or cocking, adj. (popular).—1. Pert or saucy; forward; coolly audacious; over confident, ‘botty.’ [Formerly COCKING. An allusion to the strut of the barndoor 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. JOHN CLARE, Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery, ‘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 Magazine, 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.
