[f. as prec. + -RY.]
† 1. Foolishness, foolery. Obs.
1608. Middleton, Trick to Catch Old One, III. iv. Thou kitchin-stuffe drab of Beggery, Roguery, & cockscombre.
2. The action, behavior or manner characteristic of a coxcomb; foppery.
1774. Westm. Mag., II. 348. Our spunk of valour is degenerated into coxcombry.
1828. Macaulay, Misc. Writ. (1860), I. 245. The solemn coxcombry of Pinkerton.
1857. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt., I. xxii. 82. Military coxcombry and ignorance were always at work in India.
1870. R. B. Brough, Marston Lynch, x. 82. Attired in a nautical suit of ineffable coxcombry.
b. (with a and pl.) A trait or characteristic of a coxcomb; a thing in which foppery is embodied.
1792. W. Roberts, Looker-on, No. 16. There was no great appearance of trade in the city, except in coxcombries and gewgaws. Ibid. (1793), No. 58. He … must even introduce his coxcombries, affectations, and eccentricities into … the pulpit.
1832. L. Hunt, Sir R. Esher (1850), 367. Unless it be a coxcombry in me, still, to say so.
1849. Ruskin, Sev. Lamps, iv. § 34. 124. A perfection … which by itself, and regarded in itself, is an architectural coxcombry.
1878. Morley, Diderot, I. 137. Some of the coxcombries of literary modishness.
3. Coxcombs collectively.
1818. Byron, Beppo, lxxv. Of coxcombry’s worst coxcombs e’en the pink. Ibid. (1823), Island, II. xiv. No babbling crowd or coxcombry in admiration loud.
