Dictionary

nestle-cock en · NOUN

Etymology

From nestle + cock (“bird”). Compare nest-cock & nest-cockle.

Meanings

1. (UK, dialectal) The last-hatched chick of a brood, the weakling of a brood.
2. (UK, broadly, dialectal) A mama's boy, a delicate child; a spoiled brat.
   • Indeed, my mother was wont to call me your Nestle-cock, and I love you as well as she did. c. 1621, Thomas Middleton, John Webster, Anything for a Quiet Life, act 4, scene 1:
   • I meet with a double sense of this word Cockney: some taking it for, 1. One coaks'd or cocker'd (made a wanton or nestlecock of, delicately bred and brought up), so that when grown men or women they can endure no hardship, nor comport with pains-taking. 2. One utterly ignorant of husbandry or housewifery […] 1662, Thomas Fuller, “Worthies of London”, in The History of the Worthies of England, volume 2, London: Thomas Tegg, published 1840, page 342:
   • You ignorant incompetent whey-faced nestlecock. 1986, Patrick O'Brian, The Reverse of the Medal, page 161:

Forms

Synonyms

softy · nestlebub (the weakling of a brood) · wuss · little emperor (a spoiled child) · runt (the weakling of a brood) · brat (a spoiled child) · sissy · milksop (a delicate person) · mama's boy (a spoiled child) · cockney (a spoiled child)