[f. SOAK v.]
1. The action of the vb. in various senses.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 463/2. Sokynge, or longe lyynge in lycure, infusio, inbibitura.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 442. These beautifull shapes … not consuming by the soaking of sicknesse.
1611. Cotgr., Tremprement, a … steeping, soaking.
1683. Tryon, Way to Health, 288. This soaking so long in your Bed, weakens all the Members.
1722. De Foe, Col. Jack, ii. If we were catched, we run the risk of being ducked or pumped, which we call soaking.
1770. H. St. John, in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1844), III. 3. The servants were half dead with the soaking and fatigue.
1810. Sporting Mag., XXXV. 307. The company got a complete soaking from the inclemency of the weather.
1881. Abney, Photogr., 122. Long soaking of the … emulsion is greatly detrimental.
b. pl. Liquid that has soaked through.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 39. By pumping back the soakings the soluble salts are preserved.
2. In iron-working: A special process by which the heat of an ingot is equally distributed through the mass, in order to fit it for rolling.
1884. W. H. Greenwood, Steel & Iron, 383. Comparatively little heat escapes during the process of soaking.
3. attrib., as (sense 1) soaking solution, tub, vat; (sense 2) soaking operation, pit; † soaking club, a drinking club.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxi. § 35. The tickling of his palate with a glass of wine, or the idle chat of a soaking club.
1853. Nicholson’s Operat. Mech. (ed. 4), 408. Other trays … are to be piled or placed upon this,… until the soaking-tubs or boilers are sufficiently filled.
1882. Gjers, in Iron & Steel Institute, 568. During the soaking operation, a quantity of gas exudes from the ingot. Ibid. Some of this heat … is lost by radiation before the ingot enters into the soaking pit.
1886. C. Scott, Sheep-Farming, 134. For this purpose a soaking vat has to be put up.
1890. Anthony’s Photogr. Bulletin, III. 29. The second amendment relates to the soaking solution.
