or cookie. TO BET A COOKIE, verbal phr. (American).—The custom of preparing the cakes still known in Scotland as COOKIES was part and parcel of American life. [The COOKEY, like the English pancake on Shrove Tuesday, and the hot cross bun on Good Friday, forms a special old-fashioned dainty, at Christmas-tide and New Year. From the Dutch kækje, dim. of kæk, a cake.]
1870. BRET HARTE, The Luck of Roaring Camp, p. 227. Don’t know what he is! He lost every hoof and hide, I’ll BET A COOKEY!
1872. Lloyd’s Weekly, 28 April. ‘Probate Court Report.’ Might have said she would BET A COOKEY that the will was in America. (Laughter.)
1888. Detroit Free Press, 31 March. A book has just been published to instruct reporters in the use of proper phrases. We BET A COOKEY no reporter will ever read it.
