socking

1. 1
   verbslang

   Present participle of sock.

   The fighter kept socking his rival until the bell finally rang.

   Socking the table with his fist, he demanded silence.

   Note

   The -ing form carries both slang meanings of the verb: landing a hard blow on someone and, more loosely, throwing something. After a form of be it makes the progressive (he was socking the heavy bag); on its own it can name the act itself (socking a rival after the bell is a foul). The same spelling also serves as the British intensifier.

2. 2
   adverbUK

   Very; extremely, used to intensify an adjective, especially 'great' or 'big'.

   They charged us a socking big fee just to park the car for an hour.

   She walked in wearing a socking great diamond on her finger.

   Similarthumping, whopping

   Note

   A British intensifier that is most at home before great or big, as in Drachinifel's "socking great fireball" from 2021. It always sits directly before the adjective it boosts, and it cannot itself be graded: there is no more socking or most socking. Outside the UK the phrase socking great reads as unmistakably British.

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