soak

Etymology

From Middle English soken, from Old English socian (“to soak, steep”, literally “to cause to suck (up)”), from Proto-Germanic *sukōną (“to soak”), causative of Proto-Germanic *sūkaną (“to suck”). Cognate with Middle Dutch soken (“to cause to suck”). More at suck.

verb

1. (intransitive) To be saturated with liquid by being immersed in it.
   I'm going to soak in the bath for a couple of hours.
2. (transitive) To immerse in liquid to the point of saturation or thorough permeation.
   Soak the beans overnight before cooking.
3. (intransitive) To penetrate or permeate by saturation.
   The water soaked into my shoes and gave me wet feet.
4. (transitive) To allow (especially a liquid) to be absorbed; to take in, receive. (usually + up)
   A sponge soaks up water; the skin soaks in moisture.
   I soaked up all the knowledge I could at university.
   The case was that of a murder. It had an element of mystery about it, however, which was puzzling the authorities. A turban and loincloth soaked in blood had been found; also a staff. 1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 4, in Pulling the Strings
5. (figurative, transitive) To overcharge or swindle out of a large amount of money.
   It's a blackmail ring, and the district attorneys get a share of the loot. […] Well, they got him in the same kind of jam, and soaked him to the tune of three hundred and eighty-six thousand. 1928, Upton Sinclair, Boston
6. (slang, dated) To drink intemperately or gluttonously.
7. (metallurgy, transitive) To heat (a metal) before shaping it.
8. (ceramics, transitive) To hold a kiln at a particular temperature for a given period of time.
   We should soak the kiln at cone 9 for half an hour.
9. (figurative, transitive) To absorb; to drain.
10. (slang) To engage in sexual activity with penetration but without hip thrusting (usually said of Mormons)..

verb

1. (transitive) (slang, boxing) To hit or strike.
   Wasn't Mr. Sipperley pretty shirty when he came to and found that you had been soaking him with putters? 1926, [P.G. Wodehouse], https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Inferiority_Complex_of_Old_Sippy

noun

1. An immersion in water etc.
   wildlife tourism has turned Knepp into a successful business that employs more people than it did when it was a farm. Springtime overnighters snuggling down in a luxury treehouse after a soak in the open-air, wood-fired Swedish Hikki bathtub may hear nightingales serenading their consorts 25 February 2020, Christopher de Bellaigue, “The end of farming?”, in The Guardian
   After the strenuous climb, I had a nice long soak in a bath.
2. (slang, Britain) A drunkard.
3. (slang) A carouse; a drinking session.
4. (Australia) A low-lying depression that fills with water after rain.
   I set off early to walk along the Melbourne Road where, one of the punters had told me, there was a soak with plenty of frogs in it. 1985, Peter Carey, Illywhacker, Faber & Faber, published 2003, page 38
   Molly and Daisy finished their breakfast and decided to take all their dirty clothes and wash them in the soak further down the river. 1996, Doris Pinkington, Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, in Heiss & Minter, Macquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature, Allen & Unwin 2008, p. 170