slang. [Of obscure origin.]
1. trans. a. To beat, strike hard, hit.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Sock, to Beat…. I’ll Sock ye, I’ll Drub ye tightly.
1890. Kipling, Barrack-room Ball., Oonts, 15. We socks ’im with a stretcher-pole.
1896. Newnham-Davis, Three Men & a God, 30. ‘Sock ’em, Blackie!’ said W. Smith. ‘Sock the swine!’ echoed his brother.
b. U.S. (See quot.)
1848. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., 320. To Sock. To press by a hard blow a man’s hat over his head and face. Used in Rhode Island.
c. To drive or strike into something; to ‘give it’ to one.
1892. Kipling, Barrack-room Ball., Cells, 30. ’Strewth, but I socked it them hard!
1898. Westm. Gaz., 19 Nov., 2/1. I wouldn’t have had those fangs socked into me for all the gold mines in these United States.
1901. I. Bacheller, in Century Mag., May, 124/1. We shall sock it to them, we shall indeed.
2. intr. To strike out, deliver blows; to pitch into one.
1856. Syd. Dobell, Lyrics in War Time, Orphan’s Song, 188. I scolded, and I socked, But it minded not a whit.
1864. Slang Dict., 240. ‘Sock into him,’ i.e., give him a good drubbing.
