Green’s Dictionary of Slang

sock n.2

[sock v.1 (1)]

1. a blow.

[UK]B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Tip, Tip the Culls a Sock, for they are sawcy, Knock down the Men for resisting.
[UK]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.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Zoc, or soc, a blow.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
[US]D. Hammett ‘Corkscrew’ Story Omnibus (1966) 217: He got away [...] and shook me up with a sock on the jaw.
[UK]M. Allingham Mystery Mile (1982) 330: I ain’t ’ad ’arf a sock on the ’ead.
[US]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?
[UK]Magic Comic 16 Sept. n.p.: Watch out, bad lad! You’re in for socks.
[US]I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 36: He didn’t even get a sock in.
[US]Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 8: She tried to take a sock at Mortimer.
[US]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.
[UK]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.

[US]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.

[UK]Gem 6 Feb. 26: That battery up there has been givin’ us socks!
[UK]Marvel 1 Mar. 6: I thought if I could borrow the stuff and we made up as fruity Zanitis we might give Dimcox socks.
[NZ]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’.

[US]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.
[US]W.R. Burnett Widow Barony 47: The ‘Granada’ number came off with a certain rather pleasant dignity—but no sock. But when she got to ‘Rum Boogie’—wow!

5. in show business, a success.

[US]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.
[US]J.H. O’Hara Pal Joey 65: I was a sock the last 2 rooms I worked.
[US]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.

[US]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.

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

In phrases

give someone sock(s) (v.)

to beat (someone).

[UK]Hotten Sl. Dict. 240: ‘Give him sock,’ i.e., thrash him well.
[UK]W.S. Maugham Liza of Lambeth (1966) 103: Your missus – she says she’s goin’ ter give me socks if she catches me.
[UK]Sporting Times 24 Mar. 1/1: Now that our troops have given the Dutch socks, might not the War Office give them boots?
[UK]Magnet 10 Sept. 13: By George, I’ll give ’em socks!
[UK]P. MacGill The Great Push 107: Come on! Come out of it! We’ll give the swine socks!
[UK]Marvel 3 Mar. 5: Lam him! Give him socks!
give something socks (v.)

(Irish) to commit oneself, to do something enthusiastically.

[Ire]L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 180: For an athletic fella he had shocking rhythm but that didn’t stop him giving it socks on the dance floor.