Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to hit, to punch; thus sockee, one who suffers a blow, sock into/up v., to assault, to beat.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Sock [...] to Beat [...] I’ll Sock ye, c. I’ll Drub ye tightly.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 240: ‘sock into him’ i.e., give him a good drubbing.
1866		Mansfield School-Life at Winchester College (1870) 234: Sock – To hit hard at cricket.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1885		C.A. Siringo Texas Cow Boy (1950) 54: I socked spurs to my pony.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 78: Sock into Him, give him a good thrashing.
1900		Marvel XIII:323 Jan. 10: Well, sock him, Jack! Go for him.
1904		Number 1500 Life In Sing Sing 252: Sock. To assault.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 22 May 2nd sect. 10/3: He socked the ancient (and greatest gladiator of his day) in the vicinity of his bingie, causing him [...] to grunt audibly. Tommy is a man who shows little chivalry.
1919		Marvel 3 Mar. 15: Sock him! [...] Lam in like mad!
1928		Briggs That Guiltiest Feeling 31 Oct. [synd. cartoon] I’ll sock that old pill into th’ nex’ county! Baby!
1929		W.R. Burnett Little Caesar (1932) 85: You ain’t sore at me because I socked you, are you?
1931		C.B. Yorke ‘Snowbound’ in Gangster Stories Oct. n.p.: ‘Sock him once, Francis [...] and toss the rat out into the alley’.
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 124: You shove off, or I’ll sock yer.
1940		A.P. Herbert Let Us Be Glum (1941) 14: Sock the Wops and knock their blocks / Sock the Wop until he crocks.
1941		‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 10 May 9/5: [in sense of verbal violence] I got to ‘sock’ Al Duckett, if I never ‘socks’ no more.
1944		E. Wilson 11 Mar. [synd. col.] Addison Randall, recent sockee in a spectacular night club fight.
1947		J. Maclaren-Ross Of Love And Hunger 49: Banged the door on me she did. The bitch, I could’ve socked her.
1951		J.D. Salinger Catcher in the Rye (1958) 47: Then I tried to sock him, with all my might, right smack in the toothbrush.
1963		G. Lambert Inside Daisy Clover (1966) 85: Gloria nearly socked her.
1973		Sun. Times Mag. 16 Sept. 44: Stop calling me a Nazi or I’ll sock you in your goddamn face.
1983		News-Record (Neenah, WI) 22 July 4/3: Kuehne socked a homer to top the offense.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 8: He [...] started sockin me up.
1999		Guardian Rev. 24 Sept. 17: I was too much of a wuss to get up and sock her.
2005		L. Theroux Call of the Weird (2006) 164: Why don’t you come here so I can sock you!
2009		L. McIlvanney All the Colours 196: I stepped inside and socked him hard.
2019		C.D. Rosales Word Is Bone [ebook] ‘I been waiting to sock you again since the first time’.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 419: The palone had been socked with a gross tranquillising baton.

2. (US) to knock someone’s hat over their head.

1848

Bartlett Dict. Americanisms 320: to sock. To press by a hard blow a man’s hat over his head and face. Used in Rhode Island. I have never heard it elsewhere. The New York term is, to crown.

3. (US) to throw.

1878		J.H. Beadle Western Wilds 37: They put me in jail – socked me right in with them two Hodges.
1887		F. Francis Jr Saddle and Mocassin 145: They came near to socking him in the cooler the other day.

4. (US) to pay; to treat someone to something.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1899		‘Pot’ & ‘Swears’ Scarlet City 77: I must sock you and Larkhall at Bryan’s.
1902		Bulletin Reciter 1880–1901 181: Den I socked me bit upon ’er— / Ev’ry tray-bit I could bring.
1904		Number 1500 Life In Sing Sing 252: Sock. to pledge.
1934		E. Waugh Handful of Dust 80: ‘Oh come on,’ said Brenda, ‘I’ll sock you a movie.’.
1940		(ref. to mid-16C+) M. Marples Public School Slang 163: sock [...] One of the oldest uses, however, dated by Farmer from 1550 and still current, is m the sense of give — e g. ‘I’ll sock you some broadrule ’= I’ll give you some writing-paper’ (Stone, ‘ Eton Glossary ’); ‘My governor has socked me a book ’ (quoted in an article in ‘Macmillan’s Magazine,’ 1889).
2004		J. McCourt ‘Vilja de Tanquay Exults’ in Queer Street 300: It wouldn’t occur to a single / One of them [...] to sock a girl / To a meal once in a way.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 15: I socked him a sawbuck.

5. to thrust an object.

