Cocked-Hat. To be knocked into a cocked hat, verbal phr. (common).—To
be limp enough to be doubled up and carried flat under the arm [like
the cocked hat of an officer.]
English Synonyms. To be doubled up; knocked into the middle of next
week; spifflicated; beaten to a jelly; knocked a-cock; wiped out; sent
all of a heap; bottled up; settled; to get beans, or snuff; sent, done,
or smashed to smithereens, etc.—See also Tan, Tanning, and Wipe.
French Synonyms. Effondrer quelqu’un (popular: literally ‘to dig into
one’; effondrer une volaille = to draw a fowl); tatouiller quelqu’un
(popular: tatouiller is a slang term for a thrashing); soigner
quelqu’un (popular: properly ‘to take care of,’ or ‘to attend,’ ‘to
nurse’); se faire écharpiller (popular); déboulonner la colonne à
quelqu’un (popular); décarcasser quelqu’un (popular); manger le nez à
quelqu’un (popular: literally ‘to eat one’s nose’).
1870. Daily Telegraph, 20 Aug., ‘Speech of Mr. Ralph Harrison at
the Crystal Palace.’ The publication of the 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.
Cockish, adj. (old).—Wanton; ‘on heat.’ [From cock, the penis, + ish.]
Latham quotes cockish in the sense of ‘pert,’ from the strutting of the
barn-door cock.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. A cockish wench: a forward, coming
girl.
Cock it, verb (tailors’).—To examine; see; or speak of (a thing).
Cockles, subs. (venery).—The labia minora.
Cockles of the Heart, subs. phr. (common).—A jocose vulgarism
encountered in a variety of combinations; e.g., ‘that will rejoice’ or
‘tickle’ or ‘warm the cockles of your heart,’ etc. [It is suggested (N.
and Q., 7 S., iv., 26) that a hint as to its origin may be found in
Lower, an eminent anatomist of the seventeenth century, who thus speaks
in his Tractatus de Corde (1669), p. 25, of the muscular fibres of the
ventricles.
‘Fibræ quidem rectis hisce exteri oribus in dextro ventriculo proximè
subjectæ obliquè dextrorsum ascendentes in basin cordis terminantur, et
spirali suo ambitu helicem sive cochleam satis aptè referunt.’
The ventricles of the heart might, therefore, be called cochlea cordis,
and this would easily be turned into cockles of the heart.] The French
say, Tu t’en pourlécheras la face (that’ll rejoice the cockles of your
heart).
1671. Eachard, Observations [Wright]. This contrivance of his did
inwardly rejoice the cockles of his heart.
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxvi. Which would have cheered
the cockles of the reigning monarch.
1834. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, ch. xii. ‘There now, master, there’s
a glass of grog for you that would float a marling-spike. See if
that don’t warm the cockles of your old heart.’
1839. W. H. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard, p. 49 (ed. 1840). ‘There, Mr.
Wood,’ cried David, pouring out a glass of the spirit, and offering
it to the carpenter, ‘that’ll warm the cockles of your heart.’
To cry cockles, verbal phr. (common).—To be hanged. [From the gurgling
noise made in strangulation.] For synonyms, see Ladder.
Cock-Loft, subs. (old).—The head. [A cock-loft is properly a small
loft, garret, or apartment at the top of a house. Cf., Garret, Upper
Storey, etc.] An old proverb runs, ‘All his gear is in his cock-loft’;
i.e., ‘all his wealth, work, or worth is in his head.’ For synonyms,
see Crumpet.
1642. Thomas Fuller, Holy and Profane State, And. Ad. fen. 1. Often
the cockloft is empty, in those whom nature hath built many stories
high.
Cockney, subs. (colloquial).—One born within the sound of bow-bells.
[The origin of cockney has been much debated; but, says Dr. Murray, in
the course of an exhaustive statement (Academy, May 10, 1890, p. 320),
the history of the word, so far as it means a person, is very clear and
simple. We have the senses (1) ‘cockered or pet child,’ ‘nestle-cock,’
‘mother’s darling,’ ‘milksop,’ the name being applicable primarily to
the child, but continued to the squeamish and effeminate man into which
he grows up. (2) A nickname applied by country people to the
inhabitants of great towns, whom they considered ‘milksops,’ from their
daintier habits and incapacity for rough work. York, London, Perugia,
were, according to Harman, all nests of cockneys. (3) By about 1600 the
name began to be attached especially to Londoners, as the
representatives par excellence of the city milksop. One understands the
disgust with which a cavalier in 1641 wrote that he was ‘obliged to
quit Oxford at the approach of Essex and Waller, with their prodigious
number of cockneys.’]
1607. Dekker, Westward Ho, Act ii., Sc. 2. As Frenchmen love to be
bold ... and Irishmen to be costermongers, so cockneys, especially
she-cockneys, love not aqua-vitæ when ’tis good for them.
1760. Foote, Minor, Act i. But you cockneys now beat us suburbians
at our own weapons.
1840. Thackeray, Paris Sketch Book, p. 28. ‘You ’ad such an
’eadach’, sir,’ said British, sternly, who piques himself on his
grammar and pronunciation, and scorns a cockney.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 6 Nov., p. 3, col. 2. London mist, when
turned into London black fog by the poisonous carbonic anhydride
and sulphurous anhydride with which it is loaded, encompasses all
cockneys, good or bad with a real danger to health and life.
Cockney-Shire, subs. (common).—London. [From cockney, a native of
London, + shire.]
Cock Pimp, subs. (old).—The husband, real or supposed, of a bawd or
procuress. [From cock, male, + pimp, a procurer.]—Grose [1785].
Cockquean, subs. (obsolete).—A man who interests himself in women’s
affairs. The common form is ‘cotquean.’ Cf., Molly.
Cockroaches. To get or eat cockroaches, verbal phr. (old).—To practise
masturbation. For synonyms, see Frig.
Cock-Robin, subs. (old).—A soft, easy fellow.—Grose [1785].
Cock-Robin Shop, subs. phr. (printers’).—A small printing office, for
cheap work done at vile wages. In other trades a slop shop.
1888. R. R., in Notes and Queries, 7 S., v., 333. Let me advise
collectors of such things [cheap books] to avoid the regular
booksellers, and try the cock-robin shops, and the general dealers
in small wares, down back streets.
Cocks, subs. (popular).—1. See Cock, subs., sense 2.
2. (trade).—Explained by quotation. The word appears to be slang for
anything fictitious. Cf., Cocks, subs., sense 2.