[f. COCK sb.1 13.]
† 1. To place (a match) in the cock of an old matchlock gun. Also fig. Obs.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, II. i. 17. To cocke his burning match. Ibid., III. i. 41. Hauing … made themselues ready, and cocked their matches.
1645. Roxb. Ballads, VI. 282. Cock your match, prim[e] your pan, let piercing bullets fly!
1648. Petition Eastern Assoc., 21. Hot disputes already lighted, and cock’d between the two Kingdoms.
2. To put (a loaded fire-arm) in readiness for firing by raising the cock or hammer; to draw (the cock) back. To full cock, half cock: cf. COOK sb.1 13 b. Also absol.
1649. Milton, Eikon., 23. Pistols cockt and menac’d in the hands of about 300 Ruffians.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys.-Mech., xiv. 88. We took a Pistol … and … prim’d it with well dry’d Gunpowder, and then cocking it [etc.].
1719. De Foe, Crusoe (1840), I. xvi. 280. He sees me cock and present.
1812. Byron, Waltz, ii. A modern hero … Cock’d—fired—and miss’d his man.
1847. Infantry Man. (1854), 111. Cock the rifle.
1875. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, I. I. xi. 44. A gun … which opens and full-cocks with a most convenient lever under the trigger-guard.
