cock up en · VERB
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Etymology
The first citation in the Oxford English Dictionary is from the Dictionary of Forces' Slang (1948). The OED suggests that it derives ultimately from the noun cock, but gives no further detail. The nature of the earliest citation suggests that this expression entered the wider language from military slang, making etymologies from typesetting or archery (see alternate meanings of cock-up) unlikely. One proposal is that the phrase originated describing an arrangement of the yards of a square-rigged vessel in port. Modern folk etymology has sometimes suggested that "cock-up" refers to a male erection, or to the phrase "cacked up", but neither is supported.
Meanings
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(Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, ambitransitive, mildly, slang, vulgar) To ruin (something) unintentionally; to fuck up, mess up, or screw up.
I'd take the stick to his back and beat him while I could stand over him—as I done many a time before. The mother, you know, she cocks him up with this and that. . . .
1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “Ivy Day in the Committee Room”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 146:It was cocking her up with gimcrack notions about ladies till she'd be ashamed to look at her own hands after she had done a day's work with them.
1876 May – 1877 July, Anthony Trollope, “‘Wonderful Bird!’”, in The American Senator […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1877, →OCLC, page 282:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| cocking up | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| cocks up | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic | |
| cocked up | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| cocked up | Tense=Past | lexicographic |
Deriveds
Synonyms
fuck up · muck up · screw up · balls up · mess up · bollocks up · bugger up
Translations (11)
fi sotkea (to ruin (something) unintentionally) · fi tärvellä (to ruin (something) unintentionally) · de versemmeln (to ruin (something) unintentionally) · pl spartaczyć (to ruin (something) unintentionally) · pl partaczyć (to ruin (something) unintentionally) · de versauen (to ruin (something) unintentionally) · de verbocken (to ruin (something) unintentionally) · pl spieprzać (to ruin (something) unintentionally) · fi möhlätä (to ruin (something) unintentionally) · fi pilata (to ruin (something) unintentionally) · pl spieprzyć (to ruin (something) unintentionally)