Slang and its analogues, 2 | Project Gutenberg

Coat. To get the sun into a horse’s coat, phr. (racing).—Explained by quot.

1889. Standard. ‘Sir Chas. Russell’s Speech in Durham-Chetwynd Case,’ June 25. An owner says to his trainer, ‘I suppose, Mr. Jones, we’ll have very good luck to-morrow?’ (laughter). ‘Well no, sir,’ says the trainer; ‘I don’t think the horse has any chance to-morrow. The fact is, he isn’t fit.’ A fortnight elapses, and on comes another meeting at Newmarket, and the owner goes down again, and he sees the horse. To his uninitiated eye the horse seems as well as when he saw it on the previous occasion. In the interval the trainer had ‘slipped in a lot of work into him,’ I think that is the term, and the owner, who thinks he knows something about horses (laughter) says to his trainer ‘You’re going to run this horse [134]to-morrow?’ ‘Oh, I think so, sir,’ says the trainer. ‘But look here,’ says the owner, ‘This is a much better class. He is meeting this horse upon no better terms than before.’ ‘But, sir,’ says the trainer, ‘he has greatly improved. The sun has got into his coat.’

Coax, verb (old).—To dissemble in the shoes the soiled or ragged parts of a pair of stockings.—[Grose, 1785.]

Cob, subs. (prison).—1. A punishment cell. For synonyms, see Clinch.

2. (nautical).—Money. Especially given to a Spanish coin formerly current in Ireland, worth about 4s. 8d. Also the name still given at Gibraltar to a Spanish dollar.

1805. Plymouth Newspaper of Feb. 24, quoted in ‘Autobiography of a Seaman,’ by Earl of Dundonald, vol. I., ch. x., p. 174. His Lordship sent word to Plymouth that, if ever it was in his power he would fulfil his public advertisement (stuck up here) for entering seamen, of filling their pockets with Spanish ‘pewter’ and ‘cobs,’ nicknames given by seamen to ingots and dollars.

3. (Winchester College).—A hard hit at cricket. Of modern introduction. Cf., Barter.

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.

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. [135]

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.

1647. Beaumont and Fletcher. The Custom of the County, v., 4. The mainspring’s weakened that holds up his cock.

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.

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. [136]

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.

1870. London Figaro, 1 Feb. We are disposed to think that cocks must have penetrated to Eastern Missouri.

7. (printers’).—In gambling or playing with ‘quads,’ a cock is when one (or more) of the nine pieces does not fall flat but lodges crosswise on another. The player is then given another chance.

Adj. (colloquial).—Chief; first and foremost. Cf., Cock, subs., sense 2.

1676. Etherege, Man of Mode, II., ii., in wks. (1704), 211. Why the very cock-fool of all those fools, Sir Fopling Flutter.

1856. T. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, pt. II., ch. vi. They’ll make the old Madman cock medicine-man and tattoo him all over.

Verb (venery).—1. To copulate. Usually employed by women and in the passive sense: e.g., ‘to want cocking,’ or ‘to get cocked.’ For synonyms, see Ride.

Cock the eye, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To shut or wink one eye; to leer; to look incredulous. Fr., cligner des œillets. Cf., Cock-eyed. [In venery a woman with a cock in her eye = a woman in a condition of sexual excitement, a woman that ‘means business.’ Cf., Pintle-keek (q.v.) and Look Pricks.] Of the kindred phrase, to cock the chin, an illustration appears in Elegant Extracts.

As Dick and Tom in fierce dispute engage, And face to face the noisy contest wage; ‘Don’t cock your chin at me,’ Dick smartly cries. ‘Fear not, his head’s not charg’d,’ a friend replies.

The French equivalent is s’aborgner (literally ‘to make oneself blind of one eye by closing it’).

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. ii. He … made wry faces, and, to use the vulgar phrase, cocked his eye at him, to the no small entertainment of the spectators.

1836. Marryat, Japhet, ch. iv. Timothy put on his hat, cocked his eye at me, and left us alone. [137]

1859. J. Eastwood, in Notes and Queries, 2 S., viii., 461. The phrase cock your eye is not at all an uncommon one in Yorkshire—meaning ‘direct your eye, give a glance.’

That cock won’t fight. phr. (common).—Originally cock-pit slang. Said of things problematical or doubtful.

