Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) to hit.

1886		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 19 June 14/2: It cost the Philadelphia Club ten dollars for a glass he broke in a private residence recently, when he soaked the ball for a home run.
1892		F.P. Dunne in Schaaf Mr Dooley’s Chicago (1977) 45: The worst he ever got was some friend of McElliott’s soaking him with a brick.
1894		Mirror of Life 17 Mar. 15/2: [US speaker] ‘Soak ’er one in th’ smeller’.
1903		‘Hugh McHugh’ I Need The Money 55: Vy doan’d dem burgugulars make a cameing so I soak dem mit dis egg-slapper!
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 3 Feb. 6/3: When [...] soaked an awful right round on the kidney, it looked 10 to 1 on him.
1913		Van Loan ‘“Butterfly” Boggs: Pitcher’ in Lucky Seventh (2004) 243: He got into a jam in North Platte, and somebody soaked a constable.
1919		Bud Fisher ‘Mutt and Jeff’ [comic strip] Gee, it’s great to be a six-footer. I feel like soaking every guy I meet!
1927		W. Edge Main Stem 94: I soaked him so damn’ hard he can’t walk.
1930		E. Caldwell Poor Fool 29: He got soaked the last two or three times.
1942		N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 109: Come on now! There! Soak him!

2. (US) in fig. use, to give, to punish, to criticize.

1892		W. Norr Stories of Chinatown 51: It was a clear case against me, and I got soaked for fourteen years and two months.
1907		J. London Road 165: I had just come out of jail [...] and I knew that if the police ‘pinched’ me again, I’d get good and ‘soaked.’.
1912		Ade Knocking the Neighbors 196: We have rounded up a tough bunch of Ginks. [...] I shall ask your Honor to Soak them good and proper.
1921		(con. WWI) N&Q 12 Ser. IX 417: What of the man who had been ‘soaked’ for a fatigue, but who by ‘working his head’ had managed to ‘touch out’ for ‘a soft job’.
1923		Joe Hill ‘The Portland County Jail’ in Anderson Hobo 211: I had no money to pay my fine, / No friends to go my bail, / So I got soaked for ninety days / In the Portland County Jail.
1927		(con. 1918) J. Stevens Mattock 248: We’ll soak you for fair.
1935		D. Lamson We Who Are About to Die 137: They can’t soak you with a prison sentence for a county-jail offence.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 201/2: Soak, v. 1. (Rare) To sentence to prison or county jail. 2. To sentence to an excessive term in prison.

3. (orig. US) to overcharge or charge a high price, to tax heavily, to extort money from, to cheat; thus soaking n.; soak on v., to increase a price.

1889		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 30 Nov. 7/1: [T]hey might have been two or three thousand dollars richer if they had soaked the players with fines .
1895		N.Y. Dramatic News 23 Nov. 2/2: This little scheme sometimes [...] enables the photographer to ‘soak’ them [DA].
1899		Wkly Messenger (St Martinsville, LA) 5 Aug. 1/3: It was a put-up job to soak me .
1900		Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 122: He soaked the Colonel for $32.75 in Fines and Costs.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 38: They ain’t got any right to git any franchise that soaks the citizens of New York City five cents for every telephone call.
1915		S. Ford Shorty McCabe on the Job 97: Didn’t we soak the price on when that Moulin Rouge guy came after us, though?
1920		A. Baer [no title] 10 Aug. [synd. col.] On the Fourth of July the heirs of Jesse James soaked the poor two bills a throw.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 40: She would be jolly well advised [...] to soak you for substantial damages.
1934		L. Berg Prison Nurse (1964) 95: What are you soaking them for rye?
1947		T. Thursday ‘Sing Sing Sweeney’ in Crack Detective Jan. 🌐 Seven Sure Systems for Soaking Suckers.
1953		R. Prather ‘Double Take’ in Best of Manhunt (2019) [ebook] ‘It cost me fifty dollars.’ ‘Sure. That made the con more realistic. You’d have thought it was funny if you weren’t soaked a little for the job’.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 67: A woman who fears she is going to be soaked for another couple of bob.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 115: I had been dying to give them a good soaking for years.
1969		R. Rendell Best Man To Die (1981) 161: No one would have been any the wiser if Hatton hadn’t been greedy and started soaking Jay.
1975		F.A. Cleary A Pocketful of Years 37: With Lizzie and the girls soaking him dry for new outfits and things he hasn’t a cent to bless himself with.
1986		S. King It (1987) 238: Mrs Kaspbrak, Mr Keene knew, was one of those people who believed nothing cheap could do a person much good. He could really have soaked her for her son’s HydOx Mist.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak 131: Soak – to obtain a quantity of money from a victim.

4. (orig. US) to win money from; thus in passive, to be beaten, to lose.

1896		H. Blossom Checkers 45: We might get soaked in doubling up before we win.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 236: I had soaked ’em for $5,200 up to that third day before the [race] meeting closed.
1902		C.L. Cullen More Ex-Tank Tales 57: Senator Ed Wolcott had soaked one of the Long Branch faro banks to the tune of $25,000.
1956		J. Curtis Look Long Upon a Monkey 43: Now we can go and soak the bookies for our money.

5. to cheat in non-financial contexts.

1908

Chicago Journal 26 May in Fleming Unforgettable Season (1981) 77: The umpiring was hideous. Both teams were well soaked, umpirical errors being pretty evenly divided.

6. (UK black/gang) to shoot or stab, i.e. to soak with blood.

2018		Unknown T ‘Mad about Bars’ 🎵 Had a dot-dot up in the cab, got Polkas in bags / We soak him and dash.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 131: These brers [...] keep tryna soak me up with zombie knives [ibid.] 227: [M]andem can’t really tell you’re on soaking people up.