sock-shop

noun

A tuck shop.

Meanings

nounsock-shop (plural sock-shops)

plural sock-shops

  1. 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
APA

sock-shop. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sock-shop

MLA

“sock-shop.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sock-shop. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

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.