Green’s Dictionary of Slang

cock n.3

[Lat. cuccus, the male domestic fowl; thus the term has been used for any object that resembles a cock’s head. As far as its use as a sexual term is concerned, cock here mixes the basic image of the cock as rooster (itself a 19C US euph.) and the cock’s head seen as a tap-like shape, this secondary aspect emphasized by its function in ‘pouring’ semen (or urine); thus Bacchanalian Mag. (1793): ‘O that [...] / My cock were turn’d into a tap, / To run when I did call’ Tabooed subseq. to Queen Victoria’s coronation, it has yet to return to the mainstream. Note DSUE: ‘always SE but since 1830 a vulgarism’ and OED (in late 19C) notes ‘the current name among the people, but, pudoris causa, not admissible in polite speech or literature’]

1. (UK/US North, also cockey, cocky) the penis.

[UK] ‘I Have a Gentil Cock’ [ballad] I have a gentil cock / comen he is of great / his comb is of red coral / his tail is of jet [...] and every night he pertcheth him / in my lady’s chamber.
[UK]Shakespeare Henry V II i: Pistol’s cock is up, And flashing fire will follow.
[UK]N. Field Amends for Ladies I i: Oh man what art thou? when thy cock is vp?
[UK]Fletcher Custom of the Country III iii: He’s foul i’th’ touch-hole; and recoils again, The main-Spring’s weaken’d that holds up his cock.
[UK] ‘The Hangman’s Last Will & Testament’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) II 150: Lambert would also borrow the Block, / As well as my Lady did Olivers Cock.
[Ire]F. Kirkman Eng. Rogue 148: It was strange he could not choose one honest Woman out of so many; for she matcht his Cock, she proving more inclinable to Venery .
[UK]D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 42: My Lady [...] made a Pish, / And swore she’d have a Turkey-cock, for she loved a standish Dish.
[UK]Proc. Old Bailey 14 Oct. 4/1: The Prosecutor deposed that [...] there were 3 of them [i.e. women], one told him one way, one another, that they forc’d him into a House, swore they would feel his Cock, and made several Attempts.
J. Mottley Joe Miller’s Jests I’ll tell you how you may satisfy both me and my daughter: Only take down your Breeches and let your Cock stand.
[UK]Teague-Root Display’d cover: Paddy Strong-Cock, Fellow of Drury-lane [...] He moveth his Tail like a Cedar, and his Strength lyeth in the Navel of his Belly.
[UK]Nancy Dawson’s Jests 15: Come, gentlemen, says she, [...] which of you will set up your cock till I knock it down.
[Scot]Gentleman’s Bottle-Companion 12: When I spy’d the dear tuft that’s between her white thighs [...] O what swelling and throbbing then stiffen’d my C---.
[UK]Proc. Old Bailey 13 Jan. 133/1: Only my daddy; my daddy, put his hand up my coats. Did he do any thing more? - Yes; he put his cock up into my body.
[UK]The only True LIST, of those celebrated SPORTING LADIES [broadsheet] There with be matching of Cocks, Boxing, Jugling, Humbugging &c.
[UK]C. Morris ‘The Great Plenipotentiary’ Collection of Songs (1788) 40: The children cried, ‘Look! there’s the Man with the Cock! / That’s the great Plenipotentiary.’.
[Ire] ‘Fight your Cock in the Morning’ Luke Caffrey’s Gost 7: A brisk young soldier standing by, / Upon this fair Maid cast an eye. / To fight my Cock I you defy, / To rouse me up in the morning.
[Scot]Burns ‘Pur John’s Brak Yestreen’ Merry Muses of Caledonia (1965) 108: An’ they an argument began, / An’ a’ the plea was cocks.
[UK] ‘The Giblet Pye’ in Bold (1979) 228: His cock it stood erectd, / His breechs down about his heels.
[UK] ‘The Plumber’s Ball-cock’ Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 25: The cock did likewise leak – it was not a good fit: / So he very wisely, with two stones, began to drive it in.
[US]Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) Mar. 22 3/2: ‘My daddy’s got a little cock, that runs among the hens’.
[UK] ‘The Laundress And Her Ass’ Rambler’s Flash Songster 4: Why yer honer, ’tis true what I’m telling you, / His cock has been bang-in(g) my ass.
[UK]Crim.-Con. Gaz. 10 Aug. 266/3: [advert] ‘Larks!’ quoth my lady, and for supper too — / ‘Give my lord hens, and me a cock or two’.
[UK] ‘Cat’ [broadsheet ballad] Said Nelly to John if you’ll pull up my smock / You’ll find a young hen full as good as your cock.
[US]Flash (NY) 10 Dec. n.p.: A girl of the town on a errand for her ‘missus’ was bargaining for a rooster [...] ‘Say, gal, if you’d take a pair of them chickens I’ll put the cock in at your price’.
[Aus]Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 11 Feb. 2/2: Foss threatens that if the inhabitan[t]s don’t take their water from the Corporation, that he will [...] ‘cut off their cocks.’ This threat has nutrally caused great excitement.
[UK]Sam Sly 10 Mar. 3/1: Mr. W—k—s, the watchmaker, to take his daughter to the auction rooms, Commercial-road, as she is sadly in want of a man, poor thing-. How about the glass cock, Annie?
Peeping Tom 1 2/2: ‘On the faith of a Christian woman [...] I will lay in a store of cocks enough to last my lifetime’.
[US] ‘Jeff Davis Dream’ T.P. Lowry Stories the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell (1994) ) 50: He brought his arse up in the air / With his cock as hard as crystal.
[UK]Rosa Fielding 9: He unfastened his trousers and brought to view his cock, and a very good, useful, stiff-standing, domestic piece of machinery it was.
[UK] ‘The Queen and Louise’ in Bold (1979) 190: Now Lorne comes of a stock that’s renowned for its cock.
[UK] ‘Young Beginners’ Pearl 4 Oct. 17: When she was drying me, she began tickling my little cockey.
[UK]‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) I 13: She kissed me, got out my cock, and played with it.
[Aus]Dead Bird (Sydney) 9 Nov. 1/4: The latest addition to the attractions on the stage at the Opera House are a number of cockatoos suspended among the swinging virgins. There is a mistake, however, as it is noticeable that there is only one hanging between each two girls. [...] There should be at least one to each girl.
[UK]P. Norroy Art of Child-Love 32: Sir Harry, taking my hand and clasping it round his ‘cock’ near the end, told me to rub it gently up and down.
[UK]‘Donewell’ Green Girls 11: At the contact of her little hand [...] his cockey swelled up and poured out its liquid.
[US]D. St John Memoirs of Madge Buford 19: His lovely cock bolt upright aganst his belly.
[UK]Lustful Memoirs of a Young and Passionated Girl 22: ‘You would enjoy it much better if I put this in there’ and he put her hand on his cock.
[Ire]Joyce letter 2 Dec. to Nora Barnacle in Ellman Sel. Letters (1975) 181: Your hot lips sucking off my cock.
[US] Transcript Dunn Inq. in L.R. Murphy Perverts by Official Order (1989) 81: He had ‘an awful big cock’.
[Ire]Joyce Ulysses 725: I often felt I wanted to kiss him all over also his lovely young cock there so simple I wouldnt mind taking him in my mouth if nobody was looking.
[US]H. Miller Tropic of Capricorn (1964) 19: It looked like a grand chancre on a worn-out cock.
[UK]P. Larkin letter 7 Apr. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 34: ‘Sidney Keyes is already outstanding’ says Stephen Spender in the Year’s Poetry in Horizon. So is the rock of Gibraltar & a negro’s cock.
[UK]K. Amis letter 19 Feb. in Leader (2000) 504: Pissed in Gents, failed to shake cock enough and drenched left leg.
[UK]Auden ‘The Platonic Blow’ in Mills (1983) 324: Sighting along the underside / Of his cock I looked through the forest of pubic hair.
[US]D. Goines Inner City Hoodlum 12: Both men had teased each other about the size of the black man’s cock.
[UK]S. Berkoff Decadence in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 19: All those dishy soldiers in the raw with cocks a-flashing everywhere.
[UK]N. Farki Countryman Karl Black 68: You head dry like dry-up cocky.
[US]S. Morgan Homeboy 21: She gripped the iron bed railing [...] lifting herself, plopping out his wrung cock.
[UK]K. Sampson Powder 55: He felt the warm abrasion of his cock rubbing against his groin as he walked.
[UK]Z. Smith White Teeth 10: The Hoover tube lay like a great flaccid cock on his back seat.
[Aus]L. Redhead Rubdown [ebook] [A man] with an incredibly hot body and large cock.
[UK]K. Richards Life 12: That was the tour of the giant inflatable cock.
[Aus]L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] I thought about his tongue on my clit and his cock in my pussy.
[US]L. Berney Whiplash River [ebook] [I]t was a good thing he had such a goddam big cock.
[UK]J. Fagan Panopticon (2013) 227: The phallus, the prick, the cock [...] it’s not the most powerful thing in the world.
[US]F. Bill Donnybrook [ebook] A stiff cock to satisfy her desire for companionship.
Alkaline ‘Fuck You’ 🎵 Me love fi fuck you, baby / Cocky go up inna your pussy.
[US]T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 105: [T]he fantasy of that big Black cock in his face.
[US]J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 125: A dance-hall beat had taken over; a Jamaican man with a computery voice told his girlfriend to “Sit upon de cocky” and ride it like a “jockey” .
[UK]J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 183: Eden sucking a cock whilst being double fucked by a brace of Maharajahs.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

