The fighting of cocks; the sport of making cocks fight each other; formerly much practised, but made illegal by Act 12 & 13 Vict. c. 92.
c. 1450. How Goode Wyfe (Ashm. MS.), 74. Ne go þou not to no wrastlynge, Ne ȝit to no coke fyghtynge [Lamb. MS. schotynge at cok].
1518. Stat. St. Paul’s School, in Knight, Life Colet, 362 (Brand). I will they use no Cock-fightinge nor ridinge about of Victorye.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus. (1879), 180, note (title), Cockfightyng in Ailgna.
1684. Lond. Gaz., No. 1930/4. At the Royal Cock-Pit at Windsor the 27th Instant begins a great Match of Cock-fighting between two Persons of Quality, which will continue the whole week.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., III. 88. Cock-Fighting with us is declining every day.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., III. vii. (1876), 376. In the reign of Edward III. cock-fighting became a fashionable amusement.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 256–7. His personal tastes were low and frivolous; and most of the time … was spent in racing, cardplaying, and cockfighting.
attrib. 1791–9. Statist. Acc. Scotl., VI. 614. In 1783, there were many public Cock-fighting Matches, or Mains.
b. To beat cock-fighting: a vulgar colloquialism (and as such used in fiction) for ‘to surpass everything else’ (as this sport in the opinion of its votaries surpassed every other).
[1659. Gauden, Tears Ch., 228. Ministers scufflings and contests with one another, is beyond any Cock-fighting or Bear-baiting to the vuglar envy, malice, profanenesse and petulancy.]
1821. Blackw. Mag., IX. 133/1. Always excepting Mrs. M‘Whirter, for she beats cockfighting.
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., vii. 78 (D.). I assert that my friend Chevy Slyme being held in pawn for a bill, beats any amount of cock-fighting with which I am acquainted.
1853. Lytton, My Novel, I. III. xi. 204 (D.). The Squire faltered out, ‘Well, this beats cock-fighting! The man’s as mad as a march hare…!’
