sock1
- a short stocking usually reaching to the calf or just above the ankle.
- a lightweight shoe worn by ancient Greek and Roman comic actors.
- comic writing for the theater; comedy or comic drama.Compare buskin(def 4).
- Furniture. a raised vertical area of a club or pad foot.
- sock puppet(def 3).
- knock one's/the socks off. knock(def 29).
Origin of sock1
sock2
- to strike or hit hard.
- a hard blow.
- a very successful show, performance, actor, etc.: The show was a sock.
- extremely successful: a sock performance.
- sock away, to put into savings or reserve.
- sock in, to close or ground because of adverse weather conditions: The airport was socked in.
Origin of sock2
Examples from the Web for socks
Contemporary Examples
Melchior is the forerunner of the aunt who always gave me socks.
I got a chance to see this man in his office and present him with these socks.
He derived enormous satisfaction from some customers choosing to base the rest of their wardrobe around his socks.
He was so impressed by the socks that he invited me through my client to come and visit him.
This gives Nagrani greater satisfaction than to have Esquire last year crown his socks “the best in the world”.
Historical Examples
And about how to keep Katie in order about your socks, and all sorts of things.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
"The wife told me," said Marion, calmly, rolling up her socks.
The Coryston FamilyMrs. Humphry Ward
And now I haven't a thing, not a handkerchief, not a pair of socks!
The DownfallEmile Zola
The minister's clothes were mended and his socks darned as they had not been since his mother's day.
Keziah CoffinJoseph C. Lincoln
Mike, on her opposite arm, was struggling to lave his socks in it.
Dr. SevierGeorge W. Cable
sock1
- 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
- pull one's socks up British informal to make a determined effort, esp in order to regain control of a situation
- put a sock in it British slang be quiet!
- (tr) to provide with socks
- socked in US and Canadian slang (of an airport) closed by adverse weather conditions
Word Origin
sock2
- (usually tr) to hit with force
- sock it to to make a forceful impression on
- a forceful blow
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for socks
sock
n.1
"knitted or woven covering for the foot, short stocking," early 14c., from Old English socc "slipper, light shoe," from Latin soccus "slipper, light low-heeled shoe," probably a variant of Greek sykchos, word for a kind of shoe, perhaps from Phrygian or another Asiatic language. The Latin word was borrowed generally in West Germanic, e.g. Middle Dutch socke, Dutch sok, Old High German soc, German Socke. To knock the socks off (someone) "beat thoroughly" is recorded from 1845, American English colloquial. Teen slang sock hop is c.1950, from notion of dancing without shoes.
sock
v.1
1700, "to beat, hit hard, pitch into," of uncertain origin. To sock it to (someone) first recorded 1877.
sock
v.2
"to stash (money) away as savings," 1942, American English, from the notion of hiding one's money in a sock (see sock (n.1)).
sock
n.2
"a blow, a hit with the fist," 1700, from or related to sock (v.1).