1833		D. Crockett Sketches and Eccentricities 93: I socked my knife into the old bear.
1845		T.J. Green Journal of the Texian Expedition 321: In popped the corporal [...] with a shoemaker’s awl in his hand, and, not waiting for an explanation, ran furiously at Ike, [...] and ‘socked’ it in the thick of his back ‘smack up to the handle’.
1892		S. Crane in N.-Y. Trib. 10 July in Stallman (1966) 7: Sock that pole under the axle and we’ll h’ist ’er up.
1898		Sun (NY) 15 May 17/5: He socked a good, stiff load o’ that in his gun and come out on the front stoop.
1898		Sun (NY) 15 May 17/5: I socked a handful o’ lead in [the bear] as he was sneakin’ by my house.
1914		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 6 May 3/2: I am told we’re soon to have ’em [i.e. women] / Socked in Parliament as well.
1927		‘Oh I Met Miss Malone’ in Immortalia 3: And I laid Miss Malone on a stone; / And when I socked each stroke to her, / You could hear all the dead people moan.

6. in fig. use, to ‘hit’.

1905		A. Binstead Mop Fair 88: The speculation into which she has already heroically socked about three thousand pounds.
1914		E. Dyson Spats’ Fact’ry (1922) 24: Sweet innocence done up in pure white crepe at two-n’-eleven the piece [...] has socked him a few in her time.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 209: Burns and Tom Moore were my favourite poets. The one socked Church, State and hypocrites.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 551: I’ll be giving plenty of people who’ve been socked by the depression a chance to keep their heads a little above water.
1943		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 129: There was a young Nubian prince / Whose cock would make elephants wince. / Once, while socking the sperm / To a large pachyderm, / He slipped, and he’s not been seen since.
1959		B. Hecht Sensualists (1961) 96: He started socking himself with the junk. Mostly heroin or cocaine.
1961		H.S. Thompson letter 6 Jan. in Proud Highway (1997) 249: I [...] was called in to sock the deal home.
1975		J. Roe The Same Old Grind 22: ‘Sock ’em with the vice-[residents [...] This guy really knows his U.S. of A’.
1983		R. Price Breaks 92: I felt socked with its finality.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 204: What do you think is going to become of the Coldwater Cold Cuts now that you’ve socked their leader [...] in the Hole.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 225: The machine socked sound out of side vents.

7. (US) to give.

1906		C. M’Govern Sarjint Larry an’ Frinds 127: Socka me one Sedgwick and water. [Ibid.] 128: Caramaba! [...] what for you no socka me elong proper whisky?
1981		G. Johnston Fish Factory 73: He sought the attention of the barman. ‘Sock me with a jug, will you, Alby?’.

8. (Aus., also sock away, sock back, sock down) to drink (alcohol).

1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Nov. 28/1: After much buffeting he found himself wedged tight against the dripping counters. ‘Socking another bloke’s beer’ and ‘closing on the change’ were the main charges levelled against him.
1915		Euripides Ensign: on Board ‘Euripides’ 2 June I: Is a soldier less a soldier ’Cause he socks a pint of beer? [AND].
1932		North. Standard (Darwin, NT) 29 Jan. 2/4: When I get to Hannah I’ll bet a even tanner / That I sock the blooming boose just once again.
1937		J.M. Cain Serenade (1985) 86: I socked about a pint in the pot.
1967		B. Crump Odd Spot of Bother 96: If I had that kind of money I wouldn’t be socking back gins in a dump like this.
1967		J. Hibberd White with Wire Wheels (1973) 217: I’ll dash down to the milk bar and sock away a pint or so before I head off to the office.
1969		J. Hibberd Dimboola (1974) 23: Cheer up Reen, it’ll seem beaut tomorrow. Sock another one down.
1999		Dystonia Medical Research Foundation 🌐 I used to sock down a couple glasses of wine and be able to make it through a very short interview.
2002		J. Blanchard ‘Going Straight’ 🌐 I used to sock away some beer or better everyday, and never got fat.

9. to demand, to extort; to fine; often as sock for.

1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 19: Each one of them babies is socked for a thousand apiece.
1929		W. Winchell On Broadway 10 Dec. [synd. col.] Alfred DeLacey [...] was socked $800 and 4-months in the local gaol for peddling [...] ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’.
1929		Hostetter & Beesley It’s a Racket! 238: sock—To force someone to give up something.
1939		W. Winchell ‘On Broadway’ 11 Nov. [synd. col.] The passing of the Pari-Mutuel bills socks the phone firm for about a million or so nickels a day.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 207: When I get my bus permits through I’ll tell you how much you’ll have to fork out for the shares. I’ve told you I won’t sock you too much.
1961		B. Crump Hang On a Minute, Mate (1963) 89: They’ll get you for income tax and sock you a hundred quid right off.