# soak
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English soken, from Old English socian (“to soak, steep”, literally “to cause to suck (up)”), from Proto-Germanic *sukōną (“to soak”), causative of Proto-Germanic *sūkaną (“to suck”). Cognate with Middle Dutch soken (“to cause to suck”). More at suck.

### Pronunciation

* (British) enPR: sōk, IPA: /səʊk/
* (General American) enPR: sōk, IPA: /soʊk/
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Rhymes: -əʊk
* Homophone: soke

### Verb

soak (third-person singular simple present soaks, present participle soaking, simple past and past participle soaked)
* (intransitive) To be saturated with liquid by being immersed in it.
    I'm going to soak in the bath for a couple of hours.
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 24:7:Their land shall be soaked with blood.
* (transitive) To immerse in liquid to the point of saturation or thorough permeation.
    Soak the beans overnight before cooking.
* (intransitive) To penetrate or permeate by saturation.
    The water soaked into my shoes and gave me wet feet.
** 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:The rivulet beneath […] soaked its way obscurely through wreaths of snow.
* (transitive) To allow (especially a liquid) to be absorbed; to take in, receive. (usually + up)
    A sponge soaks up water; the skin soaks in moisture.
    I soaked up all the knowledge I could at university.
** 1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 4, in Pulling the Strings:The case was that of a murder. It had an element of mystery about it, however, which was puzzling the authorities. A turban and loincloth soaked in blood had been found; also a staff.
* (originally US slang, figurative, transitive) To overcharge or swindle out of a large amount of money.
    Synonym: fleece
** 1928, Upton Sinclair, Boston, New York, N.Y.: Albert & Charles Boni, page 337:It's a blackmail ring, and the district attorneys get a share of the loot. […] Well, they got him in the same kind of jam, and soaked him to the tune of three hundred and eighty-six thousand.
** 2015, P. J. O'Rourke, Thrown Under the Omnibus: A Reader:Sure, if we own an aerospace contracting company, a five-thousand-acre sugar-beet farm, or a savings and loan with the president's son on the board of directors, we can soak Uncle Sucker for millions.
** 2025 January 31, Ross Douthat, “Steve Bannon on ‘Broligarchs’ vs. Populism”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:I think you’re totally right that there is a big constituency, especially now that the party has been transformed, of Republican- and populist-leaning Republican voters who would be fine with some soaking the rich in the context of a bigger budget deal. […] Just maintaining the changes to the state and local tax deduction that was, I think, one of the genuinely populist victories of the first Trump term. And I should say, it soaked me, it soaked the upper middle class in blue states.
* (slang, dated) To drink intemperately or gluttonously.
* (metallurgy, transitive) To heat (a metal) before shaping it.
* (ceramics, transitive) To hold a kiln at a particular temperature for a given period of time.
    We should soak the kiln at cone 9 for half an hour.
* (figurative, transitive) To absorb; to drain.
** 1624, Henry Wotton, The Elements of Architecture, […], London: […] Iohn Bill, →OCLC:That they will want a certaine sucking and soaking
* (slang, chiefly Mormonism) To engage in penetrative sex without hip thrusting.

#### Derived terms

* go soak your head
* soak away, soakaway
* soak in
* soak the runner
* soak up
* water-soak

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Verb

soak (third-person singular simple present soaks, present participle soaking, simple past and past participle soaked)
* (transitive) (slang, boxing) To hit or strike.
** 1926, [P.G. Wodehouse], The Inferiority Complex of Old Sippy:Wasn't Mr. Sipperley pretty shirty when he came to and found that you had been soaking him with putters?

### Noun

soak (plural soaks)
* An immersion in water etc.
    After the strenuous climb, I had a nice long soak in a bath.
** 2020 February 25, Christopher de Bellaigue, “The end of farming?”, in The Guardian‎:wildlife tourism has turned Knepp into a successful business that employs more people than it did when it was a farm. Springtime overnighters snuggling down in a luxury treehouse after a soak in the open-air, wood-fired Swedish Hikki bathtub may hear nightingales serenading their consorts
* (slang, British) A drunkard.
    Synonyms: alcoholic, souse, suck-pint; see also Thesaurus:drunkard
* (slang) A carouse; a drinking session.
* (Australia) A low-lying depression that fills with water after rain.
** 1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber & Faber, published 2003, page 38:I set off early to walk along the Melbourne Road where, one of the punters had told me, there was a soak with plenty of frogs in it.
** 1996, Doris Pinkington, “Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence”, in Heiss, Minter, editors, Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature, Allen & Unwin, published 2008, page 170:Molly and Daisy finished their breakfast and decided to take all their dirty clothes and wash them in the soak further down the river.

#### Derived terms

* soak test

#### Translations
### References

* ↑ Katie Davis (2021 October 1) “What is soaking? Meaning explained”, in The U.S. Sun‎

### Further reading

* “soak v.$^1$ (to drink)”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present
* “soak v.$^2$ (to hit, overcharge)”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present

### Anagrams

* Kosa, koas, oaks, okas

## Indonesian
### Etymology

From Dutch zwak (“weak”), from Middle Dutch swac, from Old Dutch *swak, from Proto-West Germanic *swak.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈsoaʔ]
* Hyphenation: so‧ak

### Adjective

soak
* (colloquial) weak
    Synonym: lemah

### Further reading

* “soak” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.