Definition of "sock"

At 1331:58, UA Flight 757 reported that it was ready for takeoff on runway 35R. However, at 1332:05, 7 seconds later, it reported, "Ah, this is seven fifty seven, our sock sitting in front of us gives us a pretty good tail wind so we're not ready to go yet." The controller asked the flight to advise him when conditions were better.

1985 March 21, National Transportation Safety Board, “1.1 History of the Flight”, in Aircraft Accident Report: United Airlines Flight 663, Boeing 727-222, N7647U, Denver, Colorado, May 31, 1984‎, page 4

Whap, Biff, Ooooof, Sock, Pow, Zok! Batman is back. Gotham City is again leaving its law and order in the hands of a man who wears plastic underpants over his tights.

1989 June 5, The Canberra Times, Australia Captial Territory, page 10, column 2

"We must get the old dear out," said Lord Roxton to Malone. "He'll be had for manslaughter if we don't. What I mean, he's not responsible - he'll sock someone and be lagged for it."

1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “In which Professor Challenger Goes Forth to Battle”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019

What you should be is not yellow at all. If you're supposed to sock somebody in the jaw, and you sort of feel like doing it, you should do it.

1951, J. D. Salinger, chapter 13, in The Catcher in the Rye, Little, Brown and Company

They may let you off the first time because you're new maybe. But the second time they'll sock it to you, give you a couple of days in the Hole, then throw you in Number Two.

1951, James Jones, From Here to Eternity, Book Four

He wondered how many people were destitute that same night even in his own prosperous country, how many homes were shanties, how many husbands were drunk and wives socked, and how many children were bullied, abused or abandoned.

1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Eternal City”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, page 428

As part of ABC’s coverage of the police “blue riot” that ensued in Chicago – batons cracking student skulls – Vidal calls Buckley a “crypto-Nazi” for justifying the brutality, to which Buckley snaps: “Listen to me you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in the goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered.”

2015 August 1, Ed Vulliamy, quoting William F. Buckley Jr., “‘Don’t call me a crypto-Nazi!’ The lost heart of political debate”, in The Guardian‎

‘Say, does that sock in the jaw hurt any more? It was a dinger.’

1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 21

Sock performance on a catchy rhythm ditty with infectious tempo.

1960, Billboard magazine reviewer

In Wexford, the beam is shorter than in any of the other counties, and the sock in general is of cast iron.

D. Brewster, The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia