Definitions

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

  • noun A conclusive blow or remark.
  • noun Something outstanding.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Slang, U.S. That which finishes or ends a matter; a settler; a poser, as a heavy blow, a conclusive answer, and the like.
  • noun (Angling), United States A combination of two hooks which close upon each other, by means of a spring, as soon as the fish bites.
  • noun Slang, U. S. Something unusually large.

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

  • noun a hard hit, a knockout or finishing blow
  • noun something exceptional
  • noun US, fishing A combination of two hooks which close upon each other, by means of a spring, as soon as the fish bites.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Uncertain. However:

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Examples

  • A "sockdolager" is something that settles a matter, as with a decisive blow; it also means something that is extraordinary.

    The State Journal-Register Home RSS 2009

  • Selya loves ten-cent words (Law Blog, adjusting for inflation, calls them five-dollar words), and has managed to work doozies like philotheoparoptesism, repastinate, sockdolager, and thaumaturgical, among others, into his opinions.

    Judge Selya, we salute you 2008

  • This sockdolager of a word has an unusual claim to fame in the US history.

    The missing booms: the best laid schemes o’ government an’ men… 2010

  • Selya loves ten-cent words (Law Blog, adjusting for inflation, calls them five-dollar words), and has managed to work doozies like philotheoparoptesism, repastinate, sockdolager, and thaumaturgical, among others, into his opinions.

    Archive 2008-02-01 2008

  • Selya loves ten-cent words (Law Blog, adjusting for inflation, calls them five-dollar words), and has managed to work doozies like philotheoparoptesism, repastinate, sockdolager, and thaumaturgical, among others, into his opinions.

    Judge Selya, we salute you 2008

  • H-WHACK! — bum! bum! bumble-umble-um-bum-bum-bum-bum — and the thunder would go rumbling and grumbling away, and quit — and then RIP comes another flash and another sockdolager.

    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 2003

  • Sockdolager originally meant just a strong blow, like i-- ` That was a sockdolager of a punch you landed on me, 'or,

    America In So Many Words 1998

  • Now the author of that particular play was an Englishman and he knew that sockdolager was an

    America In So Many Words 1998

  • Well, that was quite a sockdolager for Pat, but Pat was was a very resourceful Gael, and he looked at this fellow very suspiciously, and he says, You ask me where it is?

    Some Reflections on the War 1924

  • I'd land you a sockdolager on the muzzle that ud lay you out till

    The Magic Pudding Being the Adventures of Bunyip Bluegum and His Friends Bill Barnacle & Sam Sawnoff Norman Lindsay 1924

Comments

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  • VARIANT FORMS: also sock·dol·o·ger

    NOUN: Slang 1. A conclusive blow or remark. 2. Something outstanding.

    ETYMOLOGY: Origin unknown.

    March 28, 2007

  • several other definitions include:

    1. a decisive or conclusive reply in an argument or debate, as one that settles a matter, like when your Mom says, "Case closed!"

    2. a combination of two hooks that close on each other when a fish bites the hook.

    3. any unusually large object.

    February 5, 2008

  • Is this related to "sockdologizing old man-trap" as in the play "Our American Cousin"?

    February 5, 2008

  • Hey, c_b, you're back from your Wordie holiday. Good to see you again :-)

    February 5, 2008

  • Oh dude, I am so pissed off at being kept away from Wordie!! *pouts*

    February 5, 2008

  • A few Wordies were arranging a search party, c_b.

    February 5, 2008

  • Well, that's just tits.

    (Note: See vitamin h. Thanks adoarns!)

    February 5, 2008

  • I love that you love that expression. Almost makes me wish I could carry it off.

    February 5, 2008

  • Oh, but I'm sure you can, jennarenn, here in Wordieville. :-)

    February 5, 2008

  • cf doxology

    June 19, 2008

  • sockdolager rapids word in motion

    January 30, 2009

  • M notes it was difficult to have the sockdolager but when it happened, it happened

    February 1, 2009

  • What happened to J, M?

    February 2, 2009

  • Answers.com sez:Origin: 1827

    Entering the vocabulary by at least 1827, sockdolager was already well enough established in American slang to be included in a glossary published in the Virginia Literary Museum on January 6, 1830: "'sockdolager,' 'a decisive blow'--one, in the slang language, 'capable of setting a man thinking.'" It also could mean something or someone big. "There is but one 'sogdollager' in the universe," James Fenimore Cooper wrote in 1838, "and that is in Lake Oswego."

    Sockdolager was just one of the outrageous ten-dollar words coined early in the nineteenth century that sprang from the exuberance of the expanding new country. Others were absquatulate for "depart," callithumpian for "a noisy parade," hornswoggle for "cheat," and other s-words like slumgullion for "something disgusting," snollygoster for "a political jobseeker," and slangwhanger for "a partisan speechmaker," as well as skedaddle and SHINDIG (1857), which both survive today.

    On April 14, 1865, sockdolager was a key word in a tragic moment of American history. The Englishman Tom Taylor used it in his comedy, Our American Cousin, to Americanize the play's hero when he spoke the line that got the most laughs: "Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, you sockdologizing old man-trap." As the audience roared, John Wilkes Booth pulled the trigger. Those were the last words President Abraham Lincoln ever heard.

    August 2, 2009

  • Sockdolager would have to be a humorous corruption of DOXOLOGY, one meaning of which refers to an expression which forms the final statement in a Christian prayer, such as "glory be to the father, and to the son . . ", or "as it was in the beginning, is now . . " etc. So, it means 'the last word', the words after which no more words are said and by extension, the conclusive deed.

    February 3, 2016