Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A conclusive argument; the winding up of a debate; a settler.
- noun A knock-down or decisive blow.
- noun Something very big; a whopper.
- noun A patent fish-hook having two hooked points which close upon each other as soon as the fish bites, thus securing the fish with certainty.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Alternative form of
sockdolager .
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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He then as quick as a wink, to the amazement of the crowd, dealt the man he had first seized a sockdologer and down he went, and at the same instant the old lady arrived on the scene.
Oscar the Detective Or, Dudie Dunne, The Exquisite Detective Harlan Page Halsey
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He looked surprised indeed, but made a rush, possibly thinking there had been some mistake and he had been kicked by a mule instead of receiving the sockdologer from the effeminate-looking dude.
Oscar the Detective Or, Dudie Dunne, The Exquisite Detective Harlan Page Halsey
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Anglo-Saxon Lion, (_Leo Britannicus, _) which it has twice worsted in single combat, and to whose well-knit frame it is prepared at any moment to administer a third sockdologer.
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He had lots of books with him and every time a new sockdologer of a word come along and I learnt how to spell her and where she orter fit in to make sense it kind o 'tickled me all over.
Danny's Own Story 1912
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It's only an opinion, it's only my opinion and others may think different; but I said it then and I stand to it now -- it was a sockdologer.
Tom Sawyer Abroad 1894
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MY opinion and others may think different; but I said it then and I stand to it now -- it was a sockdologer.
Tom Sawyer Abroad Mark Twain 1872
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What a sockdologer it would have been to compare myself with the Roman emperors. "
The Art of Disappearing John Talbot Smith 1889
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I see Thomas Jefferson lookin 'out from a cloud and sayin': "Give him another sockdologer; finish him"'And I see millions of men wavin' their hats and singin '"Glory
Plunkitt of Tammany Hall: a series of very plain talks on very practical politics, delivered by ex-Senator George Washington Plunkitt, the Tammany philosopher, from his rostrum—the New York County court house bootblack stand; Recorded by William L. Riordon George Washington Plunkitt 1883
whichbe commented on the word sockdologer
The winning or conclusive blow in a fight/argument.
May 11, 2008
yarb commented on the word sockdologer
Sockdolager, I thought - a fantastic word however spelt.
May 11, 2008
grandpa27 commented on the word sockdologer
Sockdologer Plus
Sockdologer knocked my socks off when I came across it in a particularly tough article on logic(?) by Charles S. Peirce who wrote in the 1880′s.
What a world of coincidences I get into when I start to check on words. I looked up”sockdologer” to see if I could date it using Wordnik. There it was referenced to James F.Cooper in 1830. I then stumbled on to a reference to Our American Cousin marked SPAM. So I Googled Our American Cousin and here is what I found:
"The play’s most famous performance was at Ford’s Theatre in Washington City on April 14, 1865. Halfway through Act III, Scene 2, the character of Asa Trenchard, played that night by Harry Hawk, utters a line, considered one of the play’s funniest, to Mrs. Mountchessington: “Don’t know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal — you sockdologizing old man-trap.”
During the laughter that followed this line, John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer who was not in the cast of the play, fatally shot Abraham Lincoln. Familiar with the play, Booth chose this moment in the hope that the sound of the audience’s laughter would mask the sound of his gunshot. He then leapt from Lincoln’s box to the stage and made his escape through the back of the theater to a horse he had left waiting in the alley. The remainder of the play that night was suspended.8
The last words Lincoln heard “You sockdologizing old mantrap.”
November 9, 2012
fbharjo commented on the word sockdologer
also see Zander's and chained_bear's comments on sockdolager
November 9, 2012