[f. COCK v.1 + -ING1.]
† 1. Fighting, strife, contention. Obs.
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 47. Ne beð nan icrunet bute hwase treoweliche iþulke feht fihte, and wið strong cockunge ouercume hire flesch.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls) V. 259. Þey ȝaf hem al to dronkenesse, kokkynge, strif, and envie.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 41 b. Betwene Aristippus and Diogenes the Cynike there was moche good cocking and striuing whether of them should win the spurres.
2. = COCK-FIGHTING.
1546. Plumpton Corr., 251. Ye shall se … all our good coxs fight, if it plese you, & se the maner of our cocking.
1615. Markham, Pleas. Princes (1635), 41. There is no pleasure more noble … then this pleasure of Cocking is.
1678. Lond. Gaz., No. 1282/4. Notice … there will be two great Matches of Cocking fought in His Majesties Cock-Pit at Newmarket.
1755. Gentl. Mag., XXV. 506. Idle and expensive diversions, such as cocking, horse-racing.
1886. W. Day, Remin., 234. He was very fond of cocking.
b. A cock-fight.
1630. Brathwait, Eng. Gentl. (1641), 117. In these tolerable Recreations of Horse-races, Cockings, Bowlings, &c.
1699. Sir W. Calverley, Note-bk. (Surtees), 79. I went to Leeds, to the Cockings.
1812. J. Moors, in Examiner, 30 Aug., 551/2. He had been at a cocking.
3. The shooting of wood-cocks.
1696. Aubrey, Misc. (1721), 62. To diuertise himself with cocking in his father’s park.
1857. Kingsley, Two Y. Ago, xi. (D.). There ought to be noble cocking in these woods.
1870. Blaine, Encycl. Rur. Sports, § 2660. We have already noticed Wales … as affording good cocking.
4. A turning or causing to project upward.
1678. Shadwell, Timon, I. Wks. 1720, II. 305. Pomp, and show, and holding up their heads And cocking of their noses.
1713. Guardian, No. 91. He strives as much as possible to get above his size, by stretching, cocking, or the like.
1881. Besant & Rice, Chapl. of Fleet, I. I. x. 201. As for the fashions of the young men, one year it is the cocking of a hat.
5. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 2) cocking-match; (sense 3) † cocking-cloth (see quot.); cocking-dog, -spaniel, a spaniel of a breed used in hunting wood-cocks, etc., a cocker; cocking-road (see COCK-ROAD).
1726. Dict. Rust. (ed. 3), Cocking-cloth, a Device to catch Pheasants with.
1731–6. Bailey, Cocking Cloth (with Fowlers), a Frame made of coarse canvas, about an ell square, tanned, with two sticks set across to keep it out, having a hole to look out at, and to put the nosel of a short gun through, for the shooting of Pheasants, &c.
1813. Trewman’s Exeter Flying-Post, 18 Nov., 1/3. A Gentleman is in immediate want of … Cocking Dogs, such as have been regularly hunted for Woodcock only.
1830. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. IV. (1863), 310. He is … famous for his breed of cocking spaniels.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, II. viii. Come along, and let’s go see the Cocking-Match.
