Cock

subs. (common).—1.  The penis. Cf., Ger., Hahn, Hänchen. [Possibly related to ‘cock’ = turn-valve.] For synonyms, see CREAMSTICK.

  1600.  SHAKESPEARE, King Henry V., ii. 1.—Cf.

  1647.  BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, The Custom of the Country, iii., 3. The main-spring’s weaken’d that holds up his COCK.

  1730.  BAILEY, English Dictionary, s.v.

  1737.  RABELAIS. trans. I., 185., s.v.

  1807.  RABELAIS. trans. [LONGMAN’S ed.], s.v., I., 169.

  1849.  RABELAIS. trans. [BOHN’S ed.], s.v., I., 135.

  2.  (colloquial).—A chief or leader; particularly in such phrases as COCK OF THE WALK, SCHOOL, etc. [A simile drawn from the barndoor.] Cf., sense 3, and adj.

  1711.  Spectator, No. 131. Service to the knight. Sir Andrew is grown the COCK OF THE CLUB since he left us, and if he does not return quickly will make every mother’s son of us commonwealth’s men.

  1729.  SWIFT, Grand Question Debated. But at cuffs I was always the COCK OF THE SCHOOL.

  1764.  O’HARA, Midas, I., 1.

  1811–63.  W. M. THACKERAY, Miscellanies, II., 275. There is no more dangerous or stupifying position for a man in life than to be a COCK OF SMALL SOCIETY.

  1862.  E. WOOD, The Channings, II. ix. Were I going in for the seniorship, and one below me were suddenly hoisted above my head and made COCK OF THE WALK, I’d know the reason why.

  3.  (common).—A familiar address; e.g., OLD COCK, or JOLLY OLD COCK. [Probably derived from sense 1.] Amongst similar expressions may be mentioned OLD MAN, MY PIPPIN, and in French, mon vieux zig, or lapin.

  1639.  MASSINGER, The Unnatural Combat, II., i. He has drawn blood of him yet: well done, OLD COCK.

  1749.  FIELDING, Tom Jones, bk. XVIII., ch. x. Then give me thy fist, a’t as hearty an honest COCK as any in the kingdom.

  1825.  C. M. WESTMACOTT, The English Spy, vol. I., p. 215.

  [Note: The SUNDAY men, as they are facetiously called in the fashionable world, are not now so numerous as formerly: the facility of a trip across the Channel enables many a SHY COCK to evade the eye and affectionate attachment of the law.]

  1836.  DICKENS, Pickwick Papers (about 1827), p. 367 (ed. 1857). ‘Do you always smoke arter you goes to bed, OLD COCK?’ inquired Mr. Weiler of his landlord, when they had both retired for the night. ‘Yes, I does, young Bantam,’ replied the cobbler.

  1841.  Punch, vol. I., p. 278. The people down here are a queer lot, but I have hunted up two or three JOLLY COCKS, and we contrive to keep the place alive between us.

  1855.  THACKERAY, The Newcomes, ch. xvi. Shrewd OLD COCK, Mr. Binnie. Has brought home a good bit of money from India.

  1870.  London Figaro, 19 Oct. What on earth is the meaning of Mr. Santley’s voice being over-crowed by a mammoth orchestra? I never heard before that fiddles crowed, or that Mr. Santley was a COCK. He is what is known as a JOLLY COCK, but there his similarity to the noisy fowl ends.

  4.  (racing).—A horse not intended to win the race for which it is put down, but kept in the lists to deceive the public.

  1887.  The Field, May 29. In the phraseology of slangy turfites, the horse was a COCK; i.e., it had been liberally backed, but was never intended to run.

  5.  (common).—Primarily the fictitious narratives in verse or prose of murders, fires, etc. (see quot., 1851), produced for sale in the streets. Famous manufactories of COCKS were kept by ‘Jemmy’ Catnach and Johnny Pitts, called the Colburn and Bentley of the ‘paper’ trade. They fought bitterly, and Catnach informed the world that Pitts had once been a ‘bumboat woman,’ while Pitts declared—

Catnach got at last to be ‘Cock of the Walk,’ and remained so till his retirement in 1839. [Hotten thought the word might be a corruption of cook, a ‘cooked’ or garbled statement, or a coinage from ‘cock and bull story.’] Fr., une goualante.