[US]‘J.M. Hall’ Anecdota Americana I 104: ‘Do you like cocktails?’ asked the college boy of the shy young lady, in a restaurant. ‘Oh, yes. Tell me some!’.

3. a man as a sexual being.

[UK]Dekker & Webster Westward Hoe V i: Men are so iealous, or rather enuious of one anothers happinesse ... that he who shall misse his hen, if hee be a right Cocke indeede, will watch the other from treading.
[UK]Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girle III ii: ’Tis one of Hercules’ labours to tread one of these city hens, because their cocks are still crowing over them.
[UK]Dick of Devonshire in Bullen II (1883) II i: My young Cocke has been treading.
[UK]Ford Love’s Sacrifice III i: One cock hath trod both our hens.
[UK]F. Fane Love in the Dark IV i: If you be his Wife, you shall soon be his Widow. I’ll have your French Cock roasted alive, with his Gizards and Sausages about him there.
[UK]Fifteen Real Comforts of Matrimony 58: Change your Cock, was a piece of advice once given to a Lady ... upon a complaint of ineffectual conjunction.
[US]Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) 15 Mar. 2/2: Pretty fair articles pass off [...] and Jackson pullets command some attention by the old bank cocks.
[US](con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 56: ‘She put out for [...] half the stray cock in this town’.

4. a man, spec. a plucky fighter.

[UK] ‘The Kind-Hearted Creature’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1893) VII:1 160: And if it be a prety-cocke, then that w[ould] William be.
[UK]‘Nickydemus Ninnyhammer’ Homer in a nut-shell 43: So merrily they quaff’d, no wonder, / If many an honest Cock knock’d under.
[UK]J. Sheppard Sheppard in Egypt 1: I acknowledge my self much oblig’d, to those Hearty Cocks, who waited at the Turn-stile for me with their Truncheons.
[UK]Fielding Tom Jones (1959) 622: Then give me thy fist; a’t as hearty an honest cock, as any in the kingdom.
[UK]Foote Knights in Works (1799) I 76: A jolly cock, you Tim.
[UK]Bridges Homer Travestie (1764) II 31: The broomshaft hap’d to light upon / A hearty cock, nam’d Deicoon.
[UK]M.P. Andrews Election 3: The Squire’s an honest cock.
[UK]Carlisle in Jesse George Selwyn (1843) III 159: In gaming, ’tis said, he’s the stoutest of cocks; / No man can play deeper than this Mr. Fox.
[UK]G. Parker View of Society II 214: No giving the unhappy object of punishment drink – no crying out, ‘Die like a cock’.
[UK]Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) I 11: Else soon our best and bravest cocks / Will be destroy’d by plague or pox.
[UK] ‘Song’ in Jovial Songster 11: We English hearty cocks always drub ’em.
[UK]‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 148: I have learned enough of your character to pronounce you a trump, a prime cock, and nothing but a good one.
[UK] in Egan Bk of Sports 143: You told me at all times a different story, / ’Twas ‘welcome, my cock, to the best in the bar.
[Ire]S. Lover Handy Andy 149: The old cock is not a bad hand at it.
[Aus]Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 18 Feb. 2/4: ‘Tip us your flipper, old boy’ [...] ‘How goes it, Buckley, my cock’.
[UK]A. Smith Adventures of Mr Ledbury III 234: Jolly cocks!
[UK]Thackeray Newcomes I 159: Shrewd old cock, Mr. Binnie. Has brought home a good bit of money from India.
[Aus]Bell’s Life in Sydney 20 Jan. 3/3: Her husband, a jolly looking old cock, named Joe.
[US]Louisville Dly Courier (KY) 29 Jan. 3/2: Robert Alexander, a venerable old cock, with one side of his head considerably battered and bruised.
[UK]London & Provincial Entr’acte 15 Oct. 3/1: And there I see my dear old friend, / The best of ‘jolly cocks’.
[Ire]C.J. Kickham Knocknagow 219: ’Tis to the old cock I was talking. How goes it my old Trojan?
[US]A.H. Lewis Boss 73: It is policy thus to let the younger cocks try beak and spur among themselves; it develops leadership.

5. an expert, an exemplar.

[UK]‘The Hectors and the Vintner’ in Ebsworth Merry Drollery Compleat (1875) 9: For you that have London’s brave Liquors of wine / For us the Cocks of the Hectors.
[US]Spectator No. 131 n.p.: Service to the knight. Sir Andrew is grown the cock of the club since he left us, and if he does not return quickly will make every mother’s son of us commonwealth’s men [F&H].
[Ire]K. O’Hara Midas I i: Cock of the School. He bears despotic rule.
[UK]A. Pasquin Shrove Tuesday 28: Oh he was (every inch) a Cock of Cocks!
[UK]J. Reynolds Blind Bargain II i: What! let me be cock of the party!
[Scot](con. early 17C) W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel II 237: You said, I, that was the cock of the ward, would soon be the cock of the ordinary.
[UK]Bell’s Penny Dispatch 27 Feb. 2/5: That bullying snob Murphy, who thinks himelf the cock of the room.
[UK]T. Buckley Sydenham Greenfinch 70: [H]is own capability for thrashing other boys (the ‘cock’ of the particular school always included).
[UK]T. Archer Pauper, Thief and Convict 52: [He] became, by [...] a fearless unflinching bravado, a sort of recognised chief or ‘cock’ of this strange school.
[Scot]Dundee Courier 13 June 7/5: The fight began in earnest. Fred had been the ‘cock of the school’ [and] easily managed to defend himself.
[Ind]Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 18 Oct. 4/3: ‘Trigger’, the cock o’ the Band.
[UK]Boy’s Own Paper 12 Aug. 729: Tom Bragg, you know, the cock of Barnby school?

6. (UK Und.) one who, being hanged, dies bravely.

[UK]G. Parker Life’s Painter 154: A fellow [...] asked the person Mr. Shuter had introduced, ‘how many there were crap’d a Wednesday?’ The other replied, ‘three.’ ‘Was there ere a cock among them?’ resumed the other, (meaning a fellow who died game).

7. a show-off, a self-promoter.

[Aus]Dead Bird (Sydney) 23 Aug. 4/2: And he never once put on the empty swagger / Of a coster who’s the cock of Seven Dials.
[US]C. McKay Banjo 10: ‘And none of you fellahs can’t make her?’ cried Banjo. ‘Why you-all ain’t the goods?’ ‘It ain’t that, you strutting cock, but she treats us all like pals.’.
[UK]L. Dunne Goodbye to the Hill (1986) 118: So if I was good at soaking things up it had very little to do with me being the clever cock I thought I was.
[UK]Guardian G2 8: He called us a bunch of cocks! He said we were trying to be something we weren’t. A bunch of cocks!
[US]T. Fontana ‘Medium Rare’ Oz ser. 4 ep. 9 [TV script] Them news-media cocks, they love to twist shit around.
[UK]R. Milward Apples (2023) 51: ‘Drop and give me twenty!’ the Sarge yelled [...] What a cock.
[US]Chicago Trib. ‘The Onion’ 1 Nov. TAB-5/1: [headline] Cancer Cells ‘A Bunch of Fucking Cocks,’ Report Scientists .

