Library / English Dictionary

SOAK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Washing something by allowing it to soak

Synonyms:

soak; soaking

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("soak" is a kind of...):

lavation; wash; washing (the work of cleansing (usually with soap and water))

Sense 2

Meaning:

The process of becoming softened and saturated as a consequence of being immersed in water (or other liquid)

Example:

a good soak put life back in the wagon

Synonyms:

soak; soakage; soaking

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Hypernyms ("soak" is a kind of...):

action; activity; natural action; natural process (a process existing in or produced by nature (rather than by the intent of human beings))

Derivation:

soak (fill, soak, or imbue totally)

soak (submerge in a liquid)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cover with liquid; pour liquid onto

Example:

souse water on his hot face

Synonyms:

douse; dowse; drench; soak; sop; souse

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "soak" is one way to...):

wet (cause to become wet)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "soak"):

brine (soak in brine)

bedraggle; draggle (make wet and dirty, as from rain)

bate (soak in a special solution to soften and remove chemicals used in previous treatments)

ret (place (flax, hemp, or jute) in liquid so as to promote loosening of the fibers from the woody tissue)

flush; sluice (irrigate with water from a sluice)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

They soak the cloth with water and alcohol

Derivation:

soaker (a heavy rain)

soaking (the act of making something completely wet)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Heat a metal prior to working it

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "soak" is one way to...):

heat; heat up (make hot or hotter)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Fill, soak, or imbue totally

Example:

soak the bandage with disinfectant

Synonyms:

imbue; soak

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "soak" is one way to...):

impregnate; saturate (infuse or fill completely)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "soak"):

infuse; steep (let sit in a liquid to extract a flavor or to cleanse)

brew (sit or let sit in boiling water so as to extract the flavor)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Sentence example:

Water and alcohol soak the cloth

Derivation:

soak (the process of becoming softened and saturated as a consequence of being immersed in water (or other liquid))

Sense 4

Meaning:

Become drunk or drink excessively

Synonyms:

hit it up; inebriate; soak; souse

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "soak" is one way to...):

booze; drink; fuddle; hit the bottle (consume alcohol)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

soaker (a person who drinks alcohol to excess habitually)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Make drunk (with alcoholic drinks)

Synonyms:

inebriate; intoxicate; soak

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "soak" is one way to...):

affect (act physically on; have an effect upon)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "soak"):

befuddle; fuddle (make stupid with alcohol)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s somebody

Sense 6

Meaning:

Beat severely

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "soak" is one way to...):

beat; beat up; work over (give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to soak the prisoners

Sense 7

Meaning:

Submerge in a liquid

Example:

I soaked in the hot tub for an hour

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "soak" is one way to...):

immerse; plunge (thrust or throw into)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody PP
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

soak; soakage (the process of becoming softened and saturated as a consequence of being immersed in water (or other liquid))

soaking (washing something by allowing it to soak)

soaking (the process of becoming softened and saturated as a consequence of being immersed in water (or other liquid))

Sense 8

Meaning:

Rip off; ask an unreasonable price

Synonyms:

fleece; gazump; hook; overcharge; pluck; plume; rob; soak; surcharge

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "soak" is one way to...):

cheat; chisel; rip off (deprive somebody of something by deceit)

"Soak" entails doing...:

bill; charge (demand payment)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "soak"):

extort; gouge; rack; squeeze; wring (obtain by coercion or intimidation)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 9

Meaning:

Leave as a guarantee in return for money

Example:

pawn your grandfather's gold watch

Synonyms:

hock; pawn; soak

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "soak" is one way to...):

charge; consign (give over to another for care or safekeeping)

Domain category:

commerce; commercialism; mercantilism (transactions (sales and purchases) having the objective of supplying commodities (goods and services))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

Several times we shipped a little water, and my breeches and the tails of my coat were all soaking wet before we had gone a hundred yards.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

One Eye scooped out mouthfuls of the blood-soaked snow, and chewed and tasted and swallowed.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Parboiling rice in-the-husk is the traditional method by which rough rice is soaked in water and then partially cooked to nutritionally improve it and make it easier to process or store.

(Parboiling husked rice reduces arsenic content, SciDev.Net)

Mr. Rochester held the candle over him; I recognised in his pale and seemingly lifeless face—the stranger, Mason: I saw too that his linen on one side, and one arm, was almost soaked in blood.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It is true that they do warm climate by strong methane emissions when they first form, but on a longer-term scale, they switch to become climate coolers because they ultimately soak up more carbon from the atmosphere than they ever release.

(Certain Arctic lakes store more greenhouse gases than they release, NSF)

He opened his bag as he spoke, and tumbled onto the floor a wedding-dress of watered silk, a pair of white satin shoes and a bride’s wreath and veil, all discoloured and soaked in water.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On the other hand, since the planets are so close to the star, they have soaked up billions of years of high-energy radiation, which could have boiled off atmospheres and large amounts of water.

(TRAPPIST-1 is Older Than Our Solar System, NASA/JPL)

He was soaked with sleep, and perforce he must now stay awake and endure the white glare of life.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I knew the kind, so thick and so close of texture that it could resist the rain and not be soaked through after hours of wetting.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

His gown was turned back from his shoulders, and the flesh there was a sight to make a man wince, for it was all beaten to a pulp, and the blood was soaking into his gown and trickling down upon the ground.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)