Socket

noun
1.
a hollow part or piece for receiving and holding some part or thing.
2.
Electricity.

a device intended to hold an electric light bulb mechanically and connect it electrically to circuit wires.
Also called wall socket. a socket placed in a wall to receive a plug that makes an electrical connection with supply wiring.

3.
Anatomy.

a hollow in one part that receives another part:
the socket of the eye.
the concavity of a joint:
the socket of the hip.

verb (used with object)
4.
to place in or fit with a socket.
noun
1.
a device into which an electric plug can be inserted in order to make a connection in a circuit
2.
(mainly Brit) such a device mounted on a wall and connected to the electricity supply Informal Brit names point, plug US and Canadian name outlet
3.
a part with an opening or hollow into which some other part, such as a pipe, probe, etc, can be fitted
4.
a spanner head having a recess suitable to be fitted over the head of a bolt and a keyway into which a wrench can be fitted
5.
(anatomy)

a bony hollow into which a part or structure fits: a tooth socket, an eye socket
the receptacle of a ball-and-socket joint

verb
6.
(transitive) to furnish with or place into a socket

socket sock·et (sŏk’ĭt)
n.

The concave part of a joint that receives the articular end of a bone.

A hollow or concavity into which a part, such as an eye fits.

networking
The Berkeley Unix mechansim for creating a virtual connection between processes. Sockets interface Unix’s standard I/O with its network communication facilities. They can be of two types, stream (bi-directional) or datagram (fixed length destination-addressed messages). The socket library function socket() creates a communications end-point or socket and returns a file descriptor with which to access that socket. The socket has associated with it a socket address, consisting of a port number and the local host’s network address.
Unix manual page: socket(2).
(1995-01-31)