sockdolager

American  

[sok-dol-uh-jer] / sɒkˈdɒl ə dʒər /

noun

Older Slang.

1. something unusually large, heavy, etc.

2. a decisive reply, argument, etc.

3. a heavy, finishing blow.

   His right jab is a real sockdolager.

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Usage

Where does sockdolager come from? Sockdolager, meaning a "decisive blow or remark," is a 19th-century American original. The origin of such silly-sounding words like sockdolager are, often, sometimes just that—a fanciful act of silliness. However, it's sometimes claimed (though etymologists aren't convinced of this theory) that the word combines sock ("to strike or hit") with doxology, "a hymn or phrase praising God."A form of the word sockdolager in the play Our American Cousin may have been one of the last words President Abraham Lincoln heard right before he was assassinated in 1865. Many more amusing Americanisms await in our slideshow "These Wacky Words Originated In The USA."

Etymology

Origin of sockdolager

1820–30, sock ² + -dolager, of uncertain origin

Example Sentences

Now 1,540 pages, with 22,500 quotations, it is a sockdolager, Nearly 3,000 of the quotations are new| to this edition, ranging from the maxims of Ptahhotpe, an Egyptian vizier of the 24th century B.C.

From Time Magazine Archive

He hooked a sockdolager, but his line broke.

From Phil Bradley's Mountain Boys The Birch Bark Lodge by Boone, Silas K.

"A regular sockdolager, isn't it, Gates?" said Walter.

From Walter Sherwood's Probation by Alger, Horatio

This had to be the greatest sockdolager since Goebbels explained Stalingrad.

From Telempathy by Simonds, Vance

By gosh, that wer a sockdolager; I guess the big varmint is kinder gettin’ riled!”

From The Wreck of the Nancy Bell Cast Away on Kerguelen Land by Stacey, W. S. (Walter S.)