Heading
Morning Star on March 17, 1856, it was prophesied, would knock the Daily Telegraph into a cocked hat.
1877. C. Reade, The Jilt, I., in Belgravia, March, p. 59. I never knew a Welsh girl yet who couldn't dance an Englishman into A cocked hat.
1881. Hawley Smart, Gt. Tontine, ch. xxx. I think now we may consider Bob Pegram's marriage as knocked pretty well into a cocked hat.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 18 Sept. p. 2, col. 3. You give in the Pall Mall of to-*night three translations of Plato's well-known epigram. Permit me to give you another which in my opinion knocks all the rest into a cocked hat.
Also in the moral sense to be amazed to stupefaction and speechlessness.
Cocker, According to Cocker,
adv. phr. (colloquial).—According
to rule; properly, arithmetically,
or correctly done. [From
old Cocker, a famous writing
master in Charles II. time,
author of a treatise on arithmetic.
Professor de Morgan
notes 'that it became a proverbial
representative of arithmetic
from Murphy's farce of
The Apprentice (1756), in which
the strong point of the old merchant
Wingate is his extreme
reverence for Cocker and his
arithmetic.'] In America a
similar locution is according to
Gunter (q.v.). Gunter was a
famous arithmetician a century
before Cocker, and the American
is no doubt the older phrase.
The old laws of Rhode Island
say, 'All casks shall be gauged
by the rule commonly known
as "gauging by Gunter."' Among
sailors, the standard of appeal
is according to John Norie—the
compiler of a popular
Navigator's Manual.
1851. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor. 'Answers to Correspondents.' Surely, to increase the quantity of labour, while the amount expended in the direct purchase of that labour remains the same, is according to Cocker—to decrease the wages in precisely the same proportion.
1861. T. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xxxii., p. 337. Well, so you ought to be, according to Cocker, spending all your time in sick rooms.
1883. G. A. S[ala], in Ill. L. News, Nov. 24, p. 499, col. 2. The average American may not know what we mean by according to Cocker; while the average Englishman may be unaware of the meaning of 'according to Gunter.' They both mean the same thing; implying irreproachable accuracy in computation.
1888. Grant Allen, This Mortal Coil, ch. ii. According to Cocker nought and nought make nothing.
Cock-Eyed, adj. (common).—Squinting.
[Cf., Cock the eye.]
For synonyms, see Squinny-eye.
1884. Daily News, Nov. 27, p. 2, col. 2. I am told the proper description of him would be a little man with a cock-eye.
Cock-Fighting. That beats cock
fighting, phr. (common).—A
general expression of approval—up
to the mark; A 1. [From
the esteem in which the sport
was held.]
1659. Gauden, Tears of the Church, p. 228. Ministers' scufflings and contests with one another is beyond any cock fighting or Bear-baiting to the vulgar envy, malice, profaneness, and petulancy.
1884. W. C. Russell, Jack's Courtship, ch. vi. 'Well, roast me!' cried he, viewing me with a kind of admiration; 'if this don't beat cock fighting.'
Cock-Horse, adv. phr. (old).—Triumphant;
in full swing; cock-a-hoop.
Halliwell says, 'a somewhat
slang expression not quite
obsolete.'
Cocking.—See Cock, verb, sense 1.