1844. Puck, p. 124. ‘Song of the First Tragedian … having pawned his properties.’ Suppose I told my uncle what I fear he’d not believe, That I’ll certainly repay him the money ere I leave; That my benefit when it comes off is sure to prove a hit, I don’t think, with a screw like him, that cock would fight a bit.

By cock or by cock and pye. phr. (old).—‘Cock’ is here a corruption, or disguise of ‘God.’ We find also ‘cocks-passion,’ ‘cocks-body,’ and other allusions to the Saviour, or His body, as supposed to exist in the Host: the expression surviving the belief. In by cock and pye, the pie, or Sacred Book of Offices is added. By cock and pie and mousefoot, is quoted from the old play of Soliman and Perseda, Orig. of Drama, ii., p. 211.

1571. Edwards, Damon and Pythias, Old Pl., i., 216. W. By the masse I will boxe you. J. By cocke I will foxe you.

1598. Shakspeare, Henry IV., pt. II., Act v., Sc. 1. By cock and pie, sir, you shall not away to-night.

1606. Wily, Beguilede. Now by cock and pie, you never spoke a truer word in your life.

Knocked a-cock, adv. phr. (pugilistic).—Knocked ‘all of a heap,’ or ‘out of time.’ Obviously adapted from the lingo of the cock-pit, and suggested by the sight of the beaten bird laid on his back.

Cock-a-Doodle Broth, subs. phr. (? nonce phrase).—See quot.

1856. Reade, Never Too Late to Mend, ch. lxxxv. He complains that ‘he can’t peck,’ yet continues the cause of his infirmity, living almost entirely upon cock-a-doodle broth,—eggs beat up in brandy and a little water.

Cock-a-Hoop or Cock-on (or in-a)-Hoop, adj. (colloquial).—Strutting; triumphant; high-spirited; ‘uppish.’ [Ray suggested that it refers to the practice of taking out the spigot (an old synonym for the penis, by the way) and laying it on the top of a barrel with a view to drinking the latter dry; a proceeding that would naturally induce a certain swagger in the actors. There seems, however, no doubt that the true derivative is the French coq à houppé. Houppé, in French, is a tuft, touffe (and toupet, is kindred). Littré says, terme de blason, tuft of silk or tassel hanging from a hat: ‘Elle sert de timbre au chapeau des cardinaux,’ etc. Houppée is the foam on the top of a wave. Houppe is the tuft on a trencher cap: ‘Qui distingue,’ says Tarver, ‘le bonnet des nobles de celui des autres’ at the universities—hence tuft-hunter, coureur de houppes. Also, ‘Il trouve à se fourrer parmi les plus huppés’ = he contrives to vie with those at the very top of fashion. The Hoopoe, (Lat. Upupa), is a crested bird. Hence coq à houppé is a crested cock, and by analogy one swaggering, triumphant, exulting; so ‘cock-a-hoop’ is ‘cock-a-top,’ ‘cock-a-crest,’ elated beyond reason—‘cocky,’ as schoolboys say—‘cock of the walk,’ ‘cock at the top.’ In cock-fighting, the ‘cock-a-top’ is he that gets the vantage stroke. ‘Abattre l’orgueil des plus huppés’; to bring down the [138]crest of the highest. Cock-a-hoop is plainly the original expression, and cock-on-the-hoop a later form adopted when the original meaning had vanished.] English equivalents are ‘in full feather,’ and ‘a-cock-horse’ (q.v.), while colloquial French has s’en pourlécher la face and s’émérillonner (to become cheerful through repeated potations).

1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act i., Sc. 5. Am I the master here or you? Go to.… You will set cock-a-hoop! you’ll be the man.

1633. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, V., ii. John Clay agen! nay then—set cock-a-hoop: I have lost no daughter, nor no money, justice.

1707. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. XII., p. 20. Those cruel, sanctify’d Pretenders, Now rais’d by Fortune, cock-a-hoop.

1853. Diogenes, II., 195. ‘Our Foreign News Summary.’ All the cock-a-hoop Beys in the Sultan’s dominions Have taken to expressing their individual opinions.

1885. D. C. Murray, Rainbow Gold, bk. IV., ch. vi. He’s a fine lad, a fine lad, but cock-a-whoop, and over certain for his years.

Cock-Ale, subs. (old).—A homely aphrodisiac.—[Grose, 1785.] [An allusion to the penis and the stirring tendency of strong beer.] Nares says it was ‘a sort of ale which was very celebrated in the seventeenth century for its superior quality.’

