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1859. J. Eastwood, in Notes and Queries, 2 S., viii., 461. The phrase cock your eye is not at all an uncommon one in Yorkshire—meaning 'direct your eye, give a glance.'
To Cock Snooks, verbal phr. (common).—See Coffee-milling and Snooks.
That cock won't fight. phr. (common).—Originally cockpit slang. Said of things problematical or doubtful.
1844. Puck, p. 124. 'Song of the First Tragedian . . . having pawned his properties.' Suppose I told my uncle what I fear he'd not believe, That I'll certainly repay him the money ere I leave; That my benefit when it comes off is sure to prove a hit, I don't think, with a screw like him, that cock would fight a bit.
By cock or by cock and pye. phr. (old).—'Cock' is here a corruption, or disguise of 'God.' We find also 'cocks-passion,' 'cocks-body,' and other allusions to the Saviour, or His body, as supposed to exist in the Host: the expression surviving the belief. In by cock and pye, the pie, or Sacred Book of Offices is added. By cock and pie and mousefoot, is quoted from the old play of Soliman and Perseda, Orig. of Drama, ii., p. 211.
1571. Edwards, Damon and Pythias, Old Pl., i., 216. W. By the masse I will boxe you. J. By cocke I will foxe you.
1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, iv., 5. By cocke they are to blame.
1598. Shakspeare, Henry IV., pt. II., Act v., Sc. 1. By cock and pie, sir, you shall not away to-night.
1606. Wily, Beguilede. Now by cock and pie, you never spoke a truer word in your life.
Knocked a-cock, adv. phr. (pugilistic).—Knocked 'all of a heap,' or 'out of time.' Obviously adapted from the lingo of the cock-pit, and suggested by the sight of the beaten bird laid on his back.
Cock-a-Doodle Broth, subs. phr.
(? nonce phrase).—See quot.
1856. Reade, Never Too Late to Mend, ch. lxxxv. He complains that 'he can't peck,' yet continues the cause of his infirmity, living almost entirely upon cock-a-doodle broth,—eggs beat up in brandy and a little water.
Cock-a-Hoop or Cock-on (or in a)-Hoop, adj. (colloquial).—Strutting; triumphant; high-spirited; 'uppish.' [Ray suggested that it refers to the practice of taking out the spigot (an old synonym for the penis, by the way) and laying it on the top of a barrel with a view to drinking the latter dry; a proceeding that would naturally induce a certain swagger in the actors. There seems, however, no doubt that the true derivative is the French coq à houppé. Houppé, in French, is a tuft, touffe (and toupet, is kindred). Littré says, terme de blason, tuft of silk or tassel hanging from a hat: 'Elle sert de timbre au chapeau des cardinaux, etc. Houppée is the foam on the top of a wave. Houppe is the tuft on a trencher cap: 'Qui distingue,' says Tarver, 'le bonnet des nobles de celui des autres' at the universities—hence tuft-hunter, coureur de houppes. Also, 'Il trouve à se fourrer parmi les plus huppés' = he contrives to vie with those at the very top of fashion. The Hoopoe, (Lat. Upupa), is a crested bird. Hence coq à houppé is a crested cock, and by analogy one swaggering, triumphant, exulting; so 'cock-a-hoop' is 'cock-a-top,' 'cock-a-crest,' elated beyond reason—'cocky,' as schoolboys say—'cock of the walk,' 'cock at the top.' In cock-fighting, the 'cock-a-top' is he that gets the vantage stroke. 'Abattre l'orgueil des plus huppés'; to bring down the
