sock it to them
sock it to (one)
1. To attack or compete against someone in a very strong or forceful manner. Wow, Jim really socked it to that guy. I didn't know he was that tough! Sock it to them, guys! I know you can beat them!
2. By extension, to deliver news or information to someone that will have a very large impact or effect. A: "I don't think you're going to like these financial results." B: "Sock it to me, I'm ready."
See also: sock
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
sock it to them
Give them all you’ve got; strike the final blow. This expression dates from Mark Twain’s day, and indeed he used it in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889). The Yankee (narrator) is describing an argument over comparative prices and salary and says, “I prepared, now, to sock it to him. I said: ‘Look here, dear friend, what’s become of your high wages you were bragging about?’” Although old, the term did not gain wide currency until the 1960s, when a version of it appeared on a popular television show, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. Put as sock it to me!, it apparently came from jazz slang and meant “liven things up.” The speaker then encountered a bucket of water over the head, a blow, or some similar attack. Incidentally, the colloquial verb to sock, meaning to strike, dates from about 1700, and its ultimate origin has been lost.
See also: sock
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- sock it to
- sock it to (one)
- Sock it to me!
- sock it to somebody
- sock it to someone
- sock
- sock (someone) one
- knock someone’s socks off
- socked
- push against