1675. Woman Turn’d Bully [quoted in Nares]. Spr. How, Mr. Trupenny, not a drop worth drinking? Did you ever taste our cock-ale?

1698. Ward, London Spy. My friend by this time (knowing the entertainment of the house) had called for a bottle of cock-ale, of which I tasted a glass, but could not conceive it to be anything but a mixture of small beer and treacle. If this be cock-ale, said I, e’en let cockscombs drink it. [n.]

1738. Poor Robin. Notwithstanding the large commendations you give the juice of barley, yet if compar’d with canary, it’s no more than a mole-hill to a mountain; whether it be cock-ale, China ale, etc. [n.]

Cock Alley, subs. (old).—The female pudendum. Other derivations of the same make are Cock-chafer, Cock Hall, Cock Inn, Cock Lane, Cock-Loft, Cock-Pit, Cockshire, and Cock-shy. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Cockalorum or Cockylorum, subs. (common).—1. A half contemptuous address.—See quot.

1815–23. T. C. Carter, in Daily News, 7 Dec., 1889, p. 3, col. 5. In 1823 was displayed in a shop window in Pilgrim Street, Ludgate Hill, a picture entitled ‘Seizure for Rent.’ It represented the interior of a room; the only article of furniture a bottomless chair, on the edge of which was seated a half-clad man smoking a pipe. The doorway was filled up by a very fat beadle in full uniform; behind him in the shade could be seen two men, each with a porter’s knot. To the beadle the tenant was saying: ‘Now then, old cockalorum jig, seize away.’ In my school days, from 1815 to 1820, we often heard in the playground: ‘Now little cockalorum, out of that.’

2. (schoolboys’).—A rough and tumble game described as follows by a correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette (1890, Jan. 4, p. 2, col. 1):—

When I went to Harrow, thirty years ago, I found a winter evening game in force there, called ‘high cockalorum,’ of which I send you a sketch. The players used to divide into two opposing bands of from twelve to fourteen each—in fact, the more the merrier. One side ‘went down,’ so as to constitute a long ‘hogsback’—the last boy having a couple of pillows between himself and the wall, and each boy clasping his front rank man, and carefully tucking his own ‘cocoa-nut’ under his right arm, so as to prevent fracture of the vertebræ. When the hogsback was thus formed, the other side came on, leap-frogging on to [139]the backs of those who were down, the best and steadiest jumpers being sent first. Sometimes the passive line was broken quite easily by the ruse of a short high jump, coming with irresistible impulse on a back which was not expecting weight just yet. Sometimes a too ambitious leap-frogger ruined his party by overbalancing and falling off. It was, however, as the last two or three leap-froggers came on that the real excitement more generally began. There was absolutely no back-space belonging to the other party left to them; and they were obliged to pile themselves one upon another—‘Pelion on Ossa’ as it was called. When the last man was up it was his duty to say, ‘High cockalorum jig jig jig—high cockalorum jig jig jig—high cockalorum jig jig jig—off, off, off,’ and then alone was it permissible for tortured and perspiring human nature to fall in one indistinguishable heap to the ground. The repeater of the shibboleth often fell off himself as he was uttering the above incantation—thus losing the victory for his side. It was a splendid game. I understood from family inquiries that it was played at Harrow in my great grandfather’s time.

Cock-and-Breeches, subs. (common).—A sturdy, little man, or boy.

Cock-and-Bull-Story, subs. (colloquial).—An idle or silly story. [Presumably from some old legend of a cock and a bull, apropos to which it should be noted that the French equivalent is coq-à-l’âne, a ‘cock-and-ass.’]

1603. John Day, Law Trickes, Act iv., p. 66. Didst marke what a tale of a Cock and a Bull he tolde my father whilst I made thee and the rest away.

1759. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, vol. IX., ch. xxxiii. L—d! said my mother, what is all this about? A Cock and a Bull, said Yorick—and one of the best of its kind I ever heard.

1857. O. W. Holmes, Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. v. That sounds like a cock-and-bull story, said the young fellow whom they call John. I abstained from making Hamlet’s remarks to Horatio and continued.

1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S., xxiv., p. 432. ‘Giving ear to a cock-and-bull story that can’t be true!’