8. (also cockey) the clitoris.

[UK]‘Lais Lovecock’ Bagnio Misc. 16: ‘Why you have got a little cock too,’ taking hold of my already willing clitty.
[Ire]Joyce letter 3 Dec. to Nora Barnacle, in Ellman Sel. Letters (1975) 182: Did they [i.e. a man’s fingers] go up far enough to touch that little cock at the end of your cunt? [Ibid.] 186: Tickle your little cockey while you write.

9. (US black) sexual intercourse.

[[UK]Belle’s Stratagem 20: Oh, what hours of Elysium shall we enjoy, lock’d in love’s sweet embraces [...] until morning, even until the tenth cock].
[US] in V. Randolph Pissing in the Snow (1988) 7: I come here to pull my pud, / Cause the cock in this town ain’t no good.
[US](con. 1920s) Dos Passos Big Money in USA (1966) 844: Well, you’ve had the last piece of c—k you get outa dat baby.
[US]R. Abrahams Deep Down In The Jungle 116: He went to a place called ‘Dew-drop Inn.’ / He asked the broads to give him cock for a lousy fin. / She took Shine upstairs and she gave him a fuck.
[UK]D. Jarman diary 7 Jan. Smiling in Slow Motion (2000) 288: Rudi was a Don Juan, his insatiable lust for cock was never satisfied.
[UK]L. Theroux Call of the Weird (2006) 129: Do you want some more cock?

10. (US black) an orgasm.

[US]R. Abrahams Deep Down In The Jungle 36: Yeah I’m fast. I’m so fast, a girl told me one time, she said, ‘Kid, now if you can get some cock ’fore my mother get back home, and she’s coming ’round the corner right now, you can have it.’ So I said, ‘Lay down.’ She laid down, I pushed the light switch, got undressed, jumped in bed, busted two nuts, got dressed and got outside the room before that room got dark.
[US](con. 1960s) D. Goines Whoreson 245: Instant cock. I could make a fortune off of you on the market.

11. (US campus) an offensive man.

[US]Sepe & Telano Cop Team 78: You wanna play, you cock, you gotta pay.
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Apr.

12. a man who is easy to sponge on, spec. one who buys more than his necessary share in a pub.

[UK]D. Powis Signs of Crime 178: Cock A man who buys more than his share of drinks in a public house or club so as to have company pleasing to him. A man easy to sponge upon.
[UK]J. Morton Lowspeak 41: Cock [...] 2. a person, often a publican or a scrap metal dealer, invited by an officer to a police function in the certain knowledge that the cock will pay [...] The cock also knows this and will expect certain favours in return.

In derivatives

cockfest (n.)

1. (US teen) an all-male party.

Urban Dict. 15 Sept. 🌐 cockfest A huge party where only males (cocks) are involved in.

2. (US campus/teen) a party at which males vastly outnumber females.

[US]Eble UNC-CH Campus Sl. 2011 3: COCKFEST — party at which the males drastically outnumber the females. Also SAUSAGEFEST.

In compounds

cock ale (n.) [SE cock-ale, ale mixed with the jelly or minced meat of a boiled cock, besides other ingredients + a pun on sense 1 above]

a variety of beer that supposedly has aphrodisiac properties.

[UK]Life and Death of Damaris Page 2: Wine at two shilling a bottle, Stepony, Raspberry-ale, Cock-ale, Cakes, a Barrel of Beer, a tub of new ale,.
[UK]Woman Turn’d Bully III iii: How, Mr. Trupenny, not a drop worth drinking? Did you ever taste our Cock-ale?
[UK]B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Cockale, pleasant Drink, said to be provocative.
[UK]N. Ward London Spy II 29: My Friend by this time [...] had call’d for a Bottle of Cock-Ale.
[UK]New Canting Dict.
[UK]Poor Robin n.p.: Notwithstanding the large commendations you give the juice of barley, yet if compar’d with canary, it’s no more than a mole-hill to a mountain; whether it be cock-ale, China ale, etc. [N.].
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Cock ale, a provocative drink.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
cock-and-breeches (n.) [from ‘Cock and Breches’ a gingerbread effigy of a small boy, traditionally sold at Bartholomew Fair]

a small, sturdy boy.

[UK]C. Dibdin Yngr Song Smith 47: Our beaux stuck in boots to their hips, I declare, / Look just like Cock and Breeches at Bartlemy Fair.
cockbag

1. a condom.

[UK]Razzle 6 6: I had a gushing climax as he pumped madly away. He cried out as his spunk filled his cock bag [...] I took the condom off, fascinated by the spunk inside.

2. the scrotum.

[US]T.C. Johnston Crack in the Sky 458: Wading in icy streams up to my huevos and cock-bag!

3. a sexually compliant female.

[US]adultdvdtalk.com 13 July 🌐 She literallt begs for more the whole time. She is just a cockbag.
cock-bawd (n.) [lit. a ‘male whore’]

1. a procurer.

[UK]R. Brome Northern Lasse I v: Are you the Cock-bawd to the Hen was here, erewhile Sir.
[UK]T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia III i: He is a Ruffian, and Cock-bawd to that Hen.
[UK]B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
[UK]N. Ward Amorous Bugbears 5: So that the Drury Nymphs, and Covent-Garden Bullies, if there were any Cock-Bawd or Hen Procuress, of their particular Acquaintance, might the better judge, who was the fittest Person to disguise their Infirmities, and run the risque of, No Purchase, no Pay.
[UK]C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c 352: The Cock-Bawd of the House and his Wife [...] resolved to make a further Prey of him.
[Scot]Caledonian Mercury 10 Aug. 1/2: William Whitehead [...] was, in course, entitled to open a School for [illegible] and he was made a Cock Bawd of Parnassus.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Cock bawd, a male keeper of a bawdy house.
[UK]M. Leeson Memoirs (1995) III 151: That celebrated cock baud, Doctor Achmet.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[US]Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) 15 Mar. 1/2: The most consummate scoundrel and lying cook-bawd [sic] n the face of the globe.
[UK]Yokel’s Preceptor 7: His father was a notorious cock-bawd, and when he died he bequeathed his two sons a bawdyken each.
[UK]‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) II 288: I told Smith [...] I wished to speak to the girl. The old cock-bawd told me to wait at the root-shed.

2. a superior prostitute.

[UK] ‘Satyr upon the Mistresses’ Harleian Mss. 6913.365: Next let us view the Cock Bawds of ye Court Kate Crofts, & Knight, Contrivers of the Sport [who] Wou’d take delight to see the World all Sperm.
[UK]C. Walker Authentick Memoirs of Sally Salisbury 100: She ordered her Maid to bid the Cock-Bawd come in, which she did.
cockblock

see separate entries.

cock-brain (n.) [? a young man’s trad. obsession with sex]

(later use is US only) a foolish young man; thus cockbrained adj., foolish.

[UK]T. Drant (trans.) ‘The arte of Poetry’ in Horace his Satyres n.p.: A freshe hote younker cockebraine.
[UK]Marriage of Wit and Science II i: Such a cockbrain as thou art, I never saw the like to it.
J. Stow Annals of England (1631) 1024/1: Lest in time to come some Cockbraines should either denie this to be true, or not worthy the Chronicling.
[UK]Jonson New Inn I i: The mad lord Frampul! [...] as cock-brain’d as e’er the father was!
[UK]R. Brome Covent-Garden Weeded I i: What is this fellow that you dare know him, Friend Cockbrayn?
[UK]F. Quarles Virgin Widow V i: A rude company of cock-brain’d Rascals in a humor beset her house.
[UK]A. Brome ‘Upon the Miscarrier of Letters’ Songs and Poems 223: Had it been newes, or pamphlets, or the rude Inventions of the cock-brain’d multitude.
[Ire]Head Eng. Rogue I 331: My Country Cock-brain being honeyed with these sweet delights.
[UK]London Standard 14 Dec. 2/4: What prudent man will now embark his property [...] at the suggestion of any cock-brained prig?
[UK] ‘The Chapter Of Cocks’ Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 36: But he wasn’t so cock-brain’d as really to do it.
[UK]Morn. Post (London) 5 July 3/5: A bibliomane is an indiscriminate accumulator who blunders faster than he buys, cock-brained and purse-heavy.
[UK](ref. to 1576) Dover Exp. 2 May 3/5: William Smith, who was rector in 1576 [...] was presented on the following charge: [...] the rector presented a parishioner for calling him ‘a knave and a cock-brained foole’.
[US]M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 206: cock-brain, a light-hearted, foolish person. ‘To my notion about twenty-five per cent of the youths are cock-brains.’.
[UK](ref. to 17C) Yorks. Post 26 July 2/5: In the 17th Century Milton wanted to express his annoyance with a lawyer [...] He described him as: ‘A beast, a cock-brained solicitor’.
[US]E. Dahlberg Olive of Minerva 44: That’s just a cock-brained fribble.
cockchafer (n.)

see separate entries.

cock cheese (n.) (also cockhead cheese, dick-cheese, knob-cheese, prick cheese) [cheese n.1 (2a)]

1. smegma.

