- a native of London. Originally, a spoilt or effeminate boy, derived from COCKERING, or foolishly petting a person, rendering him of soft and luxurious manners. Halliwell states, in his admirable essay upon the word, that “some writers trace the word with much probability to the imaginary land of COCKAYGNE, the lubber land of the olden times.” Grose gives Minsheu’s absurd but comical derivation:—A citizen of London being in the country, and hearing a horse neigh, exclaimed, “Lord! how that horse laughs!” A bystander informed him that the noise was called neighing. The next morning when the cock crowed, the citizen, to show that he had not forgotten what was told him, cried out, “Do you hear how the COCK NEIGHS?”—_See_ MARE’S NEST.
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Position in the dictionary: 706 of 4022 slang words.Next words in the dictionary: cocks, cockshy, cocksure, cocky, cocoa-nut, cocum, cod, coddam, codds, codger
Previous words in the dictionary: cockles, cocker, cocked-hat-shaped, cocked-hat-club, cockalorum, cock-robin shop, cock-eye, cock-and-pinch, cock-and-hen-club, cock-a-wax