Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 2.pdf/153

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Cock-up, subs. (printers').—What is technically known as a 'superior'; e.g., the smaller letters in the following examples:

Y^e Limt^d Comp^y; J^{no.} Smith, Sen^{r.}; N^{o.}; London^1

Cocked-up, adj.—See Cocky.

Cock Up One's Toes, verbal phr. (thieves').—To die. For synonyms, see Aloft and Hop the twig.

1820. Reynolds. ('Peter Corcoran'), The Fancy. 'King Tims the First.' Now I see a neighbour cock his toe—Walk by his side in black—in well paid woe.

1864. E. D. Forgues, in Revue des deux Mondes, Sep. 15, p. 472, note. Cock one's toes. Cette locution, si bizarre au premier coup d'œil, doit s'expliquer par un des phénomènes de la retraction cadavérique; les pieds du mort, ramenés en arrière, ont pu rappeler la position que prend le chien de la batterie quand le fusil est armé.

Cocky or Cocking, adj. (popular).—1. Pert or saucy; forward; coolly audacious; over confident, 'botty.' [Formerly cocking. An allusion to the strut of the barn-*door bird.] Fr., se gourer, to be cocky; also se gonfler, faire sa merde, and faire son matador.

1711. Spectator, No. 153. But the cocking young fellow who treads upon the toes of his elders, and the old fool who envies the saucy pride he sees in him, are the objects of our present contempt and derision.

1820. Clare, Poems of Rural Life, Familiar Epistle, st. 5. I've long been aggravated shocking, To see our gentry folks go cocking

1856. T. Hughes, Tom Brown's School-days, pt. II., ch. vi. 'It seems so cocky in me to be advising you.'

1864. Glasgow Citizen, Nov. 19. Cotgrave (1672) gives us 'Herr, master or sir; a rogue.' Aleman ['The Spanish Rogue'] Vous faite du Herr. 'You are very cockit, or lusty; you take too much upon you.' Is it not gratifying to know that cockiness is older than this century, in which it has been developed to so alarming an extent?

1872. The Scotsman, 29 Oct. 'Sir J. Pakington at Stourbridge.' He should be inclined to offer him a little homely advice, and to tell him in somewhat plain language 'Not to be too cocky.'

1884. Cornhill Mag., April, p. 442. 'Davis,' said Toddy, 'you haven't had a banging this term, and you're getting cocky.'

2. (Stock Exchange).—Brisk; active—applied to the money market.

1871. Figaro, 3 June. 'Notes on Change.' Everything again brisk, and the market, what is expressly termed cocky.

Cocoa-Nut, subs. (general).—The head. Fr. le coco. For synonyms, see Crumpet.

1834. W. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, p. 176 (ed. 1864). 'A thousand pities that so fine a fellow should have a sconce like a cocoa-nut!'

1840. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. iii. 'The Major a-pokin' along with his cocoa-nut down, a-studyin' over somethin' or another quite deep.'

c. 1880. Broadside Ballad, Waltzing Round the Water-butt.' Gaily the troubadour will waltz round the water-butt, Blissful the happy thoughts that float round my cocoa-nut, Moonlight and spooning 'neath the old hazel tree!

That accounts for the milk in the cocoa-nut, phr. (common).—A rejoinder upon having a thing explained for the first time.

To have no milk in the cocoa-nut, phr.—To be insane; silly; 'cracked.'—See Apartments.

Cocum, Kocum, subs. (common).—1. Shrewdness; ability; luck; cleverness. [From the Hebrew