socket

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An opening or a cavity into which an inserted part is designed to fit: a light-bulb socket.
2. n. Anatomy The concave part of a joint that receives the end of a bone.
3. n. Anatomy A hollow or concavity into which a part, such as the eye, fits.
4. v. To furnish with or insert into a socket.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An opening or cavity into which anything is fitted; any hollow thing or place which receives and holds something else.
2. n. Specifically A small hollow tube or depression in a candlestick to hold a candle. Also called nozle.
3. n. In anatomy, specifically, the hollow of one part which receives another; the concavity or excavation of an articulation: as, an eye-socket; the socket of the hip.
4. n. In mining, the end of a shot-hole, when this remains visible after the shot has been fired.
5. n. In well-boring, a tool with various forms of gripping mechanism, for seizing and lifting tools dropped in the tube.
6. n. In the just, a defense of steel attached to the saddle, and serving to protect the legs and thighs. Compare bur, 3 . Also socquette.
7. To provide with or place in a socket.
8. n. In golf, the neck of a club into which the shaft runs.
9. n. A chuck or holder on the end of a drill-spindle having a taper-hole to receive the corresponding taper-shank of the drill or of another socket.

Wiktionary

1. n. mechanics An opening into which a plug or other connecting part is designed to fit (e.g. a light bulb socket).
2. n. anatomy A hollow into a bone which a part fits, such as an eye, or another bone, in the case of a joint.
3. n. computing A two-way named pipe on Unix and Unix-like systems, used for interprocess communication.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. An opening into which anything is fitted; any hollow thing or place which receives and holds something else.
2. n. Especially, the hollow tube or place in which a candle is fixed in the candlestick.
3. n. (Electricity) the receptacle of an electric lamp into which a light bulb is inserted, containing contacts to conduct electricity to the bulb.
4. n. (Electricity) the receptacle fixed in a wall and connected by conductive wiring to an electrical supply, containing contacts to conduct electricity, and into which the plug of an electrical device is inserted; -- called also a wall socket or outlet. The socket will typically have two or three contacts; if three, the third is connected to a ground for safety.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a receptacle into which an electric device can be inserted
2. n. receptacle where something (a pipe or probe or end of a bone) is inserted
3. n. a bony hollow into which a structure fits