Also 6–7, 9 dial., soke. [f. the vb.]
1. a. The condition or process of being or becoming soaked; a spell of soaking. Chiefly in the phr. in soak: cf. A-SOAK adv.
1598. Florio, Abombare,… to steepe or lay in soke.
1687. Miége, Gt. Fr. Dict., II. s.v. Soke, You need give it but one good Soke.
1771. Luckombe, Hist. Print., 350. He also lays the Ball Leathers in soak to supple them.
1787. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), II. 283. I am not without hopes that a good rod is in soak for Prussia.
1887. T. E. Brown, Doctor, 47–8. Fixin The die, very slow in the soak, mind you! But takin the colour through and through!
b. A liquid used for maceration; a steep.
1849. R. L. Allen, Amer. Farm Book, ii. 48. As a soak or steep for seeds … there is no doubt of their possessing some value.
c. A vat in which hides are macerated.
1876. trans. Schultz’ Leather Manuf., 17. Before any portion is put into the soaks.
1897. C. T. Davis, Manuf. Leather (ed. 2), vi. 80. Dry salted hides, kips, etc.,… are generally put into a pit of water kept for the purpose, called a soak.
d. A heavy saturating rain.
1891. Daily News, 20 Aug., 5/1. The long steady soak that finds out the weak spot … in canvas.
2. A percolation of water; water that has oozed through or out of the ground, strata, etc.
1707. Mortimer, Husb. (1721), II. 191. In dry Ground that is not annoyed with any Spring or soak of Water.
1821. Cobbett, Rural Rides (1885), I. 4. A sort of river;… the water proceeding from the soak of the higher ground on both sides.
1838. Simms, Public Wks. Gt. Brit., 19. Springs, soaks, or streams of water.
1883. Specif. Alnwick & Cornhill Rlwy., 22. Wherever springs, soaks, or streams appear and issue from the face of the slopes.
b. spec. in Lincolnshire. (Cf. SOCK sb.3 2.) Also attrib.
1799. [A. Young], Agric. Linc., 15. The sock or soak among the silt is sometimes brackish. Ibid., 235. Through all the fens of Lincolnshire we hear much of the soak,… the subterranean water which is found … usually but a very few feet below the surface.
1807. Britton, Lincolnshire, 557. The sea water…, unable to pass by the drains, rises on the surface, and is known by the name of soak.
1851. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XII. I. 285. Upon digging down into the sharp silt the soak oozes from the side of the hole.
c. dial. A piece of marshy, swampy ground.
1839. Sir G. C. Lewis, Gloss. Heref., s.v., A ‘green soak,’ or ‘a warm soak,’ is a small spot of marshy ground in which a spring rises.
1849. J. Lloyd, Eng. Country Gentleman, 6.
| Or where the soak its emerald fringe displays | |
| His broad wings flap amid the glistening sprays. |
1851. Sternberg, Northampt. Dial., Soke, a patch of marshy land.
d. Austr. A depression holding moisture after rain; a damp spot where water may be obtained.
1894. Westm. Gaz., 30 Oct., 4/2. A prospecting party comes along to one of the clay-pans or soaks.
1899. Times, 24 Feb., 13/1. The rock holes and soaks on which the lives of themselves and their animals depended.
3. A heavy drinker; a tippler.
1820. Clare, Poems Rural Life (ed. 3), 93. And hearty soaks oft hand the bottle round.
1889. Lisbon (Dakota) Star, 15 Feb., 2/5. I think I’ll corral a lot of chronic old soaks,… and experiment with them.
4. A prolonged draught or drinking-bout.
1851. Sternberg, Northampt. Dial., Soke,… a long draught. ‘A good soke.’
1855. C. G. Parsons, Inside View Slavery, iv. 51. When the Southron intends to have a ‘soak,’ he takes the bottle to his bed-side, goes to bed, and lies there till he gets drunk and becomes sober, and then he gets up.
