socket

To place or fit in a socket.

Noun

  1. Any of various concave objects (or portions of larger objects) that envelop a counterpart object.
    • Near-synonyms: jack, outlet, receptacle, wall socket
    • Each seat must have a 230V socket, a USB socket, a coat hook, reading light and cup holder. - 2021 December 29, “Network News: HS2 rolling stock”, in RAIL, number 947, page 7:

    Synonyms: jack outlet receptacle wall socket

    1. (electricity) An opening into which a plug or other connecting part is designed to fit (e.g. a light bulb socket).

    2. (anatomy) A hollow into a bone which a part fits, such as an eye, or another bone, in the case of a joint.

    3. The socket head for a socket wrench.

    4. A hollow tool for grasping and lifting tools dropped in a well-boring.

    5. The hollow of a candlestick.

      • Chriſt calls his Miniſters, Lux Mundi, the light of the World, Matth. 5. 14. therefore they must be alwayes giving forth their luſtre; their light must not go out till it be in the ſocket or till violent death as an...
      • The candle burned to its socket, the fire went out, the night air grew heavy with silence, before Herbert lay down. - 1856, L. S. Lavenu, chapter XXXIII, in Erlesmere; or, Contrasts of Character, volume 1, London:...
  2. One endpoint of a two-way communication link, used for interprocess communication across a network.

    Synonyms: network socket

  3. One endpoint of a two-way named pipe on Unix and Unix-like systems, used for interprocess communication.
  4. A steel apparatus attached to a saddle to protect the thighs and legs.

Origin

From Middle English socket, soket, from Anglo-Norman soket (“spearhead”), diminutive of Old French soc (“plowshare”), from Vulgar Latin *soccus, a word borrowed from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *sukkos (compare modern Welsh swch (“plowshare”)), literally "pig's snout", from Proto-Indo-European *suH-.

Forms

sockets

Related

WebSocket

Derived

alveolar socket ball-and-socket joint cock socket cock-socket cocksocket eye-socket multisocket pole-socket resocket socket bolt socketless socket lichen socketlike socket pipe socket pole socketry socketwood socket wrench tube socket unsocket whipsocket Winsock

Verb

  1. To place or fit in a socket.
    • Her head and trunk were carved out of, or rather into, the bole of a great red cedar. She seemed to be part of the tree itself, as if she had grown there at its heart, and the carver had only chipped away the outer wood...

Forms

sockets socketing socketed