Put a sock in it
Suggest a CorrectionMeaning
A blunt demand to shut up or stop making noise, stuffing chatter like a sock jams a gap-crude but effective.
Origin
From early 20th-century Britain, tied to gramophones; socks muffled their horns when neighbors griped, slang by 1919 for silencing. A 1925 soldier's memoir uses it to hush a mate. It echoes Victorian 'put a lid on it,' but socks added a homely twist, growing into a brusque idiom of quiet in a noisy age.
Variants
- Put in a sock
Usage Examples
- Put a sock in it; I can't hear myself think!
- He wouldn't stop, so she told him to put a sock in it.
- Put a sock in it, kids; the movie's starting!
Browse More