[US] in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 159: A Dutchman who delt in Dundee / Walked in to a grocer’s named Lee. / He said, ‘If you blease, / Haff you any prick cheese?’ / Said the grocer, ‘I’ll skin back and see.’.
[US]Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases 45: cock cheese (Vulg.) Smegma.
[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 43: smegma [...] cock(head) cheese (when found on the male).
[UK]Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 233/1: cock cheese Smegma late C.19–20.
[Scot]I. Welsh Trainspotting 213: Dae ye think the moon’s made oot ay fuckin green knob cheese? ay remark.
[UK]McFarlane & McPherson R U a Teenage health Freak 6: Dear Dr Ann - What is knob cheese? Some of my mates were joking about it - is it just a joke or is it real.
[SA]K. Cage Gayle 62: cock cheese n. smegma.
[UK]J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 189: [H]is every pore exuded noxious slime, and the deadweight of cockcheese must have added to his already considerable bulk.

2. a general term of abuse.

[US]ACLU Online Community 10 Feb. Hey DickCheese? I’m supposed to CARE that you know these people?
[UK]D. Mitchell Black Swan Green 91: ‘Okay, Prick Cheese, you say where.’.
cock collar (n.)

(US black) the head of the penis, esp. its base, where it joins the main shaft.

[US]W. Brown Tragic Magic 13: I considered what it would be like to fuck all the women I knew. By the time I reached my block my cock collar had grown to the size of a turtleneck sweater.
cock custard (n.)

semen.

[US]V. Laurie Sex in the Tropics n.p.: He was aware his containment of cock custard would erupt momentarily.
‘Cookin’ in the kitchen’ in Club Int’l July 95: [F]illing my throbbing cunt full of his warm cock custard.
J. Sambuca ‘No Exit ta Bleak City’ on authonomy.com 27 July 🌐 [B]lowin’ a load o’ white cock custard onta her pink tongue.
cock-diesel (n.) [diesel n. (2)]

1. (US black/campus) a strong, muscular, attractive man; also as adj.

[US]EPMD ‘Get the Bozack’ 🎵 Cock-diesel like Rocky and Apollo Creed.
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 2: cock diesel – strong, muscular, attractive male.
[US]Tech N9ne ‘Wheaties’ 🎵 Rugged, ya love it, I’m cock diesel.

2. (US gay) a muscular male homosexual.

[US]G. Pelecanos Right As Rain 51: Roberto had been raped and bludgeoned to death by a cock-diesel with a lead pipe.
cock doctor (n.)

a venereologist.

WestHollywoodVideo.com 🌐 ‘Cock Doctor 2’ Examining cocks all day is hard work. Let’s be grateful these dedicated professionals are willing to do it!
cockface (n.)

(US) a general term of abuse.

[US] graffito cited in Lighter HDAS.
B. Hathaway World of Hurt 174: Tell cockface here to get some mortar fire into those trees [HDAS].
[Aus]Tharunka (Sydney) 31 Aug. 25/5: Hex Education Hour opens with ‘The Classical’ and the listener is greeted with cries of ‘hey there cockface’ in the early stages of the track.
www.squidfactory.com 8 Nov. 🌐 Don’t be such a narrow-minded cockface. Put yourself to some good use, find out where all this damn anthrax is coming from, and leave oregon alone.
cockfroth (n.)

semen.

[UK]J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 124: [A] noggin of minge-ale and the old cockfroth isn’t what the doctor ordered.
cockhead (n.) [-head sfx (1)]

(Aus./US) a general term of abuse; also used affectionately/intimately; thus cock-headed adj.

[UK]A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 339: That cock-headed tripehound seemed not to have altered in all his waking life.
[Aus]Tracks (Aus.) Jan. 37: Long time, no talk to, cockhead.
[Aus]Bug (Aus.) 25 Aug. 🌐 What’s with this fucking rah rah cockhead John O’Neill, saying rugby union will take over rugby league.
[Scot]T. Black Gutted 40: The biggest cockhead in the music industry slot’s taken for now, pal.
[US]C. Hiaasen Squeeze Me 51: ‘One of these cockheads [...] broke into my home’.
Twitter 17 Sept. 🌐 Listen cock head, we know the greens are the leftover dregs of the defunct Australia Communist Party.
cock holder (n.)

the vagina.

[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
[US] in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 261: There were three young ladies of Fetters, / Annoyed all their elders and betters / By stuffing their cock-holders / With proxies for stockholders, / Old bills, and anonymous letters.
cock holster (n.)

(US) used as an insult, thus synon. with cunt n. (4)

Sly Records 🌐 This Week's Hip New Slang Word or Phrase cock holster - A great way to describe the mouth of someone you do not like. Also see "pie hole" and "cake disposal unit.".
[US]N. Walker Cherry 59: Our hands were dick skinners. Our mouths were cock holsters. Our enemy was Haji. Our friends were battle buddies.
cock hound (n.)

a sexually voracious female.

www.asstr.org/~Kristen blurb for story 🌐 A Teenage Cockhound – by Oldbeatnik – I discover that my 14 year old daughter loves to fuck.
cock inn (n.) [a pun on the fictitious public house]

the vagina.

[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
[US]Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 185: Common examples [of sexual ‘addresses’] include Cockshire, Cock Inn, Cupid’s Alley, Hairyfordshire, Crown and Feathers, Shooter’s Hill, Mount Pleasant, Love Lane, etc.
[UK]J. McDonald Dict. of Obscenity etc.
cock jock (n.)

(Aus.) a ‘speedo’-type swimming costume for men.

[Aus]Aus. Word Map 🌐 sluggers. [...] ‘Growing up in Perth the boys would all be very disparaging about their sluggers or “cock-jocks” and much preferred to swim in footy shorts’.
cock-knocker (n.) [lit. ‘penis-hitter’]

1. (US, also cacknacker) an unpleasant, worthless person.

[WI]C. Thompson These My People 26: I can beat ten of dese old time prayin’ cock-knockers.
[UK](con. 1940s) G. Morrill Dark Sea Running 77: I’ll be a cock-knocker!
[US]R. Dougherty Commissioner 27: That cacknacker. That lousy little spic.
[US]S. King Stand (1990) 344: ‘Shut up, cock-knocker!’ he screamed. [Ibid.] 729: Spooky old cock-knocker, ain’t he?
[US]S. King Christine 393: Let’s get the shitters that wrecked our car. Let’s grease the little cock-knockers, kid.
[US]T. Robinson Rough Trade [ebook] ‘At least tell me you got to tag that cock-knocker’.

2. a male homosexual.

[UK]Roger’s Profanisaurus 3 in Viz 98 Oct. 8: cock-knocker n. A gentleman who bangs at the back door.
cock-knocking (adj.)

(US) a synon. for damned adj. (1)

[US]S. King Stand (1990) 1242: You get every man jack out there and go from one end to the other of that cock-knocking base.
[US]H. Gould Fort Apache, The Bronx 180: He’s takin’ the risks, ain’t he? He don’t have no cock knockin’ Civil Service job like you do.
cock lane (n.) [The term was reinforced by the real-life Cock Lane (in the City), which in the 14C was the only street on which London’s prostitutes were licensed to ply their trade in public. The Great Fire was supposed to have stopped at its junction with Giltspur Street, while in February 1762 thousands of the curious (including Dr Johnson, the Duke of York and other grandees) flocked to number 33 Cock Lane to hear the scratchings and knockings of the alleged ‘Cock Lane Ghost’]

the vagina.

