Green’s Dictionary of Slang

cock up v.

[cock-up n.]

(orig. milit.) to blunder, to make a mess of; often as cock it up.

[NZ]G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 162: I cocked up my exams.
[UK]J.P. Carstairs Concrete Kimono 30: O.K. I’d goofed (for U.S. readers) or cocked-up (for the British).
[UK]B.S. Johnson All Bull 60: They cocked things up somehow in my case.
[UK](con. 1960s) Nicholson & Smith Spend, Spend, Spend (1978) 185: I cocked it up.
[UK]M. Amis London Fields 418: It sounds as though you’ve cocked things up nicely.
[UK]K. Lette Foetal Attraction (1994) 181: I like the olden days [...] If a doctor cocked up, his hand got amputated.
[UK]Guardian G2 13 July 3: Labour have completely cocked it up.
[UK]K. Sampson Powder 232: Tell the band that the promoter’s cocked it up.
[UK]Guardian 4 Mar. 22: As though Doreen Lawrence and Sukhdev Reel would be happier if the investigations of their son’s deaths had been cocked-up by officers who weren’t white.
[UK]M. Coles Bible in Cockney 62: He tells the demons where to go, and he forgives people who cock things up – who sin.
[Aus]Bug (Aus.) July 🌐 The number-one law of the shithouse rat manager is when you cock up, the first thing you do is cover your tracks.
[UK]B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 278: The police and the Crown Prosecution Service had cocked up his papers.
[Aus]G. Gilmore Base Nature [ebook] ‘What d’you bring the big cheese in for?’ [...] ‘In case we cock things up’.