart. Blow your sox off!”
From Nature ● Aug. 23, 2017
He confessed in 1951 about the overload, “Two drawers are full, so I’m moving my sox over.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 3, 2015
“They’ve got a couple of big hits the last couple of nights,” said Red sox catcher A.J.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 5, 2014
The next time he wrote it out: "J. O. S. I am not kild Hospital at Chattanooga badly wounded E. C. Bower sox."
From Si Klegg, Book 4 (of 6) Experiences Of Si And Shorty On The Great Tullahoma Campaign by John McElroy
“As satisfying as it may feel to some people to see Meta get socked by this, at the end of the day it’s going to come back and bite you.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026
Winter storm Fern, which socked the Midwest and Northeast, likely boosted the number of claims filed.
From Barron's ● Feb. 5, 2026
A 400-mile blanket of fog has socked in California’s Central Valley for weeks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2025
She also opened a brokerage account and socked away the money from her pandemic- stimulus check.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2025
Then at last the opening music came again, with all the different instruments bunched together for each note like a hard, tight fist that socked at her heart.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
You say you don’t have any money saved, but when you start socking away funds — which you should do as soon as possible — I’d recommend getting a high-yield savings account.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 12, 2026
But rather than freeing up more room in our monthly budget, I proposed taking the difference and socking it away in savings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2025
Lenders in countries as far away as Germany and Japan are socking away hundreds of millions of dollars in anticipation of loans going bad.
From BBC ● Mar. 9, 2024
The first issue of Captain America featured Cap socking Adolf Hitler in the jaw, some nine months before the U.S. entered WWII.
From Salon ● Jan. 24, 2024
“I think the people of this state need and deserve a helping hand, and I’m going to see that you get it!” he shouted, socking the air.
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
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