[Scot]Scots Mag. 6 June 39/1: Hey for Cock-lane. Huzza! Huzza!
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK] ‘The Chapter Of Cocks’ in Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 35: One Cocky Cock, who lived in Cock-lane.
[UK] ‘Miss Bounce Of Cock-Lane’ in Nobby Songster 33: Miss Bounce of Cocklane, had long been in pain, / About a most woeful disaster.
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

In compounds

cock manger (n.) [i.e. the supposed similarity of a urinal to the manger from which horses eat]

(Irish) a urinal.

[Ire]G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Cock manger (n): urinals.
cockmunch (n.)

a general term of abuse, a very unpleasant person.

Prism Perfect at fourdegrees.net 🌐 No Shit sherlock. Don’t be pissy with me!! Don’t be dumb w/me! Suckass! Cockmunch! Assmaster! Cock wrangler! Cockmaster! Cockmeister!
posting at tricksandtrinkets.com 12 Apr. 🌐 [header] Ninman is a selfish cockmunch.
cock pit (n.)

1. the vagina.

[UK]Cleland Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1985) 163: She [...] laid open all the outward prospect of the treasury of love: the rose-lipt ouverture presenting the cock-pit so fair.
[Scot]Gentleman’s Bottle-Companion 16: Here’s Bathsheba’s cockpit where David stood centry [sic].
[UK]G. Stevens ‘The Sentiment Song’ in Songs Comic and Satyrical 126: [as cit. 1768].
[UK] ‘Toasts’ in Ri-tum Ti-tum Songster 47: The female cockpit which only opens to receive one game cock at a time.
[UK]‘A Song of Sentiments’ in Fake Away Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 280: [as 1768].
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
[US] in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 47: There was a young harlot named Schwartz / Whose cock-pit was studded with warts.
B. Klein ‘Disorderly Condit’ in ‘My Worst Nightmare’ Bill Klein On-Line 🌐 I called this flight attendant who had let me tour her cockpit a few times.

2. the penis .

[US]Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.

3. (US) the clitoris.

[US]Maledicta VI:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 131: Boy in the boat (clitoris, button, dot joy buzzer, cockpit).
cock puke (n.)

semen.

T. Parkes ‘The Exciting World of Pornography Part Two’ on Anal Hospital 🌐 Is that just spuzz? Cock puke flushed from the warm, uncaring balls, and spat like so much off milk? Or are these men spunking up their hearts?
cock robin (n.)

(US) the penis.

[US]‘Bob Sterling’ Town-Bull 17: They handled the Cock-Robin [...] until they had a stiff erection to gloat over.
[UK]‘Ramrod’ Nocturnal Meeting 129: How’s dear Cock Roin, said Ethel squeezing it tenderly.
cock rock (n.)

heavy metal music with even more than the usual macho strutting and posturing.

[US]T. Avicolli ‘Images of Gays in Rock Music’ in Jay & Young (1979) 189: The emergence of ‘cock rock’* was fated from the beginning of rock n’ roll itself. (*The term was coined in an article published in 1970 in the women-controlled underground paper Rat (NY).).
[US]D. Gaines Teenage Wasteland 182: To field hippies and speed freaks, Led Zeppelin was declassé, low-rent, sleazy cock-rock.
[UK]M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 62: Cock rock she thought spasming into another pant wetting orgasm.
[SA]IOL News Western Cape) 6 Feb. 🌐 The night belonged to Wonderboom’s erect cock-rock.
[Aus]L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] The speakers started blasting more of his beloved cock rock.
cock-rocker (n.)

1. a male rock musician, or rock band, whose primary appeal lies in overt sexuality and macho posturing.

[UK]N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 122: Everyone’s [...] posin’ in the limelight like they was auditionin’ for cockrocker of the year.
[US]MDC ‘Cockrocker (Bill)’ 🎵 COCKROCKER – Look so dumb / COCKROCKER – Brain so numb / COCKROCKER – lame as fuck / COCKROCKER – really suck!

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

posting at www.vega.net 🌐 Sarah also announced, that she wants to do a ‘girlypalooza’ (her words!) next year as an alternative to that ‘cockrocker’ (also her words) Lollapalooza, which was taking place that Saturday somewhere else in the Bay area.
cock-rotted (adj.) [fig. use of prev.]

broken down, useless, lit. rotten.

[SA]A. Fugard Notebooks (1983) 24: Mom spoke of the draining board being cockrotted.
cock sauce (n.)

(US) semen.

[US]Sandmann ‘Burning Down the House’ Planet Sex Stories 🌐 After about a half minute I could feel his nuts surge and I gave them an extra little squeeze to coax as much of his cock sauce out into his long dong.
cock-scratchers (n.)

hands.

[UK]P. Theroux Family Arsenal 176: Put your cock-scratchers back in your pocket or I’ll break them off.
cock’s eye (n.)

(Aus.) in dice games, the number one.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Sept. 35/1: Rattle again. ‘Cock’s eye again? That blessed die has nothing on it but one,’ and again the crowd breathes in unison.
cockshire (n.)

the vagina.

[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
[US]Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 185: Common examples [of sexual ‘addresses’] include Cockshire, Cock Inn, Cupid’s Alley, Hairyfordshire, Crown and Feathers, Shooter’s Hill, Mount Pleasant, Love Lane, etc.
cock show (n.)

burlesque; striptease.

[UK]B.S. Johnson All Bull 65: Not attracted either to boozing [...] nor to patronising the cock-shows, as Bob and the others called them, at the New Theatre.
cock-shy (n.) [pun on SE cockshy, a fairground game that involved throwing broomsticks at a cock. If the thrower could knock over the cock and grab it before it regained its feet, he would win the bird]

the vagina.

[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
cock-shy (adj.)

of a woman, uninterested in or frightened of sex.

[UK]K. Lette Llama Parlour 12: Tash reckons that I’m ‘cock-shy’, but it’s not that. I’ve had seven lovers, okay going, I reckon.
cocksman (n.)

see separate entry.

cocksmoker (n.) (Can.)

1. a fellator; a semi-euph. for cocksucker n.

[US]Alt. Eng. Dict. 🌐 cocksmoker (noun) A fellator.

2. any male person.

[US]Alt. Eng. Dict. 🌐 cocksmoker (noun) [...] Any male person.

3. a general term of abuse.

[US]College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Cock smoker {vulgar, offensive} (noun) An extreme jerk.
Big Ben Kennedy.com Journal 24 Jul. 🌐 ‘Can I not cuss for 3 hours?’ I should be able to, but just in case let me get it out of my system now... Shit, Fuck, Bitch, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, [...] Cock Smoker.
cock snot (n.) [snot n.1 (4)]

semen.

M.E. Dassad ‘Chickenhawk’ at www.cultdeadcow.com 🌐 Though I sure did still want to jack off in Karen’s face, spit my cock-snot all over her body, make her drink my cum.
[UK]M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 53: The established church’s interpretations were but one pearl of the sacred and holy cocksnot.
cock socket (n.)

the anus.

[UK]M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 90: Pink Starfish was riding Damien Warlock’s cocksocket violently when Strutter kicked open the rehearsal room door.
cockstand (n.)

see separate entry.

cockstrong (adj.)

(US black/campus) strong, muscular, masculine.

[US]N. George ‘Nationwide’ in Buppies, B-Boys, Baps and Bohos (1994) 85: ‘My Prerogative’ is more than a cock-strong and cunning celebration of ego.
Raw Fusion ‘Hip Hip/Stylee Expression’ 🎵 I’ll leave rappers dead, I’m cock-strong.
[US]P. Beatty Tuff 77: Cockstrong nigger, nice with the hands, like Tuffy, catch you right, forget about it.
[US]N. McCall Them (2008) 103: Barlowe was cockstrong. He had knocked a man cold one day.
cock-struck (adj.)

of a woman, obsessed with sex, or with a particular man; thus used by homosexual men.

[UK]‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) IV 752: My cock stood and the woman [...] had got randy too. It was a case of cock-struck and cunt-struck.
[SA]K. Cage Gayle 63/1: cock struck adj. be infatuated.
cocksuck(er)

see separate entries.

cockteas(er)

see separate entries.

cock-trap (n.)

the vagina.

