Meanings
plural sock-shops
- slangEton CollegeA tuck shop.
No wonder that the old Etonian's heart still warms when he catches sight of the walls of College […] Windsor Bridge, Mother Tolliday, […] the "ticks-up-town," the sock-shop, the triumphs on the water, won with sculls and oar […]
1900, George John Whyte-Melville, Sir Herbert Maxwell, The Works of G. J. Whyte-Melville (volume 14, page 2)
Origin
Hotten's Slang Dictionary gives sock as "the Eton College term for a treat […] believed to be derived from the monkish word soke."
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
sock-shop. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sock-shop
“sock-shop.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sock-shop. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sock-shop,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sock-shop.
Source: sock-shop on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.