n. [ AS. sōc the power of holding court, sway, domain, properly, the right of investigating or seeking; akin to E. sake, seek. Sake, Seek, and cf. Sac, and Soke. ] [ Written also sock, and soke. ] 1. (O. Eng. Law) (a) The lord's power or privilege of holding a court in a district, as in manor or lordship; jurisdiction of causes, and the limits of that jurisdiction. (b) Liberty or privilege of tenants excused from customary burdens. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An exclusive privilege formerly claimed by millers of grinding all the corn used within the manor or township which the mill stands. [ Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Soc and sac (O. Eng. Law), the full right of administering justice in a manor or lordship. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.[ From Soc; cf. LL. socagium. ] (O.Eng. Law) A tenure of lands and tenements by a certain or determinate service; a tenure distinct from chivalry or knight's service, in which the obligations were uncertain. The service must be certain, in order to be denominated socage, as to hold by fealty and twenty shillings rent. [ Written also soccage. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Socage is of two kinds; free socage, where the services are not only certain, but honorable; and villein socage, where the services, though certain, are of a baser nature. Blackstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (O. Eng. Law) A tennant by socage; a socman. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.[ Cf. F. sociabilité. ] The quality of being sociable; sociableness. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A gathering of people for social purposes; an informal party or reception; as, a church sociable. [ Colloq. U. S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A carriage having two double seats facing each other, and a box for the driver. Miss Edgeworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

a.[ F., fr. L. sociabilis, fr. sociare to associate, fr. socius a companion. See Social. ] 1. Capable of being, or fit to be, united in one body or company; associable. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

They are sociable parts united into one body. Hooker. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Inclined to, or adapted for, society; ready to unite with others; fond of companions; social. [ 1913 Webster ]

Society is no comfort to one not sociable. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

What can be more uneasy to this sociable creature than the dry, pensive retirements of solitude? South. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Ready to converse; inclined to talk with others; not taciturn or reserved. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Affording opportunites for conversation; characterized by much conversation; as, a sociable party. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. No longer hostile; friendly. [ Obs. ] Beau. & Fl. [ 1913 Webster ]

Sociable bird, or
Sociable weaver (Zool.), a weaver bird which builds composite nests. See Republican, n., 3. (b). [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Social; companionable; conversible; friendly; familiar; communicative; accessible. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being sociable. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a sociable manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. socialis, from socius a companion; akin to sequi to follow: cf. F. social. See Sue to follow. ] 1. Of or pertaining to society; relating to men living in society, or to the public as an aggregate body; as, social interest or concerns; social pleasure; social benefits; social happiness; social duties. “Social phenomena.” J. S. Mill. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Ready or disposed to mix in friendly converse; companionable; sociable; as, a social person. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Consisting in union or mutual intercourse. [ 1913 Webster ]

Best with thyself accompanied, seek'st not
Social communication. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Bot.) Naturally growing in groups or masses; -- said of many individual plants of the same species. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Zool.) (a) Living in communities consisting of males, females, and neuters, as do ants and most bees. (b) Forming compound groups or colonies by budding from basal processes or stolons; as, the social ascidians. [ 1913 Webster ]

Social science, the science of all that relates to the social condition, the relations and institutions which are involved in man's existence and his well-being as a member of an organized community; sociology. It concerns itself with questions of the public health, education, labor, punishment of crime, reformation of criminals, and the like. --
Social whale (Zool.), the blackfish. --
The social evil, prostitution. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Sociable; companionable; conversible; friendly; familiar; communicative; convival; festive. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. socialisme. ] A theory or system of social reform which contemplates a complete reconstruction of society, with a more just and equitable distribution of property and labor. In popular usage, the term is often employed to indicate any lawless, revolutionary social scheme. See Communism, Fourierism, Saint-Simonianism, forms of socialism. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Socialism ] was first applied in England to Owen's theory of social reconstruction, and in France to those also of St. Simon and Fourier . . . The word, however, is used with a great variety of meaning, . . . even by economists and learned critics. The general tendency is to regard as socialistic any interference undertaken by society on behalf of the poor, . . . radical social reform which disturbs the present system of private property . . . The tendency of the present socialism is more and more to ally itself with the most advanced democracy. Encyc. Brit. [ 1913 Webster ]

We certainly want a true history of socialism, meaning by that a history of every systematic attempt to provide a new social existence for the mass of the workers. F. Harrison. [ 1913 Webster ]

--
Socialism of the chair [ G. katheder socialismus ], a term applied about 1872, at first in ridicule, to a group of German political economists who advocated state aid for the betterment of the working classes. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]