Cock-and-Hen-Club, subs. (common).—1. A free and easy gathering, or ‘sing-song,’ where females are admitted as well as males. [From cock-and-hen, the male and female bird, and used figuratively for men and women, + club.]

1819. Thos. Moore, Tom Crib’s Mem. to Congr., p. 78. A Masquerade, or Fancy Ball, given lately at one of the most fashionable Cock-and-Hen Clubs in St. Giles’s.

1828. G. Smeeton, Days in London, p. 40. Introduced him to one of the cock-and-hen houses near Drury Lane Theatre well primed with wine.

Cock-and-Pinch, subs. (old).—The old-fashioned beaver of forty years since. [From its being cocked back and front, and pinched at the sides.] For synonyms, see Golgotha.

Cockatoo-Farmer, subs. (Australian).—In Victoria and New South Wales a small farmer or selector. A term of contempt used by large holders in describing agricultural squatters with small capital. [Probably an allusion to their numbers: a comparing to the rush for land, the swooping of cockatoos in myriads in new sown corn.]

1865. H. Kingsley, Hillyars and Burtons, ch. lx. The small farmers [in Australian wool districts] contemptuously called cockatoos are the fathers of fire, the inventors of scab, the seducers of bush-hands for haymaking and harvesting [and many other heinous crimes].

1886. G. Sutherland, Australia, p. 64. The shepherd king tries to steal a march upon the poor cockatoo, as he contemptuously calls the small farmer.

1887. G. A. Sala, in Ill. L. News, 12 March, 282, col. 2. I venture to differ from my correspondent when, in telling [140]me that ‘cocky’ is Australian argot for a small farmer, adds, ‘by-the-by, you never hear the word “farmer” over there … many scores of times at the Antipodes I have heard agriculturists, whose holdings were small, spoken of, not as “cockies” but as “cockatoo farmers.” ’

Cockatrice, subs. (old).—1. A common prostitute; also a mistress or ‘keep.’ [Nares says ‘probably from the fascination of the eye,’ alluding to the fabulous monster hatched from a cock’s egg by a serpent. Shakspeare speaks of ‘the death-dealing’ eye of a cockatrice.] For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

1600. Ben Jonson, Cynth Rev., IV., 4. And withall, calls me at his pleasure I know not how many cockatrices and things.

1604. Marston and Webster, Malcontent, O. P., iv., 93. No courtier but has his mistress, no captain but has his cockatrice.

1630. Taylor, Workes [quoted by Nares]. And amongst souldiers this sweet piece of vice Is counted for a captaines cockatrice.

1664. Killegrew, Pandora. Some wine there, That I may court my cockatrice. Care. Good Captaine, Bid our noble friend welcome.

1740. Poor Robin. Some gallants will this month be so penurious that they will not part with a crack’d groat to a poor body, but on their cockatrice or punquetto will bestow half a dozen taffety gowns, who in requital bestows on him the French pox.

Cock-a-Wax, subs. (common).—1. A cobbler. [From cock a man (q.v.), + a + wax, an adjunct of the cobbler’s trade.] For synonyms, see Snob.

Cock-Bawd, subs. (old).—A male brothel keeper. [Quoted in Grose (1785).]

Cockchafer, subs. (thieves’).—1. The treadmill. For synonyms, see Wheel of life.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. II., p. 59. ‘He enpiated,’ as it is called, this offence by three months’ exercise on the cockchafer (treadmill).

1864. Glasgow Citizen, Nov. 19. The Jeremy Diddler who forges his honest name to a fakement, incurring thereby a drag at the cockchafer.

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 [141]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.

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. [142]

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.

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 [143]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.

3. (Charterhouse).—A lavatory where changing for games, washing before meals, etc., goes on. [From the taps over the basins.] It is equivalent to the Winchester Moab (q.v.).

Cock’s Egg. To give one a cock’s egg, phr. (common).—To send one on a fool’s errand; to gammon (q.v. for synonyms). The expression is of the same type as ‘to send one to buy pigeon’s milk,’ ‘oil of strappum,’ ‘strap oil,’ etc.

Cock-Shy, subs. (popular).—A mark, butt, or target; any person or thing that is the centre of jaculation.

c. 1834. Marryat, Rattlin the Reefer, p. 92. What a fine cockshy he would make, said Master Blubberlips.

18(?). Lord Strangford, Letters and Papers, p. 215. This was as if the great geologists … had invited two rival theorists to settle the question of a [144]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 fellatrix.

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.’