Cobb, verb (general).—To spank; to smack the posteriors with (say) a
tailor’s sleeve-board.
1830. Marryat, King’s Own. Gentlemen, gentlemen, if you must cobb
Mrs. Skrimmage, for God’s sake let it be over all.
Cobber, subs. (common).—A prodigious falsehood; i.e., ‘a thumper’;
whopper (q.v.).
Cobble-Colter, subs. (old).—A turkey. Fr., une ornie de balle and un
Jésuite. Cf., Alderman in chains.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1837. Disraeli, Venetia, p. 69. ‘Come, old mort,’ said the leader,
in a very different tone to the one in which he addressed his young
guest, ‘tout the cobble-colter; are we to have darkmans upon us?’
Cobbled, ppl. adj. (schoolboys’).—Caught; detected; spotted. [From cob,
verb, sense 1.]
Cobblers’ Knock. To give the cobbler’s knock or to knock at the
cobbler’s door, verbal phr. (provincial).—A sort of fancy sliding in
which the artist raps the ice in triplets with one foot while
progressing swiftly on the other.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, vol. ii., ch. 2. Sam Weller, in particular
was displaying that beautiful feat of fancy sliding which is
currently called knocking at the cobbler’s door, and which is
achieved by skimming over the ice on one foot and occasionally
giving a postman’s knock upon it with the other.
Cobblers’ Marbles, subs. phr. (vulgar).—A corrupt pronunciation of
cholera morbus, once a name for Asiatic cholera.
Cobbler’s Thumb, subs. (Irish localism).—A small fish; the bull-head,
called in English the miller’s thumb.
1839. Lever, Harry Lorrequer, ch. xxvii. His hands and feet,
forming some compensation by their ample proportions, give to his
entire air and appearance somewhat the look of a small fish, with
short, thick fins, vulgarly called a cobbler’s thumb.
Cochineal Dye, subs. (pugilistic).—Blood. [From the colour.] For
synonyms, see Claret.
1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Verdant Green, pt. 11., p.
31. He would kindly inquire of one gentleman, ‘What d’ye ask for a
pint of your cochineal dye?’
1883. Referee. It certainly seemed that their stock-in-trade was
largely composed of cochineal dye; there was in truth no lack of
the gory accessory of the fight.
Cock, subs. (common).—1. The penis, Cf., Ger., Hahn, Hänchen. [Possibly
related to ‘cock’ = turn-valve.] For synonyms, see cream-stick.
1600. Shakspeare, King Henry V., ii. i.—Cf.
1647. Beaumont and Fletcher. The Custom of the County, v., 4. The
mainspring’s weakened that holds up his cock.
1730. Bailey, Dict., s.v.
1737. Rabelais. Trans. I., 185., s.v.
1807. Rabelais. Trans. [Longman’s ed.]. s.v., I., 169.
1849. Rabelais. Trans. [Bohn’s ed.], s.v., I., 135.
2. (colloquial).—A chief or leader; particularly in such phrases as
cock of the walk, school, etc. [A simile drawn from the barndoor.] Cf.,
sense 3, and adj.
1711. Spectator, No. 131. Service to the knight. Sir Andrew is
grown the cock of the club since he left us, and if he does not
return quickly will make every mother’s son of us commonwealth’s
men.
1729. Swift, Grand Question Debated. But at cuffs I was always the
cock of the school.
1764. O’Hara, Midas, I., 1. Cock of the school. He bears despotic
rule.
1811–63. W. M. Thackeray, Miscellanies, II., 275. There is no more
dangerous or stupifying position for a man in life than to be a
cock of small society.
1862. Mrs. H. Wood, Channings, ch. xxix. ‘Were I going in for the
seniorship, and one below me were suddenly hoisted above my head,
and made a cock of the walk, I’d know the reason why.’
3. (common).—A familiar address; e.g., old cock, or jolly old cock.
[Probably derived from sense 1.] Amongst similar expressions may be
mentioned old man, my pippin, and in French, mon vieux zig, or lapin.
1639. Massinger, Unnatural Combat, II., i. He has drawn blood of
him yet: well done, old cock.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. XVIII., ch. x. Then give me thy
fist, a’t as hearty an honest cock as any in the kingdom.
1825. The English Spy, vol. I., p. 215. The low-bred, vulgar,
Sunday throng, Who dine at two, are ranged along On both sides of
the way; With various views these honest folk Descant on fashions,
quiz and joke, Or mark the shy cock down. [1]
1836. C. Dickens, Pickwick Papers (about 1827), p. 367 (ed. 1857).
‘Do you always smoke arter you goes to bed, old cock?’ inquired Mr.
Weller of his landlord, when they had both retired for the night.
‘Yes, I does, young Bantam,’ replied the cobbler.
1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 278. The people down here are a queer lot,
but I have hunted up two or three jolly cocks, and we contrive to
keep the place alive between us.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xvi. Shrewd old cock, Mr. Binnie.
Has brought home a good bit of money from India.
1870. London Figaro, 19 Oct. What on earth is the meaning of Mr.
Santley’s voice being over-crowed by a mammoth orchestra? I never
heard before that fiddles crowed, or that Mr. Santley was a cock.
He is what is known as a jolly cock, but there his similarity to
the noisy fowl ends.
4. (racing).—A horse not intended to win the race for which it is put
down, but kept in the lists to deceive the public.
1887. Field, May 29. In the phraseology of slangy turfites, the
horse was a cock; i.e., it had been liberally backed, but was never
intended to run.
5. (common).—Primarily the fictitious narratives in verse or prose of
murders, fires, etc. (see quot., 1851), produced for sale in the
streets. Famous manufactories of cocks were kept by ‘Jemmy’ Catnach and
Johnny Pitts, called the Colburn and Bentley of the ‘paper’ trade. They
fought bitterly, and Catnach informed the world that Pitts had once
been a ‘bumboat woman,’ while Pitts declared—
That all the boys and girls around, Who go out prigging rags and
phials, Know Jemmy Catnach!!! well, Who lives in a back slum in the
Dials.
Catnach got at last to be ‘Cock of the Walk,’ and remained so till his
retirement in 1839. [Hotten thought the word might be a corruption of
cook, a ‘cooked’ or garbled statement, or a coinage from ‘cock and bull
story.’] Fr., une goualante.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 228. What
are technically termed cocks, which, in polite language, means
accounts of fabulous duels between ladies of fashion, of apocryphal
elopements ... or awful tragedies, etc.
Hence applied to any incredible story.
1870. London Figaro, 1 Feb. We are disposed to think that cocks
must have penetrated to Eastern Missouri.