cobbing
A punishment inflicted by sailors and soldiers among themselves. See Grose and Captain Marryat’s novels. A hand-saw is the general instrument of punishment.
English · UK & Ireland 1488
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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
cobbler
A mender of shoes, an improver of the understandings of his customers; a translator.
cobblers punch
Treacle, vinegar, gin, and water.
cock
A familiar term of address; "jolly old COCK," a jovial fellow, "how are you, old COCK?" Frequently rendered nowadays, COCK-E-E, a vulgar street salutation—probably a corruption of COCK-EYE. The latter is frequently heard as a shout or street cry after a man or boy.
cock ale
A provocative drink.
cock and a bull story
A roundabout story, without head or tail, i.e. beginning or ending.
cock and bull story
A long, rambling anecdote.—See Peroration to Tristram Shandy.
cock bawd
A male keeper of a bawdy-house.
cock of the company
A weak man, who from the desire of being the head of the company associates with low people, and pays all the reckoning.
cock one's toes
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
cock pimp
The supposed husband of a bawd.
cock robin
A soft, easy fellow.
cock your eye
Shut one eye: thus translated into apothecaries Latin.--Gallus tuus ego.
cock-a-hoop
In high spirits. Possibly the idea is from the fact that, if a cock wins a fight, he will mount on anything near, and crow lustily and jubilantly. It is noticeable that under these circumstances a cock always gets off the ground-level if he can.
cock-a-wax
An amplification of the simple term COCK, sometimes "Lad of WAX," originally applied to a cobbler, but now general.
cock-a-whoop
Elevated, in high-spirits, transported with joy.
cock-and-hen-club
A free and easy gathering, or "sing-song," where females are admitted as well as males.
cock-and-pinch
The old-fashioned beaver hat, affected by "swells" and "sporting gents" forty years ago—COCKED back and front, and PINCHED up at the sides.
cock-eye
A term of opprobrium often applied to one that squints.
cock-sure
Certain: a metaphor borrowed front the cock of a firelock, as being much more certain to fire than the match.
cockalorum
Or COCKYLORUM, amplification of cock or cocky.
cocked-hat-club
The principal clique amongst the members of the Society of Antiquaries, who virtually decide whether any person proposed shall be admitted or not. The term comes from the "cocked-hat" placed before the president at the sittings. There was another cocked-hat club in London not many years back, which had nothing peculiar about it beyond the fact that every member wore during club sittings, a "fore-and-aft" cocked-hat. Otherwise the proceedings were of the most ordinary kind.
cocked-hat-shaped
Shapeless: Anything which has been altered beyond recognition, or any man who has been put completely hors de combat, is said to have been knocked into a COCKED-HAT.
cocker
One fond of the diversion of cock-fighting.
cockish
Wanton, forward. A cockish wench; a forward coming girl.
cockles
To cry cockles; to be hanged: perhaps from the noise made whilst strangling. CANT.--This will rejoice the cockles of one's heart; a saying in praise of wine, ale, or spirituous liquors.
cockles
"to rejoice the COCKLES of one’s heart," a vulgar phrase implying great pleasure. Also, to "warm one’s COCKLES," said of any hot, well-spiced drink, taken in cold weather. COCKLES altogether seem to be an imaginary portion—of great importance—in the internal economy of the human frame.
cocks
Fictitious narratives, in verse or prose, of murders, fires, and terrible accidents, sold in the streets as true accounts. The man who hawks them, a patterer, often changes the scene of the awful event to suit the taste of the neighbourhood he is trying to delude. Possibly a corruption of cook, a cooked statement, or maybe "the story of a cock and a bull" may have had something to do with the term.
cockshut time
The evening, when fowls go to roost.
cockshy
A game at fairs and races, where trinkets are set upon sticks, and for one penny three throws at them are accorded, the thrower keeping whatever he knocks off. From the ancient game of throwing or "shying" at live cocks. Any prominent person abused in the newspapers is said to be a common COCKSHY.
cocoa-nut
The head. A pugilistic term. Also, when anything is explained to a man for the first time, it is not unusual for him to say, "Ah, that accounts for the milk in the cocoa-nut"—a remark which has its origin in a clever but not very moral story.
