put a sock in it

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Possibly from a crude means of muffling a record player's speaker.

Pronunciation

  • (file)

Verb

put a sock in it (third-person singular simple present puts a sock in it, present participle putting a sock in it, simple past and past participle put a sock in it)

  1. (figuratively, informal, humorous, idiomatic) To stop talking; to be quiet; to shut one's mouth.
    He went on and on until I finally told him to put a sock in it.
    • 1943 September and October, T. Lovatt Williams, “Some Reminiscences of the Footplate—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 271:
      I found out from his mate that he was a Longfellow fan, and the fireman complained bitterly that, not being poetically inclined himself, he often wished that Alfred would "put a sock in it."

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