Meaning of sport one's oak | Babel Free

Definitions

To close one's door (originally the outer door of one's set of rooms in a college) as an indication that visitors are not welcome.

dated, intransitive

Examples

“For arguing that a man will be plucked take the Topics following: for among men likely to be plucked [i.e., rejected after failing an examination for a degree] are these for the most part. […] He that sporteth not his oak.”

“One day that he had been writing a letter in Mr. Smalls' rooms, which were on the ground-floor, Verdant congratulated himself that his own rooms were on the third floor, and were thus removed from the possibility of his friends, when he had sported his oak, being able to get through his window to "chaff" him; but he soon discovered that rooms upstairs had also objectionable points in their private character, and were not altogether such eligible apartments as he had at first anticipated.”

“My rooms are pleasant enough,[…], and separated from all mankind by a great, iron-clamped, outer door, my oak, which I sport when I go out, or want to be quiet; […]”

“The custom of sporting one's oak, which is so popular an institution in the English Universities, is destined apparently to become an exotic in Cambridge. […] In England, to sport the oak is considered an act eminently proper and commendable; but we seem to think it is a habit destructive of our college freedom. If a visitor obtains no response to his tenth kick, cannot he take the hint that his company is not desirable at present and move off quietly, without informing the occupant of the said room that he knows he is there, and that he cannot see the reason why he is refused admittance.”

“"Goodness gracious," I exclaimed, "why didn't we sport the oak? Perhaps it is your father. But surely he would hardly come at this time of day! Go at once into my bedroom."”

“Blankets were served out to hang in the front of the cubicle [in Shackleton's Hut at Cape Royds, Antarctica], in case the inhabitants wanted at any time to "sport their oak."”

“The man who now occupied my room had sported his oak—my oak. I read the name on the visiting-card attached thereto—E. J. Craddock—and went in.”

“[H]e recreated something like Balliol on the prairies. He brewed tea each afternoon on his "spirit lamp" (sold at the student co-op as an alcohol burner), kept Scotch-type whisky in his cupboard, "tutored" with a Jewish boy from Brooklyn (actually the boy ghosted all his science and math work), and "sported the oak" when, as Clem conjectured later, he required a session of masturbation to the tune of Beardsley illustrations.”

“Mrs. Biggs let herself into Zipser's room and sported the oak. She had no intention of being disturbed.”

“'And I'd feel particularly vulnerable, if I was on the ground floor like you.' / 'You could sport your oak, I suppose. But sporting your oak is said not to be quite the thing. It's felt not to be on, sporting your oak.'”

“We were turned at a slight angle to each other, our shoulders touching and I put my hand on his crotch. Miles seemed to be expecting it. He chuckled, took a pair of compasses and jammed them into the door above the latch. This was called ‘sporting the oak’ and was the recognized way of locking oneself in. Over the next eighteen months we sported our oaks with great frequency.”

CEFR level