1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 107. The gentlemen of the sock and buskin are not on the best possible terms with the church. Ibid., 190. My kindred of the sock and buskin. Ibid., 249. I knew perfectly that my sister of the sock and buskin had entrapped this nobleman.
1817. Byron, Beppo, xxxi. He was a critic upon operas, too, And knew all niceties of the sock and buskin.
Verb. (old).—1. To beat; to drub (B. E.); to press hardly: also as subs.: e.g., 'sock it him' or 'Give him sock (or socks)' = 'Pitch into him, dress him down.' Whence socker = a heavy blow. Also 2 (American) = to smash a hat over head and ears, to bonnet (q.v.). [Cf. (provincial) sock = to strike hard.]
1890. Kipling, The Oont (Scots Observer]. We socks him with a stretcher-pole, and 'eads him off in front. Ibid., "C.B." Drunk and resistin' the guard; 'Strewth! but I socked at 'em 'ard.
1897. Marshall, Pomes, 87. He sock'd her in the eye at times, and stars she'd often view.
1898. Illust. Bits, Xmas No., 50. Then Maudie . . . jumps across the floor, And ketches me a . . . rousin' socker on the jore.
1903. D. Tel., 19 Jan. 'Police Report.' Then, said the witness, occurred the most dreadful socking he had ever seen in the course of a long experience of street rows. It was literally a case of 'fur and feathers flying'—the hair was torn . . . in handfuls from the scalp.
2. (Winchester).—To hit hard: spec. at cricket. Also to defeat.
3. (old).—To sew up.
1584. R. Scot, Disc. of Witchcraft [N. and Q., 6 S., xi. 268]. Needels wherewith dead bodies are sowne or sockt into their sheets.
1604. Middleton, Witch, i. 2. The same needles thrust into their pillows That sews and socks up dead men in their sheets.
Sockdologer (Socdologer,
Stockdologer, Slogdologer,
or Sogdologer), subs. (American).—1.
Anything overwhelming
or exceptional: from a repartee
to an earthquake: generic.
Also as verb. [Cf. sock.]
18[?]. Crockett, Bear Hunt [Bartlett]. . . . I gave the fellow a socdolager over his head with the barrel of my gun.
1862. Punch, Aug., 'Jonathan's Appeal to Sambo.' Up, niggers! slash, smash, sack, and smite, slogdollagize, and slay 'em.
1883. Lowell, To Mr. John Bartlett [who had sent a 7-lb. trout]. Fit for an Abbot Theleme . . . He lies there, the sogdologer!
1884. Clemens, Huck. Finn. The thunder would go rumbling and grumbling away, and quit—and then rip comes another flash and another sockdologer.
Socker, subs. (common).—1. A
fool, sloven, or lout: a general
term of contempt. Also sockie
and sockhead.
1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 4. The rabble then began to swear, What the old socker said was fair.
2. (originally Harrow: now general).—Association Football: cf. rugger. Also soccer.
1896. Tonbridgian, 339. Hartley has been playing very well this season, and has also become a great half-back at socker.
1897. Felstedian, Nov. 194. In soccer, with old Blues up, we ought to be very strong.
1902. Pall Mall Gaz., 2 Jan., 9, 2. The article, which deals with both forms of the English game—soccer and rugger—proves to the hilt, &c.
Socket, subs. (venery).—The female
pudendum: see Monosyllable.
See Socket-money.
1621. Jonson, Masque of Gypsies [Gifford, Works, iii. 144]. And sounding the sockets Of simper-the-cockets.
c. 1650. Brathwayte, Barnaby's Jo. (1723), 93. Her I caught by you know what-a, Having boldly thus adventur'd, And my Sara's socket entered.
Burnt to the socket, phr. (old).—Dying (Ray).
