a. [app. f. COCK sb.1: cf. tricksy and cocky.] Self-important, saucy, impudent, ‘bumptious,’ cocky. (Mostly a schoolboy’s word.) Hence Coxiness.
1825. Jamieson, Suppl., Cocksie, affecting airs of importance (Lanarks.); synon. with Cocky.
1846. Landor, Imag. Conv., II. 229/1. More blustering and cocksy.
1857. S. Osborn, Quedah, xxiv. 345. A stiff and cocksy-looking handkerchief fluttered around his glossy and erect hair.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, I. viii. He’s the coxiest young blackguard in the house.
1883. ‘F. Anstey,’ Vice Versâ, iv. 71. You used to be a decent fellow enough last term, though you were coxy.
1859. J. Payn, Foster Brothers, viii. 129. Never shall our voice be raised against the just reproof, administered by hand or foot, of ‘cheek’ and ‘coxiness.’
1881. Pall Mall Gaz., 11 April, 11/1. White planters grumble in unanimous chorus about his [the negro’s] laziness, his thieving propensities, and his illimitable coxiness.
