public. Others talk about private mat-
ters like social diseases till you’re sick to
death of it.socktv. to punch someone or something.
Wally was so mad, he tried to sock Paul.
He socked the door with his fist and be-
gan to howl with pain.
sockedmod. alcohol intoxicated. I don’t
know what was in that punch, but I was
socked. She got socked out of her mind.
socked inmod. fogged in. The airport
was completely socked in. We couldn’t
take off because we were socked in.
sock hopn. a dance party where everyone
dances in stocking feet. (From the
1950s.) My mother told us about a sock
hop she went to. It doesn’t sound like fun
at all. Sock hops were popular in schools
that had new and expensive f loors in their
gymnasiums.
Sock it to me!exclam. Come on, let me
have it! (Refers to bad news.) Come on!
I can take it. Sock it to me! Sock it to me,
man. I’m ready.
sofa spud[“sof@ “sp@d] n. someone who
spends a great deal of time sitting and
watching television. (A play on couch
potato.) Sofa spuds have been getting
a lot of attention in the newspapers.
These sofa spuds usually watch sports on
television.
soft 1. mod. alcohol intoxicated. After a
few hours at the party, it appeared that
most people were getting soft. Hard
liquor makes people soft. 2. mod. having
to do with nonaddictive drugs. (Com-
pare this with hard.) The soft stuff just
leads to hard stuff. This acid is not ex-
actly soft. Soft drugs just take longer to
turn you into a zombie. 3. mod. stupid.
The guy’s soft in the head. He just can’t
think straight. She seems a little soft, but
she’s really bright.
soft berthn. an easy situation; employ-
ment at an easy job. Fred ended up with
a real soft berth. I hope I can arrange a
soft berth for my brother, who just applied
for a job here.
soft core 1. mod. referring to a mild type
of pornography. There are more and
more soft core movies on cable television.
This stuff I saw was just soft core.
Now even the soft core stuff is getting
harder to find at newsstands. 2. n. mild
pornography. They keep some soft core
under the counter. The movie was a bit
of soft core, but people still walked out.
soft-heartedmod. tender-hearted; sympa-
thetic. She is too soft-hearted to han-
dle this job. He is a soft-hearted guy who
can help our cause a lot.softie and softy 1. n. a gentle person; a
very agreeable person. He shouldn’t
give you much trouble. He’s such a softie.
The judge who tried the case was any-
thing but a softie. 2. n. a weakling; a cow-
ard. He’s too much of a softie to fight
back. Don’t worry—he’s a softie.
soft in the headmod. stupid; witless.
George is just soft in the head. He’ll never
get away with his little plan. Yo u’r e s o f t
in the head if you think I’ll go along with
that.soft moneyn. easy money; money ob-
tained without much effort. Don’t be-
come dependent on soft money. There’s
not even very much soft money around
now.
soft on someonemod. romantically at-
tracted to someone. Fred is soft on
Martha, I’ve heard. He looked like he
was getting a little soft on Sally.soft on someone or somethingmod. too
easy on someone or something. The
judge was viewed as being too soft on push-
ers. The cops are soft on speeders in this
town.
soft pedal somethingtv. to play some-
thing down; to de-emphasize something.
(Refers to the soft pedal on the piano.)
Try to soft pedal the problems we have with
the cooling system. I won’t soft pedal
anything. Everyone must know the truth.soft selln. a polite attempt to sell some-
thing; a very gentle sales pitch. Some
people won’t bother listening to a soft sell.
You gotta let them know you believe insoft sell