soak
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: sōk
ipa: /səʊk/
enpr: sōk
ipa: /soʊk/
rhymes: -əʊk
homophone: soke
Forms: form: soaks
form: soaking
form: soaked
form: soaked
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.
Senses: examples: text: I'm going to soak in the bath for a couple of hours.
text: Their land shall be soaked with blood.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 24:7:
glosses: To be saturated with liquid by being immersed in it.
examples: text: Soak the beans overnight before cooking.
glosses: To immerse in liquid to the point of saturation or thorough permeation.
examples: text: The water soaked into my shoes and gave me wet feet.
text: The rivulet beneath […]soaked its way obscurely through wreaths of snow.
ref: 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:
glosses: To penetrate or permeate by saturation.
examples: text: A sponge soaks up water; the skin soaks in moisture.
text: I soaked up all the knowledge I could at university.
text: 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.
ref: 1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 4, in Pulling the Strings:
glosses: To allow (especially a liquid) to be absorbed; to take in, receive. (usually + up)
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1928, Upton Sinclair, Boston, New York, N.Y.: Albert & Charles Boni, page 337:
text: 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.
ref: 2015, P. J. O'Rourke, Thrown Under the Omnibus: A Reader:
text: 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.
ref: 2025 January 31, Ross Douthat, “Steve Bannon on ‘Broligarchs’ vs. Populism”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
synonyms: fleece#Verb
glosses: To overcharge or swindle out of a large amount of money.
glosses: To drink intemperately or gluttonously.
topics: engineering
metallurgy
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To heat (a metal) before shaping it.
examples: text: We should soak the kiln at cone 9 for half an hour.
topics: ceramics
chemistry
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To hold a kiln at a particular temperature for a given period of time.
examples: text: That they will want a certaine sucking and soaking
ref: 1624, Henry Wotton, The Elements of Architecture, […], London: […] Iohn Bill, →OCLC:
glosses: To absorb; to drain.
glosses: 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