Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A hand puppet made from a sock.
  • noun Computers A pseudonymous online identity adopted to further the user's real-life interests or to agree with sentiments the user has already expressed online.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A simple puppet made from a sock placed over the hand of the puppeteer.
  • noun A person being completely controlled by another.
  • noun Internet, neologism A pseudonym used by someone to distance themselves from their actions, especially to talk about themselves in the guise of a neutral observer

Etymologies

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Examples

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  • "A sock puppet is an additional username used by a Wikipedian who edits under more than one name." 02/21/07 via kottke.org from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Sock_puppetry

    February 22, 2007

  • Don't you hate that?

    February 22, 2007

  • Hey screendoor: Foo, you sock puppet.

    February 22, 2007

  • (noun) Blogger subsidized by a political campaign; Someone who repeats talking points.

    May 11, 2008

  • "The retailer (Amazon), like other sites that depend on customer reviews, has been faced with the problem of so-called sock puppets, those people secretly commissioned by an author to produce favorable notices." - New York Times, Article: "Swarming a Book Online" by David Streitfeld, January 20, 2013.

    January 24, 2013

  • On Reddit, if you use an alternate account to upvote your comments on your main account, or to support the arguments made by your main account, that alternate account is called a sock puppet.

    May 4, 2018