[UK]‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) I 107: A dark vermillion strong clitoris sloped down and hid itself between the lips, in the recesses of the cock-trap.
Cock Tuesday (n.)

(Irish) the eve of Lent.

[Ire]S. MacManus Rocky Road to Dublin n.p.: Cock Tuesday, the eve of Lent, was then the great day of the year for marriages [BS].
cockwomble (n.)

a general term of derision.

[UK]in Guardian 30 June 🌐 He is a massive cockwomble.
[Aus]J.R. Lawrence My Camp 193: I was about to meet the biggest cockwomble I have ever met in my life (and I’ve been around) .

In phrases

all cock and ribs (like a musterer’s dog) (also ...like a gypsy’s dog, ...rover’s dog, all bones and saltshakers like a musterer’s dog, all prick and ribs like a swaggie’s dog)

(Aus./N.Z.) said of a very thin person.

[Aus]F.J. Hardy Outcasts of Foolgarah (1975) 35: To see them at work, Little Tich all prick and ribs like a swaggies dog.
National Times (Aus.) 25 Jan. 24: He was like a rover’s dog, all — and ribs [GAW4].
[NZ]McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 9/2: all cock and ribs, like a musterer’s dog very thin.
[Aus]J. Holman ‘Blimp’ Southern Ocean Rev. 12 Jan. n.p.: You’re all bones and saltshakers, boy – just like a musterer’s dog!
[UK]A. Blinkhorn in Erotic Rev. May 3: A look [...] which is best described as like ‘a gypsy’s dog: all cock and ribs.’.
beat the cock off (v.)

(US) to beat severely.

[US]M. McAlary Crack War (1991) 151: I wanted to beat the cock off this guy.
big-cock (adj.)

(US) enormous, outsized.

[US](con. WWII) W. Eastlake Castle Keep (1966) 259: When I asked in bigcock surprise how with all that education she got into this bed racket, she said La bonne chance, monsieur.
[US]S. Stevens Way Uptown 120: They’d ride around dressed in their plastic suits and that big cock gun strapped to their plastic belts.
cock it (v.)

to have sexual intercourse.

[UK] in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 126: For then we all agree; / To Cock it and Dock it, / Smock and knock it, / Under the Green-wood Tree.
[US]L. Johnson ‘On the Wall’ 🎵 I’m gonna show them women, honey, how to cock it on the wall / Now you can snatch it you can break it, you can hang it on the wall / Throw it out the window, see if you catch it ‘fore it fall .
[UK]Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 57: Cauquer. To copulate; ‘to cock it’.
[Scot](con. mid-1960s) J. Patrick Glasgow Gang Observed 105: The car would be stopped and the girl presented with this Hobson’s choice: ‘Cock it or walk it’.
[Scot]I. Welsh Filth 148: C’moan: cock it or walk it.
cream one’s cock (v.)

to masturbate.

‘FAQ’ on alt.sex.masturbation 🌐 Creaming your cock.
get one’s cock caught in the zipper (v.)

to be in very bad trouble, to get into extreme difficulties.

[US]G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 65-6: If it doesn’t you got your cock caught in the zipper but good.
have one’s cock on the block (v.) (also have/put one’s cock on the line)

(orig. US) to be facing serious problems, to be prepared to take a risk or a stand that may be dangerous.

[US]L. Sanders Anderson Tapes 124: And for this I put my cock on the line for a murder-one rap?
L. Block In the Midst of Death 42: I know two cases [...] where guys got caught with their cocks on the block for homicide and they bought themselves out from under.
B. Thomas Ambidextrous column 6 Jan. at SilverBulletComicBooks.com 🌐 you know why I’m not completely willing to place my cock on the block…because if someone cuts it off…how am I gonna blow that lower back out when the time comes??
S. Duguid ‘Land of milk and money’ Zim-Gateway 30 May 🌐 I realise I’m putting my cock on the block. But it’s worth the risk. People are going hungry. There’s money to be made. And if it doesn’t work out I can go back to the army.
keep one’s cock up (v.)

(US) to stay cheerful, despite possible adversity.

[US]E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 339: ‘Keep your cock up, pardner!’ Bill called gaily.
on half cock (adj.)

of the penis, semi-erect.

[UK]‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) XI 2302: I was so lewed that my tool was on half cock.
pull one’s cock (v.)

to masturbate.

[UK]J. Orton Diaries (1986) 15 May 165: They’re pulling their cocks twenty-four hours a day I suppose.
pull someone’s cock (v.)

(US) to tease, to deceive, to hoax.

[US]J. Butterworth Mojo II i: potts: Stop pulling my cock. baby: What? potts: You know we ain’t going out, having a party, doing a conga, nothing. We’re staying here.
put the cock to (v.)

(US) to arrest, to discipline, to punish.

[US]D. Ponicsan Last Detail 28: Why you figure they put the cock to you? [...] Did you have a record before this?
[US]D. Ponicsan Cinderella Liberty 119: I don’t think they’ll put the cock to me once I explain the circumstances.
step on one’s cock (v.)

(orig. US) to get oneself into serious trouble, to make a major blunder.

[US]E. Torres Q&A 10: One of these nights, he’ll step on his cock.
[US]W.J. Caunitz One Police Plaza 85: Don’t come crying back to me when you step on your cock.

In exclamations

SE in slang uses

In compounds

cock-a-brass (n.)

(UK Und.) a member of a team of card sharpers who diverts a disgruntled victim from pursuing them.

[UK]G. Parker Life’s Painter 169: A cockabrass. A fellow that stands at an ale-house door, when the gentlemen of the drop speak to a man, as they phrase it; that is, pick him up and take him to the above ale-house to jump him, or do him upon the broads, which means cards: as soon as ever they mizzle, if the flat suspects that he has been cheated [...] he comes out in a great hurry to the door, and asks the cockabrass which way such men went, the cockabrass points out as contrary way.
[UK]‘The Christening of Little Joey’ in Corinthian in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 45: I shall go on the running rumble, if you will go with me, Mr Cock-a-brass.
cock-and-hen club (n.) (also cock-and-hen house, ...meeting, ...shop) [SE cock and hen, a man and wife]

a club that admits both men and women; thus adj. cock-and-hen, open to both genders .

St. James Jrnl 12 May 7: It was a Cock and Hen Club of men and women.
[UK] ‘A Leary Mot’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 78: One night they went to a Cock and Hen Club, at the sign of the Mare and Stallion.
[UK]‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 78: A Masquerade, or Fancy Ball, given lately at one of the most fashionable Cock-and-Hen Clubs in St. Giles’s.
[UK]‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 97: That ghosting rawhead-and-cross-bones cock-and-hen fraternity.
[UK]Pierce Egan’s Life in London 24 Dec. 798/1: [A] certain society, called a cock-and-hen club, were in the habit of meeting at the Falconer public-house.
[UK]G. Smeeton Doings in London 40: [H]e got hold of a young fellow [...] introduced him to one of the ‘cock-and-hen’ houses near Drury-Lane Theatre.
[UK]Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 241 [facing]: [picture caption] Tom, Jerry and Logic enjoying the lark, song, fun and frisk at a Cock and Hen Club.
[UK]Satirist (London) 10 Apr. 6/3: [H]e got up Theatrical entertainment dinner-parties—a sort of superior ‘cock-and-hen’ meeting.
[UK]Satirist (London) 20 Nov. 262/2: [H]e got hold of a young fellow [...] and introduced him to one of the ‘cock-and-hen’ houses near Drury-Lane Theatre.
[UK] ‘My Grandmother’s Ghost’ Flash Chaunter 7: A favourite comic song, sung at the Cock and Hen Clubs, with great applause.
[UK]New Swell’s Night Guide to the Bowers of Venus 23: This cock and hen club should be visited by swells from all parts.
[UK]T. Buckley Sydenham Greenfinch 11: Tom proceeded to designate Exeter Hall as a ‘mortal cock and hen shop’.
[US] ‘Scene in a London Flash-Panny’ Matsell Vocabulum 98: May I dance at my death, and grin in a glass-case, if I didn’t think you had been put to bed with a shovel—you’ve been so long away from the cock and hen club.
[UK]Bucks Herald 24 May 5/3: The Whittingdon Club [...] has degenerated into what is vulgarly called a ‘Cock-and-Hen Club’.
[UK]Hotten Sl. Dict. 103: COCK-AND-HEN CLUB, a free and easy gathering, where females are admitted as well as men.
[UK]R.S. Surtees Facey Romford’s Hounds 309: Is it a cock-and-hen club? I mean, are gentlemen asked as well as ladies?
[UK]Sl. Dict.
[UK]Hants. Advertiser 4 Mar. 4/3: He would strongly urge young men there who wanted to join a benefit society not to belong to a cock-and-hen club.
[Aus]Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 18: Cock and Hen Club, a place of meeting for thieves of both sexes.
[UK]Illus. Police News 25 Apr. 2/3: The police carried out a successful raid upon the regency Club No 11 Regent Street [...] stated by the police to come within the designation of a ‘cock-and-hen’ club.
[UK]J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 81/1: Cock-and-Hen Club (Soc. 1880) One of mixed sexes — then spoken of contemptuously probably because they had not at that date [i.e. 1880] quite succeeded.
[UK]J.B. Booth London Town 244: In the pre-war days one was content to call these resorts ‘cock-and-hen’ clubs.
[UK]Nottingham Eve. Post 26 May 8/6: No ‘cock-and-hen’ club yet tried in London has been a success.
cock-a-wax (n.) (also cock of wax, cockowax, cocky-wax)

