Obs. ? slang. Also cocoloch, cockoloach, -loch. [The F. coqueluche ‘hood,’ ‘person who is all the vogue,’ corresponds in form, but app. was never used with the sense of the Eng. word. Nares thought it probably the same as cockroach; but of this there is no evidence.] A term of reproach or contempt: A mean fellow; ‘a silly coxcomb.’
c. 1611. Beaum. & Fl., 4 Plays, Triumph Hon., i. I will rather … draw my sword of fate on a peasant, a besognio, a cocoloch.
1628. Shirley, Witty Fair One, II. ii. A couple of cockloches!
1641. Barthol. Faire, 4. Hocus Pocus … shewing his art of Legerdemaine, to the admiration and astonishment of a company of cockoloaches.
1863. Sala, Capt. Dang., I. i. 8. Were I a cockoloch, I might grudge that snipping off … of a fortnight from an Old Man’s life.
