Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a blow.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Tip, Tip the Culls a Sock, for they are sawcy, Knock down the Men for resisting.
1747		Life and Character of Moll King 12: My Blos has nailed me of mine [handkerchief]; but I shall catch her at Maddox’s Gin-Ken [...] and if she has morric’d it, Knocks and Socks, Thumps and Pumps, shall attend the Froe-File Buttocking B---h.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Zoc, or soc, a blow.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1925		D. Hammett ‘Corkscrew’ Story Omnibus (1966) 217: He got away [...] and shook me up with a sock on the jaw.
1930		M. Allingham Mystery Mile (1982) 330: I ain’t ’ad ’arf a sock on the ’ead.
1935		N. Algren ‘A Place to Lie Down’ in Texas Stories (1995) 64: He jest wanted a sock — an’ ain’t that jest what I given him?
1939		Magic Comic 16 Sept. n.p.: Watch out, bad lad! You’re in for socks.
1947		I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 36: He didn’t even get a sock in.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 8: She tried to take a sock at Mortimer.
1962		C. Clausen I Love You Honey, But the Season’s Over 101: Dempsey took a sock at a fitter who told her that her hips were too big.
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 93: How would you like a sock on the jaw, what?

2. attrib. use of sense 1, pertaining to fighting.

1929

R.H.H. Nichols ‘Sinbad the Sailor’ in Fight Stories Jan. 🌐 Then he developed a sock appeal that [...] made him the champion of the Great Lakes.

3. a shock.

1909		Gem 6 Feb. 26: That battery up there has been givin’ us socks!
1919		Marvel 1 Mar. 6: I thought if I could borrow the stuff and we made up as fruity Zanitis we might give Dimcox socks.
1929		N.Z. Truth 14 Nov. 6/5: Our girls don’t mind a bit if we give ’em socks.

4. (US) a thrill, excitement, a ‘kick’.

1939

W. Winchell On Broadway 3 Sept. [synd. col.] Lots of those books by foreign correspondents have been robbed of their sock by the Soviet-Nazi nuptials.

5. in show business, a success.

1930		J.P. McEvoy Hollywood Girl 30: You can see it’s got a lot of good commercial things in it. Part of My Man which was a big sock.
1940		J.H. O’Hara Pal Joey 65: I was a sock the last 2 rooms I worked.
1951		J. Reach My Friend Irma I i: Are you kidding? When I got a sock, a smasheroo like this on my hands?

6. (US) marijuana, a marijuana cigarette.

1958

H. Ellison Web of the City (1983) 37: Rusty picked up the dark cigarette [...] ‘Pyeew . . . how much?’ Fish held up one finger [...] A buck or no sock.

7. (Aus. juv.) a cane.

1980

M. Williams Dingo! 34: My mind was filled with fear of the cane — the sock we called it.