Heading
geological formation by picking up the stones and appealing to the test of a cockshy.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. iii. He had seen Tom Ricketts, of the fourth form, who used to wear a jacket and trousers so ludicrously tight, that the elder boys could not forbear using him in the quality of a butt or cockshy.
1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 262. A desperate fight ensued, the 'nobblers' arming themselves with cock-shy sticks.
Cock-Stand, subs. (venery).—An
erection of the penis. For synonyms,
see Horn and Cf.,
Stand.
Cock-Sucker, subs. (venery).—A
feliatrix.
Cocksure, adj. (colloquial).—Confidently
certain; pertly sure.
[Probably a corruption of
'cocky sure.' We call a self-confident,
overbearing prig a
cocky fellow, from the barnyard
despot. Shakspeare (I Henry
IV., ii., 1) employs the phrase
in the sense of 'sure as the cock
of a firelock.'
We steal as in a castle, cocksure:
and still earlier usages imply its derivation from the fact that the cock was much surer than the older fashioned match. ]
1549. Latimer, Sermon on the Ploughers, p. 32 (Arber's ed.) For the Deuyll was dysapoynted of his purpose for he thoughte all to be hys owne. And when he had once broughte Christe to the crosse, he thought all cock-sure.
1603. John Day, Law Trickes, Act iii., p. 30. Then did I learn to . . . Make false conueyances, yet with a trick, Close and cock-sure, I cony-catch'd the world.
1667. Dryden, Sir Martin Marr-all, Act. iv. Nothing vexes me, but that I had made my game cock-sure, and then to be backgammoned.
b. 1738, d. 1819. Wolcot ('Paul Pindar'), Odes to the Pope, II., in wks. (Dublin, 1795) V. ii., p. 492. Yet deem themselves, poor dupes, cocksure of Heav'n.
1837. R. H. Barham, The Ingoldsby Legends (ed. 1862), 320. Last of all, gentle Reader, don't be too secure!—Let seeming success never make you cock-sure.
1849. T. Carlyle, IV., 108. [Yes, Manning was shot there; he had told us Hyde was cocksure.]
1884. W. C. Russell, Jack's Courtship, ch. iii. 'Hawke will not get his daughter to have him, he may be cock-*sure of that.'
1889. The Star, Aug. 24, p. 3, col. 4. In his most insolent and cocksure manner he declared, etc.
Cocktail, subs. (common).—1. A
prostitute; a wanton.
2. (common).—A coward.
3. (American).—A drink composed of spirits (gin, brandy, whisky, etc.), bitters, crushed ice, sugar, etc., the whole whisked briskly until foaming, and then drunk 'hot.'
Cocktail or Cocktailed, adj.
(military).—Unsoldierlike; uneven;
showing bad form; and in
its specifically military sense, anything
unworthy of the regular
army. For example, at one
time the Volunteer auxiliaries
were described as 'such a cocktailed
crew.'
1877. Five Years' Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 67. He confessed he not only urged his brother into it, but compelled him to be as bad as himself, and had thrashed him many times for turning cocktail.
Cock-Teaser, or Cockchafer,
subs. (venery).—A girl in the
habit of permitting all familiarities
but the last.