1. (also son of wax) a cobbler, who uses wax in his work.

[UK]‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 191: ‘Ah, my cock of wax!’ is a shoemaker’s salutation.
[UK]Satirist (London) 18 Dec. 291/1: [of a cobbler’s daughter] Miss Cock-a-wax Cotterel [...] Apothecary Blaker [...] Cowell the miller.
[UK]Hotten Sl. Dict.
[US]Schele De Vere Americanisms 313: Boot and shoe makers [...] pass [...] men of eccentric habits and quaint genius. Sons of wax is neither an uncommon nor an uncomplimentary name for them.

2. a familiar term of address, esp. as my old cock-a-wax; also as n. to denote an admirable, self-possessed individual (see cites 1877, 1891).

[Ire]J. O’Keeffe Prisoner at Large 28: How d’ye like that, my lad o’ wax.
[UK]Jew Swindler n.p.: Be but firm and dauntless, my little dapper Cock of Wax, and all shall be well.
[UK]‘Actresses’ in Hilaria 105: Whither is S— fled? / And where’s her cock of wax gone?
[UK]‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.
[UK]W. Kent Guardian 21 Apr. 6/4: Bravo, old cock o’ wax.
[UK]W.J. Neale Paul Periwinkle 326: ‘Well my old cock-a-wax,’ said the English seaman.
[UK]J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 29: It’s all right, cock-o’-wax. Come up-stairs.
[UK]Southern Reporter 31 May 4/4: He goes along there ‘like a little cock o’ wax,’ as he is told.
[UK] ‘A Conversation on the Coming Elections’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 80: Gladstone said, my Cockawax, there is that cursed income tax.
[UK]Blackburn Standard 16 Oct. 2/2: Now take it quietly, my young cock o’ wax.
[UK](con. 1820) in A. Griffiths Chronicles of Newgate 447: Come, old cock-of-wax, it will soon be over.
[UK]Tamworth Herald 28 Mar. 3/1: You was a little curly-headed boy, you was; and an out-and-out little cock-o’-wax too, I’ll be bound.
[UK]J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 82/1: Cockowax (Peoples’, 18 cent. ). Obscure – used satirically. ‘Hullo my cock’owax.’ Probably corruption of cock of wax, which may have been said in cock-fighting days of a bird which had no mettle in him – a poor soft, waxy, creature, opposite of cock of the walk.
[US]O. Johnson Varmint 22: Why, old Cocky-wax, put this in your pipe and smoke it.
cock-broth (n.)

(UK tramp) any form of strong, satisfying soup.

[UK]Wandring Whore V 9: Their lying in shall cost them more money in [...] Candles, Potions, and Cock-broths.
[UK] ‘The Scolding Wife’s Vindication’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1893) VII:1 197: I feasted him e’ery day with lamb-stones, and Cock-broths too.
[UK]Morn. Chron. (London) 3 Jan. 3/2: Shrove Tuesday was heling the Second of September to some cock broth.
[UK]Leicester Jrnl 26 Oct. 4/2: Cort answered, that he wanted some ‘cock broth’.
[UK]Cheshire Obs. 19 Aug. 6/6: Prisoner enticed the duck into her house from the street, killed it [...] placed it in a pot to boil, and then issued invitations to some neighbours to come and partake of ‘cock broth’.
[UK]Taunton Courier 21 June 8/2: A good dose of cock-broth would convert a coward into a hero.
[UK]Western Gaz. 23 Mar. 12/2: Instead of tea [he] brought a jug, containing a thin soup, very hot to the throat, known to casuals as ‘cock broth’.
[US]W.A. Gape Half a Million Tramps 200: Brighton ‘spike’ is well known for its ‘cock-broth.’ Instead of tea, skilly or cocoa, this spike gave a bowl of soup.
cock robin (n.) [nursery rhyme, in which the hapless Cock Robin is killed. The original rhyme, first noted c.1744, may have concerned the fall in 1742 of Prime Minister Robert Walpole’s ministry. It may, on the other hand, have its roots in much earlier events, notably the mythical death of the Norse hero Balder]

a complaisant, weak person.

[UK]B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Cock-robin a soft, easy Fellow.
[UK]New Canting Dict.
[UK]Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Cock robin, a soft, easy fellow.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
cock-tail (n.) [SE cock, to lift up + tail]

a coward; thus turn cocktail, to act in a cowardly manner.

[UK]Five Years’ Penal Servitude 67: He confessed he [...] had thrashed him many times for turning cocktail.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 28 July 24/3: This is doubtless as good a way as any other to decide who shall scoop the pool; but, as boxing, it is miserable; while, as sheer ‘fight,’ it is as likely to give the victory to the cocktail as to the game-un.

In phrases

cock of the game (n.) [SE cock of the game, a champion; the ‘game’ in this case is not a sport, but that ‘of love’]

a promiscuous man.

[UK] ‘Oldwanton’ Image of Idlenesse E5: Beyng hym selfe a cocke of the game, he thought her to be a henne of the same sorte, and trusted well to haue some iolly good treadyng by the waie.
[UK]Lyly Euphues and his England (1916) 92: Curio be as hot as toast, yet Euphues is as cold as a clock; though he be a cock of the game.
[UK]Greene Defence of Conny-Catching 55: Marian with a sharpe rasor cut off his stones. [...] Thus was this lustie cocke of the game made a capon.
[UK]Middleton Mad World (1640) III ii: Ha, ha, I have fitted her; An old Knight and a cocke a’ th’ game still, I have not spurs for nothing.
[UK]H. Glapthorne Albertus Wallenstein III iii: Yonder’s the cock oth’ game, / About to tred yon ginny hen, they’r billing.
[UK]‘Mary Tattle-well’ Womens sharpe revenge 104: All her shee neighbours do take their Oathes, that her Huband is a Cocke of the Game.
[UK]E. Gayton Pleasant Notes I i 8: This was a terrible stroke, and enough to have crushed our cock of the game in the egg.
[UK]Etherege She Would if She Cou’d I ii: I seldom brag, Lady, but for a true Cock of The Game, little Joslin dares match with the best of ’em.
[UK]P.W. New Songs 47: For thy ... fame Keep a Cock of the game, But a tough brawny dunghil to tread ye.
[UK]Motteux (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk IV 233: I perceived that every cock of the game used to call his doxy his hatchet; for with that same tool (this he said lugging out and exhibiting his nine-inch knocker) they so soundly and resolutely shove and drive in.
[UK] in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy III 329: Now all you tame gallants, you that have the name, And would accounted be cocks of the game.
[UK]Colman & Garrick Clandestine Marriage II ii: He is cock o’de game, ma foy!
[UK]C. Morris ‘The Great Plenipotentiary’ Collection of Songs (1788) 46: As Cocks of the Game, let’s drink to the Name / Of the great Plenipotentiary.
[UK]Sporting Mag. May X 115/2: ‘A Sportsman’s Verses on His Mistress’ by An old cock of the game.
[UK] ‘On the Prigging Lay’ (trans. of ‘Un jour à la Croix Rouge’) in Vidocq IV 262: Ten or a dozen ‘cocks of the game’ / On the prigging lay to the flash house came.
cock of the walk (n.) (also cock on the walk) [SE walk, a place or enclosure where poultry can exercise]

1. an important man, occas. any creature; note ad hoc var. in cit. 1809.

