sb. and a. [f. cock up verbal combination: see COCK v.1]
A. sb. 1. A distinct turn up at the end or tip.
1826. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. II. (1863), 429. The cock-up of the nose, which seems … to be snuffing up intelligence.
2. A hat or cap cocked or turned up in front.
a. 1693. in Sc. Presbyt. Eloquence (1738), 129. I have been this Year of God preaching against the Vanity of Women, yet I see my own Daughter in the Kirk Even now have as high a Cockup as any of you all.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxv. Your cockups and your fallal duds—see what they a’ come to.
3. A fresh-water and estuarian fish of India (Lates calcarifer). [Origin of name uncertain: see Yule.]
1845. Stocqueler, Handbk. Brit. India (1854), 283. Cockup, crabs, lobsters, shrimps.
1854. Badham, Halieut., 114. The Lates Nobilis of the erudite, somewhat freely rendered ‘cock-up-fish’ by the Bengalese.
B. adj.
1. Cocked up, turned up at the tip.
1832. L. Hunt, Poems, To J. H., i. With cock-up nose so lightsome.
2. Printing. Having the top much above the top line of the other letters: applied to a large type used for an initial of a book or part.
1838. Timperley, Printer’s Manual, 58. The first word … is generally put in small capitals, either after a capital of its own body, or one of a larger size, called a cock-up letter.