  1851–61.  H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, vol. I., p. 228. What are technically termed COCKS, which, in polite language, means accounts of fabulous duels between ladies of fashion, of apocryphal elopements … or awful tragedies, etc.

  Hence applied to any incredible story.

  1870.  London Figaro, 1 Feb. We are disposed to think that COCKS must have penetrated to Eastern Missouri.

  6.  (thieves’).—An abbreviation of ‘cockney.’

  7.  (printers’).—In gambling or playing with ‘quads,’ a COCK is when one (or more) of the nine pieces does not fall flat but lodges crosswise on another. The player is then given another chance.

  8.  (tailors’).—GOOD COCK—POOR COCK. A good and bad workman, respectively.

  Adj. (colloquial).—Chief; first and foremost. Cf., COCK, subs., sense 2.

  1676.  ETHEREGE, The Man of Mode, II., ii., in wks. (1704), 211. Why the very COCK-fool of all those fools, Sir Fopling Flutter.

  1856.  T. HUGHES, Tom Brown’s School-days, pt. II., ch. vi. They’ll make the old Madman COCK medicine-man and tattoo him all over.

  Verb (venery).—1.  To copulate. Usually employed by women and in the passive sense: e.g., ‘to want cocking,’ or ‘to get cocked.’ For synonyms, see RIDE.

  2.  (common).—To smoke.

  COCK THE EYE, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To shut or wink one eye; to leer; to look incredulous. Fr., cligner des œillets. Cf., COCK-EYED. [In venery a woman with A COCK IN HER EYE = a woman in a condition of sexual excitement, a woman that ‘means business.’ Cf., PINTLE-KEEK (q.v.) and LOOK PRICKS.] Of the kindred phrase, to COCK THE CHIN, an illustration appears in Elegant Extracts.

  The French equivalent is s’aborgner (literally ‘to make oneself blind of one eye by closing it’).

  1751.  SMOLLETT, Peregrine Pickle, ch. ii. He … made wry faces, and, to use the vulgar phrase, COCKED HIS EYE at him, to the no small entertainment of the spectators.

  1836.  MARRYAT, Japhet, ch. iv. Timothy put on his hat, COCKED HIS EYE at me, and left us alone.

  1859.  J. EASTWOOD, in Notes and Queries, 2 S., viii., 461. The phrase COCK YOUR EYE is not at all an uncommon one in Yorkshire—meaning ‘direct your eye, give a glance.’

  TO COCK SNOOKS, verbal phr. (common).—See COFFEE-MILLING and SNOOKS.

  THAT COCK WON’T FIGHT, phr. (common).—Originally cockpit slang. Said of things problematical or doubtful.

  1844.  Puck, p. 124. ‘Song of the First Tragedian … having pawned his properties.’

  BY COCK or BY COCK AND PYE, phr. (old).—‘Cock’ is here a corruption, or disguise of ‘God.’ We find also ‘cocks-passion,’ ‘cocks-body,’ and other allusions to the Saviour, or His body, as supposed to exist in the Host: the expression surviving the belief. In BY COCK AND PYE, the PIE, or Sacred Book of Offices is added. BY COCK AND PIE AND MOUSE FOOT, is quoted from the old play of Soliman and Perseda, in Hawkins, The Origin of the English Drama (1773), ii., p. 211.

  1571.  EDWARDS, Damon and Pithias (DODSLEY, Old Plays i., 216. IV.). Jack. By the masse I will boxe you. Will. By cocke I will foxe you.

  1596.  SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, iv. 5. BY COCKE they are to blame.

  1598.  SHAKESPEARE, 2 Henry IV., v. 1. BY COCK AND PIE, sir, you shall not away to-night.

  1606.  Wily Beguiled [HAWKINS, The Origin of the English Drama, iii. 372]. Now BY COCK AND PIE, you never spake a truer word in your life.

  KNOCKED A-COCK, adv. phr. (pugilistic).—Knocked ‘all of a heap,’ or ‘out of time.’ Obviously adapted from the lingo of the cock-pit, and suggested by the sight of the beaten bird laid on his back.