Cocked-up, adj.—See Cocky.
Cock Up One’s Toes, verbal phr. (thieves’).—To die. For synonyms, see
Aloft and Hop the twig.
1820. Reynolds, (‘Peter Corcoran’), The Fancy. ‘King Tims the
First.’ Now I see a neighbour cock his toe—Walk by his side in
black—in well paid woe.
1864. E. D. Forgues, in Revue des deux Mondes, Sep. 15, p. 472,
note. Cock one’s toes. Cette ... locution, si bizarre au premier
coup d’œil, doit s’expliquer par un des phénomènes de la retraction
cadavérique; les pieds du mort, ramenés en arrière, ont pu rappeler
la position que prend le chien de la batterie quand le fusil est
armé.
Cocky or Cocking, adj. (popular).—1. Pert or saucy; forward; coolly
audacious; over confident, ‘botty.’ [Formerly cocking. An allusion to
the strut of the barn-door bird.] Fr., se gourer, to be cocky; also se
gonfler, faire sa merde, and faire son matador.
1711. Spectator, No. 153. But the cocking young fellow who treads
upon the toes of his elders, and the old fool who envies the saucy
pride he sees in him, are the objects of our present contempt and
derision.
1820. Clare, Poems of Rural Life, Familiar Epistle, st. 5. I’ve
long been aggravated shocking, To see our gentry folks go cocking.
1856. T. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, pt. II., ch. vi. ‘It
seems so cocky in me to be advising you.’
1864. Glasgow Citizen, Nov. 19. Cotgrave (1672) gives us ‘Herr,
master or sir; a rogue.’ Aleman [‘The Spanish Rogue’] Vous faite du
Herr. ‘You are very cockit, or lusty; you take too much upon you.’
Is it not gratifying to know that cockiness is older than this
century, in which it has been developed to so alarming an extent?
1872. The Scotsman, 29 Oct. ‘Sir J. Pakington at Stourbridge.’ He
should be inclined to offer him a little homely advice, and to tell
him in somewhat plain language ‘Not to be too cocky.’
1884. Cornhill Mag., April, p. 442. ‘Davis,’ said Toddy, ‘you
haven’t had a banging this term, and you’re getting cocky.’