[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Cock, or Chief Cock of the Walk. The leading man in any society or body; the Best Boxer in a Village or District.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.:
[UK]B.H. Malkin (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) I 172: Among the number was one of those professed bullies, who set up for great dons, and are the complete cocks of the tennis-court.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 2: Oh deign, ye illustrious Cocks of the Walk, / To attend for a moment.
[UK] ‘Memoirs of Ned Painter’ Fancy I XVII 394: Painter [...] gave him, in quick succession, so many hard blows as took down the impertinence of this cock of the walk.
[UK] ‘Chapter Of Cocks’ Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 36: And when he found he wasn’t cock o’ the walk, / ’Bout hanging himself he began to talk.
[UK] ‘Two Game Cocks’ Flash Casket 79: Says the ould Game Cock to the young Game Cock, / Don’t tip us none of that stuff [...] Vone cock to one valk is enough.
[UK]R. Barham ‘Lay of St. Cuthbert’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 228: One Humgruffin, who seem’d by his talk, / And the airs he assumed, to be Cock of the walk.
[Aus]G.C. Mundy Our Antipodes I 95: Cock of the walk in gambling houses, prize fights, publican’s races, &c. &c.
[US]G.G. Foster N.Y. by Gas-Light (1990) 117: With the boys he is emphatically ‘cock of the walk’.
[US] ‘Gathering of the Mahonys’ Donnybrook-Fair Comic Songster 15: We, like our fathers before us, / Are always the ‘cocks of the walk’.
[UK]C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. i: At length Catnach [...] became — to use the words of our informant — ‘the Cock of the Walk.’.
[US]Caldwell Post 24 June in Miller & Snell Why the West was Wild 170: Flatt said, he was the ‘cock of the walk of Caldwell,’ and just then he was killed.
[UK]Henley & Stevenson Deacon Brodie II tab.IV viii: I’m the cock of this here thundering walk, and that cove’s got his orders.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 2 May 6/4: Now, when ‘Mr. Edward Hanlan’ was cock of the walk, and was grovelled to and slobbered over by all sorts of scribes, he didn’t talk about his ‘sanctified’ private life – which, by the way, was spent in his ‘pub.’.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 19 July 9/1: Hore, an African missionary, is in Melbourne, walking into Stanley; but why not in London, where he is cock of the walk?
[UK]R. Whiteing No. 5 John Street 288: Ain’t he cock o’ the walk!
[UK]Chums 26 June 902: They would be veritable heroes [...] cocks of the walk.
[UK]Sporting Times 8 Jan. 4/2: [He had] been annoying Johnstone by killing his game and terrorising the locality generally as ‘cock of the walk’.
[US]Van Loan ‘Mister Conley’ in Score by Innings (2004) 428: After that he was cock-of-the-walk with the recruits.
[UK]E. Jervis 25 Years in Six Prisons 233: He wanted to be cock of the walk in the hospital ward in prison.
[US]C. Woofter ‘Dialect Words & Phrases from West-Central West Virginia’ in AS II:8 351: cock of the walk (noun phrase), a bully.
[NZ]N.Z. Truth 31 Jan. 8/3: Willard was cock on the walk for a time [...] but lack of caution [...] left him soft and easy for a slugging mauler.
[US]S.O. Barker ‘Flete’ in Botkin Folk-Say 134: For a time, Juan Fletero was cock of the walk.
[UK]E. Raymond Child of Norman’s End (1967) 345: But Germany wants a navy as big as ours, and we can’t have two navies cock of the walk.
[US](con. 1920s) Dos Passos Big Money in USA (1966) 740: They were very cordial to Charley and brought out cocktails right away, and Charley felt like the cock of the walk.
[Ire]G.A. Little Malachi Horan Remembers 113: But the English never like to hear of a man of ours being cock-o’-the-walk.
[US]E. Brown Trespass 117: He was the cock of the walk. The rooster man.
[UK]A. Sillitoe Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 182: ‘You think you’re the cock o’ the walk,’ she said, implying: ‘But I’ll tame you’.
[UK](con. 1930s) D. Behan Teems of Times and Happy Returns 198: Oh, if the two judges had been only a little more savage, I’d be cock of the walk in Fianna.
[UK]C. Stead Cotters’ England (1980) 328: Nellie always was an exhibitionist: there’s nothing she won’t do to be cock o’ the walk.
[US] (ref. to 1917–18) in H. Berry Make the Kaiser Dance 243: We thought we’d be the cocks of the walk.
[US]M. Braun Judas Tree (1983) 27: Folks generally allow that I’m cock of the walk.
[US]H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 88: cock of the walk. The dominant male in any group, often a bully.
[UK]Observer Mag. 10 Oct. 19: Cassius Clay Sr was cock of the walk, a braggart, a charmer, a performer.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

[US]E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 233: cock-of-the-walk stride Style of walking where the person bobs up and down and moves from side to side.
[UK]Guardian Rev. 26 Feb. 8: This cock-of-the-walk scene was forgivable because all three looked to have licked the system.
live at the sign of the cock’s tooth (v.)

a retort offered to anyone seen as ‘impudently’ asking where one lives.

[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Cocks Tooth I live at the sign of the Cocks Tooth & Headach. An answer given to any Impertinent person who asks where one lives.
that cock won’t fight (also that cat won’t fight, that dog won’t hunt)

a phr. used to denigrate the previous statement, ‘that won’t do’, ‘you must be joking’, ‘I’m not having that’.

[US]N.-Y. Eve. Post 26 July 2/3: At first he denied himself, but on finding that cock wouldn’t fight he gave up; I got into the gig beside him and drove back to his boarding house.
[UK]‘Alfred Crowquill’ Seymour’s Humourous Sketches (1866) 1: The guns hasn’t got them thingummy ‘caps,’ but that's no matter, for cousin says them cocks won’t always fight.
[UK]Puck 124: ‘First Tragedian... having pawned his properties.’ Suppose I told my uncle what I fear he’d not believe, That I’ll certainly repay him the money ere I leave; That my benefit when it comes off is sure to prove a hit, I don’t think, with a screw like him, that cock would fight a bit [F&H].
[UK]R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 342: The first person who spied his note to Sir Harry Scattercash was Captain Seedeybuck [...] Having mastered its contents, the Captain refolded and placed it where he found it, with the simple observation to himself of—‘That cock won't fight’.
[Ind]Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Oct. 113/1: Lieut. Bunkum —That cock won’t fight, my lad—.
[UK]Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 19/2: Joe ‘stalled’ his hat, thinking to escape her; but that cock wouldn’t fight.
[US]‘Mark Twain’ Innocents Abroad 41: The governor would say, ‘Hello, here – didn’t see anything in France?’ That cat wouldn’t fight, you know.
[US]B. Harte Luck of Roaring Camp (1873) 179: The man with the glazed hat [...] raised his head with a coarse, brutal laugh, and said in a loud voice, ‘Want her yourself, do you? That cock won’t fight here, young man!’.
[Aus]‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 393: My lawyer had before hand argued that [...] no proof had been brought before the court that day that I had wilfully killed any one. [...] But that cock wouldn’t fight. I was found guilty by the jury and sentenced to death by the judge.
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 17 Mar. 3/4: Payment of Members is ‘a cock that won’t fight’ on many political platforms just now.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Apr. 12/4: When they broke the news to her, she said, airily, ‘Oh, well, looks don’t matter in Africa; they’ll do for overalls.’ But that cat won’t fight ’cause the things are flaring scarlet [...] and would draw the Boer fire from goodness knows how far.
[US]D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself (1985) 56: Barbara Jane [...] slowly broke into a smile. ‘That dog won’t hunt,’ she said.
P. Blauner Casino Moon 135: ‘[I]t’s just gonna get to the point where we’ll say “Hey, man, this ol’ dog won’t hunt. This man said he would cooperate and now he ain’t giving us anything. So forget the deal”’.