"Put a Sock In It" Idiom Meaning, Origin & History | Superduper English Idioms
Channel: Superduper English Idioms
Date: 31/07/2020

0:00 - How to Say, “Put a sock in it.”
0:15 - Examples of “Put a sock in it.”
0:51 - Meaning of “Put a sock in it.”
1:35 - Origin of “Put a sock in it.”
2:55 - More Examples of “Put a sock in it.”
3:35 - Conclusion

“Put a sock in it.”

You might have heard someone tell others to be quiet by saying, “Put a sock in it!”

“You kids are being too loud! Put a sock in it!” you might hear a parent yell at their children.

Maybe one of your siblings is playing loud music, “I’m trying to study, put a sock in it!”

“This is a library, you two; put a sock in it!” the librarian might tell two students whom are chatting loudly.

Yes, as funny as it sounds, the idiom, “put a sock in it,” means that you are telling someone to be quiet, but not exactly in a polite way.

Stuffing a sock into someone’s mouth would most definitely cause them to be quiet.

You could even imagine being woken up by loud snoring, then grabbing a nearby sock and stuffing it into the snorer’s mouth to quiet them.

Some sources posit that “put a sock in it” originates from the days of the gramophone or phonograph, the precursors to record players, which were popular at the turn of the 20th century.

Gramophones did not have volume controls, but had big amplification horns on them…

… into which you could put a sock, or other soft item, to muffle the music and create a quieter playback experience.

There are even accounts that the idiom originates with the military, whose servicemen are awoken every morning by the playing of a bugle.

Servicemen might yell, “Put a sock in it!” if they desired to continue sleeping or perhaps were already awake and were joking around with the bugle player.

“Put a sock in it! I can hear you from the kitchen,” you might yell at a roommate that’s in his room doing who knows what.

Maybe your kids are arguing with each other, “Put a sock in it! Learn to play nicely, or I’ll take away your video games.”

“Put a sock in it!” someone might yell at a passing car that is playing obnoxiously loud music on a residential street.

So, whenever you want to tell someone in a not-so-nice way to be quiet, to turn the volume down, or to shut up, just yell, “Put a sock in it!”

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