cocum
Shrewdness, ability, luck; "Jack’s got COCUM, he’s safe to get on, he is,"—viz., he starts under favourable circumstances; "to fight COCUM" is to be wily and cautious. Allied perhaps to the Scottish KEEK, German, GUCKEN, to peep or pry into.
cod
A cod of money: a good sum of money.
cod
To hoax, to take a "rise" out of one. Used as a noun, a fool.
cod piece
The fore flap of a man's breeches. Do they bite, master? where, in the cod piece or collar?--a jocular attack on a patient angler by watermen, &c.
coddam
A public-house game, much affected by medical students and cabmen, generally three on each side. The game is "simplicity itself," but requires a great amount of low cunning and peculiar mental ingenuity. It consists in guessing in which of the six hands displayed on the table, a small piece of marked money lies hid. If the guesser "brings it home," his side takes the "piece," and the centre man "works" it. If the guess is wrong, a chalk is taken to the holders, who again secrete the coin.
codders
Persons employed by the gardeners to gather peas.
codds
The "poor brethren" of the Charter House. In The Newcomes, Thackeray writes, "The Cistercian lads call these old gentlemen CODDS; I know not wherefore." A probable abbreviation of CODGER.
codger
An old codger: an old fellow.
codger
Or COGER, an old man; "a rum old CODGER," a curious old fellow. CODGER is sometimes used as synonymous with CADGER, and then signifies a person who gets his living in a questionable manner. "COGERS," the name of a debating society, formerly held in Shoe Lane, Fleet Street, and still in existence. The term is probably a corruption of COGITATORS.
cods
The scrotum. Also a nick name for a curate: a rude fellow meeting a curate, mistook him for the rector, and accosted him with the vulgar appellation of Bol--ks the rector, No, Sir, answered he; only Cods the curate, at your service.
coffee house
A necessary house. To make a coffee-house of a woman's ****; to go in and out and spend nothing.
coffee-shop
A watercloset, or house of office.
cog
The money, or whatsoever the sweeteners drop to draw in a bubble.
cog
To cheat at dice.—Shakspeare. Also, to agree with, as one cog-wheel does with another, to crib from another’s book, as schoolboys often do. This is called "cogging over."
cogged
Loaded like false dice. Any one who has been hocussed or cheated is sometimes said to have been COGGED.
cogue
A dram of any spirituous liquor.
coin
"to post the COIN"—sometimes "post the coal"—a sporting phrase meaning to make a deposit of money for a match of any kind.
cokes
The fool in the play of Bartholomew Fair: perhaps a contraction of the word COXCOMB.
colcannon
Potatoes and cabbage pounded together in a mortar, and then stewed with butter: an Irish dish.
cold
You will catch cold at that; a vulgar threat or advice to desist from an attempt. He caught cold by lying in bed barefoot; a saying of any one extremely tender or careful of himself.
cold blood
A house licensed for the sale of beer "NOT to be drunk on the premises."
cold burning
A punishment inflicted by private soldiers on their comrades for trifling offences, or breach of their mess laws; it is administered in the following manner: The prisoner is set against the wall, with the arm which is to be burned tied as high above his head as possible.
cold iron
A bad omen.
cold pudding
This is said to settle one's love.
cole
Money. Post the cole: pay down the money.
colfabias
A Latinized Irish phrase signifying the closet of decency, applied as a slang term to a place of resort in Trinity College, Dublin.
collar
"out of COLLAR," i.e., out of place, no work. Probably a variation of the metaphorical expressions, "in, or out of harness," i.e., in or out of work—the horse being in collar when harnessed for his work. COLLAR work is any very hard work, from the expression among drivers. Any uphill journey is said to be all "COLLAR work" for the horses.
collar and elbow
A term for a peculiar style of wrestling—the Cornwall and Devon style.
collections
The College examinations at the end of each term, when undergraduates wear white ties and bands, and are trotted through the subjects of the term’s lecture. These are the occasions when the dons administer reproof or advice on the conduct of each individual undergrad.—Oxford University.